By Nick Harris-Fry
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Nick Harris-Fry
15 September 2025
The Fitness app has a whole new section
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(Image credit: Future)
Apple Watch owners just got a great new feature that will make using the watch to follow workouts a lot easier, and it’s all thanks to the launch of the Apple AirPods Pro 3.
I’ll explain. The AirPods Pro 3 have a heart rate sensor on board and can be used to track workouts independently, which is done through the Fitness app on the iPhone. Once you update to iOS 26 you’ll see a new tab in that app called Workout, where you can start workouts while linked to a heart rate sensor like the AirPods 3.
This was highlighted in the Apple presentation for the new devices launching this September, including the Apple Watch Series 11 and iPhone 17, alongside the AirPods Pro 3, but it wasn’t mentioned that if you have an Apple Watch linked to your phone, you’ll also be able to view the workout builder in the Fitness app.
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This means you can not only see all your past custom workouts, race routes, and pacer settings, but create new ones.
Custom workouts made easier
(Image credit: Future)
As a keen runner, I usually do one or two structured workouts a week, and use my watch to guide me through those workouts, which are usually based on doing time- or distance-based reps.
In the past, you had to create these workouts on the Apple Watch itself. Now the Apple Watch’s workout builder is one of the best I’ve used on a sports watch, but it’s still quite fiddly to adjust all the settings for a session on a watch when you have to set different time, distance, and pace targets for multiple steps within a workout.
It’s a lot easier to do it on a phone, which is how I do it with Garmin watches and others, and that’s exactly what you can now do in the Fitness app, building your workouts from scratch before they’re instantly synced across to your watch to follow on your wrist.
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Race Routes and Pacer mode
(Image credit: Future)
Along with your custom workouts, you can also view other workout modes in the Workout tab of the new Fitness app, like the routes you can race and any Pacer modes you’ve set up.
I like to use the Pacer mode for races on flat routes, so being able to set this up on my phone ahead of the event will be useful, and if you like to use the Race Route feature, you can see the route and its elevation, along with your personal best and most recent times on the route before you tackle it.
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Nick Harris-Fry
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Senior Writer
Nick Harris-Fry is an experienced health and fitness journalist, writing professionally since 2012. He spent nine years working on the Coach magazine and website before moving to the fitness team at Tom’s Guide in 2024. Nick is a keen runner and also the founder of YouTube channel The Run Testers, which specialises in reviewing running shoes, watches, headphones and other gear.
Nick ran his first marathon in 2016 after six weeks of training for a magazine feature and subsequently became obsessed with the sport. He now has PBs of 2hr 27min for the marathon and 15min 30sec for 5K, and has run 13 marathons in total, as well as a 50-mile ultramarathon. Nick is also a qualified Run Leader in the UK.
Nick is an established expert in the health and fitness area and along with writing for many publications, including Live Science, Expert Reviews, Wareable, Coach and Get Sweat Go, he has been quoted on The Guardian and The Independent.
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I review smartwatches for a living — but here’s why I’m more excited about the AirPods Pro 3 than the Apple Watch 11
Strava’s Apple Watch app just got a major upgrade — perfectly timed for the Series 11 launch
I ran 15 miles with the Apple Watch’s new Workout Buddy — here’s my verdict
The Apple Watch just got an AI fitness coach — how to enable Workout Buddy in watchOS 26
You might not be able to use Workout Buddy, even if you have the latest Apple Watch — here’s why
If you’re using your Apple Watch to track sleep, here’s 3 features you should be using
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