What’s New in iOS 18 Fitness App Workout Summaries

Apple's iOS 18 brings major enhancements to the Fitness app workout summaries, shifting the experience toward deeper personalization, comprehensive recovery insights, and flexible goal tracking. The update introduces customizable summary dashboards, perceived effort ratings, Training Load tracking, and the ability to pause Activity rings directly alongside your post-workout data, making workout reviews significantly more actionable.

Fully Customizable Summary Tab

The workout summary experience is no longer a rigid, one-size-fits-all screen. In iOS 18, users can customize the layout of the Fitness app to highlight the metrics that matter most to them. You can rearrange tiles, resize specific metric cards, and choose what appears at the top—whether that is your recent workout history, specific activity stats, or detailed performance trends.

Perceived Effort Ratings

A notable addition to post-workout summaries is the Effort rating. Following cardio-focused workouts, the system automatically estimates your exertion, while other workouts allow you to manually assign a rating from 1 to 10 based on how hard the session felt. You can adjust this rating at any time in the summary screen, allowing the app to better understand the true physical demand of your sessions.

Training Load Integration

Workouts in iOS 18 now feed directly into Apple's new Training Load feature. Within your workout summaries, you can see how an individual workout contributes to your short-term strain compared to your 28-day baseline. The summary clearly indicates whether your effort was below, at, or above your typical workload, helping you decide whether to push harder or prioritize recovery.

Flexible Ring Pausing and Goal Customization

Workout summaries now account for rest and recovery without penalizing your progress. Users can pause their Activity rings for a day, week, month, or longer directly within the interface, maintaining award streaks during rest periods or illness. Additionally, daily goals can be customized by day of the week, allowing workout summaries to align with planned rest days and varying weekly schedules.

Enhanced Performance Metrics

Specific workout types now feature richer post-session breakdowns. Runners, cyclists, and hikers will find improved mapping visuals, cleaner heart rate zone representations, and clearer pacing splits. These updates make it easier to evaluate individual segments of a session at a glance without having to dig through multiple nested menus.