Yes. On iOS 26, iPhone workouts can run without an Apple Watch. You can also pair sensors directly to the iPhone—for example a Bluetooth heart-rate strap. Additionally, some AirPods models can provide heart-rate data, which can also be used by the iPhone.

That said, the Apple Watch is still a great companion for convenience and for certain motion-based metrics (see below).

For running and walking workouts, Apple Watch is the most reliable way to capture step/cadence-related motion data and to make the workout easy to monitor at a glance.

Heart rate does not have to come from the Watch: you can use a Bluetooth heart-rate sensor paired to the iPhone, and (on supported models) AirPods can provide heart-rate data as well.

Virtual Treadmill: Yes. Any treadmill can be used, even if it doesn’t support FTMS. The trade-off is that speed changes must be kept in sync manually in the app.

Virtual Cycling Trainer: No. It requires an FTMS-enabled bike/trainer to control resistance and to read trainer data reliably.

Yes—this is now supported. The Apple Watch apps can scan for and connect to FTMS trainers and treadmills directly from the Watch, so you can start and run a workout from your wrist without the iPhone app open.

A few things to know:

• Virtual Cycling Trainer on the Watch needs a connected trainer before you can start a workout.
• Virtual Treadmill on the Watch can control a connected treadmill, or run in Read-Only Mode if you prefer to set speed/incline on the treadmill itself.
• If you use iPhone and Watch together for the same workout, one device manages the trainer link (the Watch takes priority) while the other follows along, so they don’t send conflicting commands.

This is almost always a Bluetooth control issue rather than a problem with the workout itself. Some treadmills and trainers occasionally block or drop FTMS control requests, or the device’s own remote grabs the connection first, so the app never gets control for the session.

Things to try, in order:

• Check for a green control dot before starting—green means control is available; yellow means it isn’t.
• Tap the device in the list to disconnect and reconnect it.
• Power-cycle the treadmill/trainer with the app already open, so the app can request control before the device’s own remote does.
• Some walking pads (for example certain KingSmith/WalkingPad models) only accept speed changes in km/h—turning off “Treadmill expects mph” in the device settings can help.
• If a device simply won’t accept commands, switch on Read-Only Mode and set speed/incline on the machine itself; the app will still record the full workout.

Yes, for every sensor type. Connect the sensor, open Devices on the iPhone, and assign it under its own heading: Power Meter, Cadence, Heart Rate or Thermal Sensors. An assigned sensor outranks the fitness machine, so its readings replace the machine’s rather than being blended with them.

Power Meter and Cadence appear in Virtual Cycling Trainer; Heart Rate and Thermal Sensors appear in both apps. Assignment is done on the iPhone, so if you looked on the Apple Watch and found no such section, that is why.

If the sensor never appears in the list, it is usually still held by another app or a bike computer. Bluetooth sensors connect to one device at a time, so close the other app first.

Yes, but it depends on iPhone motion data quality. For cadence calculations the iPhone needs enough motion signal, so you generally need to carry/hold the iPhone in a stable way while moving.

Yes. If you connect a Bluetooth heart-rate sensor to the iPhone, the connected sensor will typically take priority when available. If needed, you can adjust this in preferences via Prefer Bluetooth heart rate sensors.

Recommendation: if you have an Apple Watch, it’s usually best to connect the heart-rate sensor to the Watch instead. watchOS will manage the sensor connection when the workout starts and can disable the Watch’s built-in heart-rate sensor—this improves accuracy and can save battery. When the sensor is connected inside the iPhone app, it can’t disable the Watch’s built-in sensor.

Yes—your workout is saved to Apple Health and contributes active energy toward your Move ring. Exercise-ring credit, though, is decided by Apple based on how intense the workout is (heart rate is a major signal), not by the app—so a very easy walk may not earn Exercise minutes for its full duration.

Wearing the Apple Watch snugly with Wrist Detection on, keeping your Health details up to date, and choosing the matching walk/run mode all help Apple award credit accurately.

Apple Health has no dedicated “elevation” metric for indoor workouts. Floors Climbed (1 floor ≈ 3 m / 10 ft) is the only standard measurement that fits a vertical climb, so that’s how the gain is recorded. Outdoor workouts show a separate elevation graph only because they carry a GPS route with altitude—an indoor treadmill workout doesn’t.

If you’d rather keep Floors Climbed for real stairs only, you can revoke the app’s Floors Climbed write permission in iOS Settings → Health → Data Access & Devices.

Swipe left on it in the Sessions list and confirm. That swipe is the only way to delete one, and it works for the workouts these apps recorded. A workout saved by a different app, Apple’s own Workout app included, has to be deleted in the Health app instead, because Apple Health only lets an app delete what it saved itself.

There is no weight field in the app, and that is deliberate. Calories come either from the connected machine, when trainer calories are switched on, or from Apple Health, which works them out from your Health profile. Your real weight is already being used. Check or change it in Health under Browse → Body Measurements → Weight. Keeping one value in Health means there is no second copy to fall out of date.

Every workout is saved to Apple Health, but Strava only imports workouts recorded by Apple’s own Workout app, so it won’t pick these up on its own. There is no built-in upload to third-party services either. What works today is a separate bridge app that forwards Apple Health workouts onward.

No—the recorded workout is fine. Some treadmills report distance in coarse chunks rather than continuously. Each chunk is saved as an Apple Health distance sample, and when a chunk lands over a very short moment, an app that derives instantaneous speed from those samples can show a brief spike. It’s a data-granularity quirk of how the treadmill reports, not a real change in pace—our own average (total distance ÷ total time) stays correct.

Your workouts are saved to Apple Health. The extra details the app keeps alongside them—incline and elevation, which treadmill or trainer you used, which shoes you wore—sync through your own private iCloud, so a new iPhone or Apple Watch picks up where the last one left off. That is Apple’s own infrastructure, tied to your Apple Account and not to any account with us; you can switch it off in iOS Settings → [your name] → iCloud, and the app shows you its current sync state in Preferences.

None of it reaches us. There are no accounts and no sign-ups, and our servers never receive your workouts or your health data. See On-device processing in the Privacy Policy for the full statement, including the few things our servers are involved in: the purchase records Apple sends us, ad attribution, and anything you send us through the support or contact form.

This usually means the app can’t detect a usable Apple Watch setup. Common causes:

• No Apple Watch is paired (or a different Watch is paired than you expect). Check Apple’s Watch app on iPhone → My Watch.
• The companion app isn’t installed on the Watch. In the Watch app on iPhone, scroll to Installed on Apple Watch / Available Apps and confirm the app is installed.
• You’re not running the iPhone app. Watch integration is supported only when the iPhone app is present, because the iPhone side is the “host”.

Things that often help:

• Make sure iPhone and Watch app versions match (updates can land on one device first).
• Check basics: Bluetooth and Wi‑Fi enabled on iPhone, Watch is unlocked, and the Watch is connected.
• If connectivity gets weird (it happens), restart both the iPhone and the Watch.
• Install the latest iOS and watchOS updates (Watch app → General → Software Update; iPhone Settings → General → Software Update). OS mismatches can cause integration issues.

If it’s still disabled, the most reliable “nuclear option” is:

1. Delete the app from the iPhone.
2. Confirm it’s removed from the Watch as well (Watch app → installed apps).
3. Install it again on the iPhone and let it reinstall on the Watch.

One more useful test: can Apple’s Fitness/Workout app start a workout on the Watch normally? If that fails too, the issue is likely broader than just this app.

Step counting needs motion hardware that no iPad has, on any model, so the iPad cannot count them itself. The step tile still shows in the iPad layout picker because workout layouts are shared across your devices.

There are two ways to get steps anyway, both in the connected treadmill’s device settings and both needing that treadmill connected to the iPad running the workout. Use Treadmill Step Count takes the count from the treadmill, which only some models send; the row shows a live Reported Steps value, so you can tell at a glance whether yours does. Estimate Steps from Speed works the count out from distance and your step length, which comes from your height in Health and is adjustable right below the toggle. Both are built around walking, so the estimate runs high if you run.

On iPhone, steps come from the phone’s own motion hardware, so the phone has to be carried on you. Set it aside and it records none; rest it on the treadmill frame and vibration can invent them.

They work with Apple Music only. Music playing from Spotify, YouTube, a podcast app or anything else will not respond to them, and that looks the same as the controls being broken. AirPlay is not the problem: sending Apple Music to a HomePod or another speaker leaves the controls working.

When you finish a workout, the app shows a summary screen with an Effort row—tap it to rate your effort (1–10) and it’s saved right away.

If you leave it unset, an estimated effort may be filled in later by iOS/watchOS—usually once Apple’s Fitness app has processed the workout. Apps can’t force the system to calculate that estimate immediately. You can also set or change your effort anytime from the workout’s detail screen.