How to Build a Workout Planning App: Key Features and Useful Tips

A healthy lifestyle is trending now, and fitness programs, healthy nutrition, physical workouts, and other similar areas are steadily gaining popularity. The growing market of this kind opens up new opportunities for mobile app developers as well.

Fitness apps can be divided into several types, and workout planning app development is among the most promising areas. That is a kind of personal coach whose services are available to you not just in the gym but also at home and online on a round-the-clock basis.

In this article, we will consider the peculiarities of workout app development, tell you what functions such a product should have, how you can monetize the app, and share several other tips. Projects we developed in this business domain you can see in our portfolio.

Quick Stats & Facts: 

• In 2024, fitness apps generated $3.98 billion in revenue, which was an 11.1% increase from the previous year. — Business of Apps
• Over 74% of Americans use at least one fitness app. · 60% of fitness app users have replaced gym memberships with app-based workouts. — FitBudd
• The fitness app market was valued at USD 10.59 billion in 2024. It is projected to reach USD 33.58 billion by 2033, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.59% from 2025 to 2033. — Grand View Research
• Global health and fitness app downloads reached a new high of 3.6 billion across iOS and Google Play, marking a 6% year-over-year increase. — Sensor Tower
• The average 30-day retention rate for health and fitness apps is 27.2%. — 2V Modules

Key Insights:

• Onboarding features are essential for quickly familiarizing first-time users with an app’s capabilities in a concise and informative manner.
• Personal profiles store user data, custom settings, visit history, and progress tracking toward fitness goals.
• The workout and exercise content sections should include descriptions, performance techniques, pictures, videos, and the ability to create individual workout plans based on user goals.
• Workout calendars display scheduled workouts with appointment scheduling functionality, which is particularly useful for fitness center apps.
• Personal coach options enable users to pay for individual classes, nutritional advice, or consultations with specialists, which can be used as a monetization method.
• Wearable device integration enables the collection of physical activity and health data through appropriate API connections.
• Monetization strategies include personal coaching services, product sales, subscription models, in-app advertising, and paid downloads from app stores.

What Is Inside? 7 Essential Workout App Features

A mobile app of this kind can provide quite wide possibilities depending on the plan’s ambitions. However, no one can be sure to know their target audience’s needs well enough, so it is always a good decision to start with an MVP.

To build a successful workout and fitness app, you should keep in mind the following list of the most requested features as we see it.

1. Onboarding. When users launch your app for the first time, it is important to quickly familiarize them with its capabilities in a concise but informative way. You can read more on the topic in our article “Mobile App Onboarding: 9 Best Practices with Examples.”

2. Personal profile. This section stores user personal data and custom settings. Depending on the functionality a particular workout app may have, it can include the visit history, progress towards goals, etc.

[by Ramadhani, Dribble]

3. Workouts and exercise. That is the content section containing workout descriptions featuring exercise performance techniques and containing pictures and videos. The possibility to create an individual workout plan depending on the particular user’s goals will also be useful.

4. Workout calendar. The calendar grid should display users’ planned workout schedules (days, hours). This component may also include the functionality necessary to make appointments and schedule workout classes if you are developing an app for fitness centers.

[by Gregory Riaguzov]

5. Push notifications. The app can use quite a wide range of them: starting from a reminder of the workout classes planned and down to notifications about their cancellation (on the coach’s side), changes in time, or vacant hours on the day you need.

6. Personal coach. This option is one of the monetization methods allowing users to pay for individual workout classes with a professional coach, order nutritionist’s advice, or chat with a specialist of the profile required.

7. Connecting wearable devices. If you plan to create a workout app that collects data on users’ physical activity and health metrics, this kind of data is usually picked up using wearable devices and sensors. Consequently, you have to integrate the appropriate APIs to connect them.

[by Thalita Torres]

Workout App Monetization Peculiarities

Workout planning app owners can generate income in many ways, depending on the business model it is based upon. It is also possible to combine various methods of profit earning.

Here are a few options to pay attention to when monetizing your workout app:

• provide advice from a personal couch;
• sell products, such as devices or nutritional supplements;
• subscription model;
• advertising in the app;
• paid download from the app store.

This topic requires more detailed consideration. Therefore, we recommend reading our article “8 Proven Ways to Monetize Your Mobile Application in 2021” covering each model in more detail.

Takeaways

As you can see, building a mobile workout app is no big deal. Offering an affordable price, various activities, an individual approach, and round-the-clock accessibility, you can develop a high-demand product and make good money on it.

Conceive a concept for your mobile app, find an experienced development team, and use our article as a guide to action.

Our skills and experience can be useful to you if you decide to start such a project. Therefore, if you have any questions or would like to use our services to build your own workout planning app, contact us, and let us discuss the details!

Last Updated on January 7, 2026 by Lvivity Team