Strava VS Apple Watch "Workout".

What's better for recording a workout? Strava or the Apple Watch "Workout" app?

When you have an Apple watch you can continue to use Strava to record your workouts or you can use Apples built in Apps called Workout for recording and the Activity app to view your workouts. After writing my review on Strava Summit which if you haven’t read yet you can view here. (Will open in a new tab)

Recording a workout

When your recording a workout you aren’t likely to be messing around with your watch because of this you want all the vital information available on your wrist without effort. Let’s start by going for a run, I’ve been running for a while now so the screenshots I’ve used don’t involve me going very far.

Using “Workout” I can set a target of either the distance, duration, active calories burned or no target. During the workout you then get 5 Key figures on the screen with one of them highlighted depending on what you choose. These 5 key figures can be changed easily via the Apple Watch app on your phone and there’s a lot of options to choose.

With a simple swipe to the right you can view the Now Playing screen allowing you to easily change your music and see what’s playing. A swipe to the left brings up a little menu enabling you to easily end or pause your workout whilst also starting a new exercise.

The workout app has some several quirks as well to the app, before you run you can set a target pace either Per mile or total then the app will buzz when you are ahead or behind your pace as your running. You can easily pause the workout by pressing the 2 buttons on the side of the watch as your running and you can create segments on the go by simply double tapping the screen as you’re going.

Time to look at how the Strava watch app is when running.

The Strava provides a clean look when running with 4 key figures on your screen when running. Unfortunately, these cannot be customised like the Workouts app so this is what you’re stuck with and the average pace for your run only shows when you’re on the free version. The premium version shows the average split it’s a little disappointing how much limited information you can see on Strava.

Unlike the workouts app you cannot easily view the now playing screen instead you have to go through the recent apps view (That’s if you have seen it recently) you also can’t create segments on the go. Something that Strava does have unlike workouts though is audio cues. Every mile you do Strava will read out the distance, the total time and the previous mile time. This is a cool feature which makes it easier as you can easily focus on the run at hand and it works fully offline.

Viewing your workouts

All workouts recorded in the workout app goes straight into the activity app on the iPhone. In the workouts screen they will be different colour depending on what type of goal you set when you were heading off. When you click the map, you can see which bits you were slacking in as the line will be red. Friends who also have you on Apple watch will get a notification telling them you’ve been for a run but that’s about as social as that gets. (Unless you want to a competition with them but that’s more Activity territory.)

This is where Strava starts to really come to play. When your viewing a previous workout everything looks so much cleaner compared to the Apple alternative. If you subscribe to Strava summit you can also see much more advanced stuff after your workout that would be great for athletes training for events.

My opinion

So, for when I’m going for a run or a bike ride, I actually record it on both my watch and Strava on my phone. This is because when I’m running it so much nicer being able to see all that information clearly on my wrist as I’m going along but not just that Workout is so much more customizable compared to Strava for the watch.

However, when I get home it is nicer to see my route on that clear map as well as being able to see and compete with Segments. Sharing with friends is also nice and its simple to see and do. Strava is also great for athletes training for events and is defiantly one of the leading apps in this area.

To simplify that, Apple watch workouts is best for when you’re working out and Strava is great for viewing and sharing your workout.

Thanks for reading

Kyle Wilkinson