Most workout apps have a watch app that is a remote control: it shows what the phone is doing and stops working when the phone isn't there. Gym Log+ on Apple Watch is the other kind. It has its own copy of your routines and its own log, and it runs a complete workout by itself.
The whole Watch app is free — it isn't a Pro feature.
What "standalone" means here, specifically.
Put your iPhone in a locker. Raise your wrist, pick a routine, log every set with the weight and reps, let the rest timer run, add an exercise the routine didn't have, and tap Finish. The workout is complete and saved on the watch. When the phone is next in range, it arrives in your history within seconds.
What the watch does on its own
- Runs your routines. Your routines from your iPhone, with their exercises, target sets and reps, in one list. Tap one to start it.
- Logs sets the way the phone does. Weight and reps pre-filled from last time, one Log button, and the rest timer starts itself after a set when that's on in your settings — the watch follows the same settings as the phone.
- Adds any exercise. The wrist knows the whole library — browse Your Routines, Recent, or by muscle group, or search by name — so a workout that goes off-plan can still be logged in full.
- Times holds. On a stretch, plank or any timed exercise, a Hold button counts down and taps your wrist when the hold ends.
- Measures the workout. It runs as a proper watchOS workout session, so heart rate and calories are recorded through it, the workout lands in Apple Fitness, and your Activity rings get the credit.
- Finishes with a summary. Time, sets, volume, calories, heart rate, and any records. The watch judges a record against the bests your iPhone sent over, so a standalone PR is a real PR, not just the best the watch has seen.
On your watch face
- A complication in all four shapes — corner, circular, rectangular and inline — and in the Smart Stack.
- Your rest timer, counting down on the face. While a rest runs, the complication shows the countdown right there, so you can see the rest without opening the app; when it ends it goes back to what's next.
- The Smart Stack brings it up when it matters. While a rest is running, the Gym Log+ card ranks at the top of the stack for as long as the timer has left, so a wrist raise and a turn of the crown lands on the countdown.
- Today's program day the rest of the time — "Push Day · Day 2 of 3" — or your last workout and this week's count if no program is running.
With the iPhone nearby
Standalone is the mode that matters, but the two devices are a pair whenever they're in range.
- Routine changes arrive in seconds. Edit a routine on the phone, open Gym Log+ with your watch nearby, and the wrist has it. There is no cloud in between — the phone sends the watch exactly what it needs.
- Log from whichever is closer. Start a routine on the watch and it starts on the phone if the phone is nearby, so you can log a set from either. Start on the phone and the watch lights up for it too — on by default, with a switch in Settings → Apple Watch if you'd rather it didn't — so heart rate and calories are tied to the workout without a second tap.
- The same finish, on both. Tap Finish on the phone with the watch app open and the wrist shows the summary too.
What stays on the iPhone
The watch is a logger, on purpose. These live on the phone:
- Charts and Stats. The exercise charts, the muscle figure, the recap cards and the personal-records list are phone screens; the watch sends its workouts there.
- Building routines and programs. Edit on the phone; the watch receives.
- Body tracking, photos and imports. Phone only.
And one honest constraint: the watch picks up routine changes from the phone, so after editing a routine, open the iPhone app with the watch in range before you leave it behind. At the gym the watch works alone.
On the wrist
Free, on every Apple Watch that runs watchOS 26
Install Gym Log+ on your iPhone and the Watch app comes with it. Requires watchOS 26 or later.
Switching from another app? Bring your history across first →