The next manufacturer of smartwatches and fitness-focused accessories is introducing a paid subscription with customized fitness programs. This should help users of Polar wearables to improve their long-term progress and performance.
Silvio Werner (translated by Enrico Frahn), Published 🇩🇪
Wearable Smartwatch Software
We’ve already reported on Garmin’s rather controversial decision to put certain smartwatch features behind a paywall, and now another company has followed suit. Polar offers smartwatches with the usual functions such as showing notifications from a connected smartphone, but the brand has also put a strong emphasis on sports.
Some fitness features are now part of a paid subscription, which offers a free 14-day trial and costs €9.99 a month afterwards. For now, this new offering called "Polar Fitness Program" is only available to European users with an Android smartphone, iOS compatibility is expected to follow later this year. This new fitness program is intended to act as a companion for athletes or users who are regularly active.
More specifically, it can adapt to individual goals and lifestyles by incorporating data collected by a Polar smartwatch. It’s supposedly able to recognize how users physically react to a workout and can create a four-week training schedule that is automatically adjusted if the user needs more time for regeneration. These data-based adjustments are intended to make workouts more efficient and even reduce the chances of injury and fatigue, all while making sure that users still improve their performance.
Moreover, the program adapts to individual routines and 20 different fitness levels. However, Polar’s new paywalled offering has a weakness that is also found in other smartwatches, namely that all these training plans are focused on endurance sports. While optional strength workouts and mobility exercises can be incorporated into the schedule, current wearables can only accurately optimize the intensity of an endurance workout based on their heart rate readings. But Polar smartwatches cannot detect the muscle failure that occurs during strength workouts, for example.
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Editor of the original article: Silvio Werner - Senior Tech Writer - 13592 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2017
I have been active as a journalist for over 10 years, most of it in the field of technology. I worked for Tom’s Hardware and ComputerBase, among others, and have been working for Notebookcheck since 2017. My current focus is particularly on mini PCs and single-board computers such as the Raspberry Pi – so in other words, compact systems with a lot of potential. In addition, I have a soft spot for all kinds of wearables, especially smartwatches. My main profession is as a laboratory engineer, which is why neither scientific contexts nor the interpretation of complex measurements are foreign to me.
Translator: Enrico Frahn - Managing Editor Accessory Reviews, Tech Writer - 4274 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2021
My fascination for technology goes back a long way to the Pentium II era. Modding, overclocking and treasuring computer hardware has since become an integral part of my life. As a student, I further developed a keen interest in mobile technologies that can make the stressful college life so much easier. After I fell in love with the creation of digital content while working in a marketing position, I now scour the web to bring you the most exciting topics in the world of tech. Outside the office, I’m particularly passionate about motorsports and mountain biking.
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Silvio Werner,2025-04-11(Update:2025-04-11)
