Choosing an app
The best fitness app for women: an honest guide to choosing one
The best fitness app for women is one you will still be using in six months: it puts strength training at the centre, helps you progress gradually, fits your week and your body, including your cycle or menopause, and is clear about cost and privacy. The UK guidelines ask for strength work on at least two days a week plus 150 minutes of moderate activity, so a good app should make both easy.
Key facts
UK Chief Medical Officers recommend adults do muscle-strengthening activities on at least two days a week and at least 150 minutes of moderate activity. A meta-analysis of 16 cohort studies linked muscle-strengthening activities with a 10 to 17% lower risk of death from any cause and of cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes, with the biggest benefit for death, heart disease and cancer at about 30 to 60 minutes a week. Women and men gained muscle at similar rates from the same resistance training.
What makes the best fitness app for women?
"Best" depends on you. A 28-year-old training for her first pull-up, a 45-year-old in perimenopause who wants to protect her muscle, and someone getting back into exercise after years off all need different things. What they share is that the app has to be one they keep opening.
So start from what the evidence says matters for health, then from what you will actually do. The UK Chief Medical Officers recommend that adults do activities to build or keep strength in the major muscle groups on at least two days a week, and build up to at least 150 minutes of moderate activity, such as brisk walking, each week. Any strengthening activity is better than none. A good women's fitness app makes both of those feel doable.
What to look for in a women's fitness app
A checklist for choosing a workout app for women
- Strength training at the centre, not only cardio or short "toning" circuits.
- A clear way to progress: it shows what you lifted last time so you can add a little weight or a rep when you are ready.
- Plans for your level: beginner options, form guidance and the choice of home or gym.
- Women-specific context: room to log your cycle, perimenopause or menopause symptoms and sleep, and advice that does not treat them as excuses.
- Food and protein in the same place, if you want them, because training and eating work together.
- Flexibility: it lets you add your own workouts or swap exercises, rather than locking you into one programme.
- Privacy: a plain privacy policy that says whether your data is sold, and an easy way to delete your account.
- Honest pricing: you know what is free, what the subscription costs and how to cancel.
- Real reviews: read recent App Store or Google Play reviews from women like you, not only the star rating.
No app ticks every box. Pick the two or three that matter most to you and judge apps on those.
Why strength training should be at the centre
If an app only does one thing well, it should be strength. In a meta-analysis of 16 studies following adults over time, muscle-strengthening activities were linked with a 10 to 17% lower risk of death from any cause and of cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes, and for most of those the biggest benefit came at about 30 to 60 minutes a week. That is two or three short sessions, not hours in the gym.
Women also respond to strength training as well as men do. A meta-analysis comparing the sexes on the same programmes found similar gains in muscle size and lower-body strength, and larger relative gains in upper-body strength for women. And frequency matters: training each muscle group at least twice a week built more muscle than once a week in a review of the research. Look for an app that plans for two or three full-body or split sessions a week.
New to it? Our strength training guide for women explains the basics, and this gym workout plan gives you a week to start with.
Women's health apps: cycle, menopause and food
An app that ignores your cycle or menopause will sometimes give you advice that does not fit. That does not mean you need a different workout for every phase. The evidence for strict cycle-based training is weak (see cycle syncing: what the evidence says), but it helps to log your cycle and symptoms so you can see why a session felt hard or the scale jumped.
Most women mix walking and strength. In Turtle's data, of about 1,100 women syncing workouts, 86% logged a walk and 55% logged strength training. See the workouts women log most. If you also want to eat for your training, an app that tracks protein next to your workouts saves you juggling two. Read how much protein women need.
Free vs paid workout apps
Free workout apps and videos can be enough, especially if you already know how to plan and progress your own training. What you usually pay for is structure: plans that adapt to you, tracking, coaching and everything in one place. Before you subscribe, check the price for a year, not only the monthly figure, and how to cancel. On iPhone and Android, subscriptions are usually managed through the App Store or Google Play rather than inside the app.
Where Turtle fits, and who it isn't for
Turtle is a women's health coach, built for women who want to get stronger and manage their weight with their cycle, sleep and life stage in view. It is built with perimenopause and menopause in mind. It holds a 4.6-star rating from 857 ratings on the UK App Store and has more than 100,000 members.
- Workouts: a workout library and guided programmes, plus an AI workout builder that turns pasted text, voice or a photo of a plan into a structured workout you check before you start.
- Food: a food diary with barcode scanning that sets your calories and protein and adjusts them at your weekly check-in.
- Your body: cycle tracking and symptom logging, sleep support and PCOS support.
- Coaching: morning and evening check-ins, daily podcasts and an AI coach. In Turtle's data, 29% of messages to the AI coach arrive between 6pm and 10pm: see when women talk to their coach.
- Cost: free to download, with membership at £14.99 a month or £39 a year.
Turtle may not be for you if you mainly want a running plan, live group classes or sport-specific training. A specialist app may suit you better. It is also not a medical service: for health conditions, talk to your GP.
Try it yourself
Turtle: strength, food and your cycle in one app
Turtle is free to download, with membership at £14.99 a month or £39 a year. Workouts, an AI workout builder, food tracking with protein built in, and cycle and sleep tracking.
4.6★ on the App Store · 100,000+ members · Free to download
What the research says
Each study below was checked against its PubMed record, or read at source for NHS, NICE and government pages, on 7 October 2026.
The UK Chief Medical Officers recommend muscle-strengthening activities on at least two days a week and at least 150 minutes of moderate activity (or 75 minutes of vigorous activity) a week, and say any strengthening activity is better than none.
UK Chief Medical Officers (2019). UK Chief Medical Officers' Physical Activity Guidelines (page updated July 2026). Department of Health and Social Care. www.gov.uk/government/publications/physical-activity-guidelines-uk-chief-medical-officers-report
A meta-analysis of 16 cohort studies found muscle-strengthening activities were associated with a 10 to 17% lower risk of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease, total cancer, diabetes and lung cancer, with the maximum risk reduction at about 30 to 60 minutes a week.
Momma H, Kawakami R, Honda T, et al. (2022). Muscle-strengthening activities are associated with lower risk and mortality in major non-communicable diseases: a systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies. British journal of sports medicine. 56(13):755-763 doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2021-105061
A meta-analysis comparing men and women on the same resistance training found similar gains in muscle size and lower-body strength, and a larger relative gain in upper-body strength for women.
Roberts BM, Nuckols G, Krieger JW (2020). Sex Differences in Resistance Training: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Journal of strength and conditioning research. 34(5):1448-1460 doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000003521
A meta-analysis found that training a muscle group twice a week produced more muscle growth than once a week on a volume-equated basis.
Schoenfeld BJ, Ogborn D, Krieger JW (2016). Effects of Resistance Training Frequency on Measures of Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.). 46(11):1689-1697 doi.org/10.1007/s40279-016-0543-8
Questions women ask
What is the best fitness app for women?
The one you will keep using. Look for strength training at the centre, a clear way to progress, plans for your level, room for your cycle or menopause, honest pricing and a clear privacy policy.
What is the best workout app for women over 40?
One that prioritises strength training two or three times a week, lets you log perimenopause symptoms and sleep, and helps with protein. Muscle becomes more important to protect from midlife.
Is there a good free fitness app for women?
Free apps and videos can work well if you already know how to plan and progress your training. Paid apps mostly add structure, tracking and coaching.
How often should women strength train?
At least two days a week, according to the UK Chief Medical Officers. Training each muscle group twice a week builds more muscle than once.
What is a women's health app?
An app built around women's bodies, such as cycle, perimenopause and menopause tracking, often alongside exercise, food and sleep. Turtle is a women's health coach that combines these.
This guide is general information, not medical advice. It isn't tailored to you and doesn't replace advice from your GP or another qualified professional. If something's worrying you, speak to your GP. LeanShield™ is a trademark of ParrotPal Ltd: it rates the habits linked to protecting muscle, is not a medical device and doesn't measure muscle.