Credit: Image courtesy of Strava.
Strava today announced a complete overhaul of its strength training experience. This is one of the bigger gym-based updates I’ve seen from the app—new features include 14 partner integrations, a dedicated workout log, auto-populated muscle maps, and five new strength-specific shareables. According to Strava, there is an update Rolling out Globally in the coming weeks, so you’ll be able to try all these new goodies soon.
For anyone who’s ever wished Strava treated their weight training with even a fraction of the seriousness it gives to runs and rides, the update certainly looks promising. Whether it fully delivers on its potential is a question that will require some testing to answer, although most robust applications look better on paper than they do in practice.
Strava’s workout log is getting a complete refresh, including a muscle map
The main update is a completely refreshed workout log that lets you record sets, reps and weights directly within Strava. In theory, this could close the gap for all the Strava runners out there who also do withdrawals, but it lacks a reliable way to keep training data in place like everyone else.
For me, the most exciting feature is that every logged strength workout will now automatically generate one Visual muscle map Highlighting which muscle groups were worked based on recorded exercises. This can be a great way to understand your training balance, avoid overuse, and make sure you’re not accidentally skipping the same muscles every week. Of course, a muscle map is only as good as the underlying exercise data, and one factor may be how well the various partner apps feed into Strava. .
These partner apps now work with Strava
Strava is launching with 14 partner integrations, pulling strength data from apps and devices across the fitness ecosystem. Initial partners include: 24 Hour Fitness (coming this summer), Amazfit, Caliber, Coros, Fitbod, Garmin, Heavy, iFIT Personal Trainer, JEFIT, Liftoff, Motra, Remaker, Runna, and Hoop.
What do you think so far?
I will cover this integration in more depth once I have a clearer picture of what data everyone sends and how it surfaces within Strava. But some things stand out to me. Heavy integration looks particularly promising. Heavy is Well considered A dedicated strength logging app, and pulling detailed workout data from it directly into Strava, could be a welcome addition for those already using it.
For Corus and Garmin users, the integration should mean that strength sessions tracked on your watch will automatically flow to Strava, just as your runs do now. I’m curious to know exactly what it looks like in practice—how exercises are categorized, whether sets and reps come cleanly, and whether muscle maps are correctly generated from watch-captured data versus manually logged workouts.
Hoop integration is also worth noting, as is Hoop Just Added its own extensive strength training facilities. Given Hoop’s status as a launch partner, I imagine there are many ways the two platforms could complement each other—say, with Hoop’s recovery and stress data, along with Straw’s activity logs and social elements. And on that note, Strava is also adding five new strength-specific share formats, designed to give gym workouts the same social impetus that outdoor activities have always had on the platform.
