The best setup for people who lift and run: one app, or a logger plus an endurance app
Lifting apps ignore your runs and running apps ignore your lifting, so most hybrid training ends up split across two histories. This page lays out the two workable setups, one app or a connected pair, and states each option's fit honestly.
ExplainerUpdated 3 min readMarkdown version
Checked against Hevy on the App Store on , Fitbod on the App Store on and Strong on the App Store on . Third-party facts can change after that date. Method facts are checked against the shipped product.
The actual problem
If you lift three days and run three days, your training is one plan with one weekly budget of recovery. Most tracking setups split it into two apps that cannot see each other, so the lifting app thinks you rested on Tuesday, the running app thinks Thursday's squats did not happen. Neither history can answer the only interesting question, which is what the whole week looked like.
There are two honest ways out.
Setup one: one app for the whole plan
Method treats cardio as a first-class part of the program. A session can hold strength exercises and cardio activities side by side; runs, rides, rows, and 17 other activity types carry distance or duration targets and can include intervals; everything lands on one calendar, one history, and one analytics surface. Runs are recorded on the iPhone with GPS or on the Apple Watch app, and anything recorded elsewhere, Apple Watch, Apple Fitness, or apps like Strava and Garmin Connect that write to Apple Health, is imported in the background with heart rate and, for outdoor runs, walks, and rides, the route. The details are in Apple Health workout sync and cardio on Apple Watch.
The honest limits are that Method is iPhone plus web, its running features are training-record features rather than a Strava replacement, and there are no segments, no route discovery, and no running community.
Setup two: an endurance app plus a lifting logger
Plenty of people are attached to their running ecosystem, and rightly so. The workable version of two apps is one where the histories connect:
- Runs stay in Strava, Garmin Connect, Apple Fitness, or wherever your watch lives.
- Lifting goes in a logger. Hevy lists a Strava integration and exports its workouts into Apple Health. Fitbod lists Apple Health, Strava, and Fitbit integrations and uses recovery in its generated sessions. Strong logs lifting with Apple Health support for body measurements.
- Apple Health is the bridge on iPhone. Apps that write to it make their workouts visible to apps that read from it.
What this setup cannot give you is one plan. The run schedule and the lifting schedule live in different products, and interference management, the hard run before the heavy leg day, stays in your head. It also produces two analytics surfaces, each blind to half your training.
Worth noting, this setup and setup one are not exclusive. Because Method reads Apple Health, you can keep the endurance app you love for recording and still have every run land beside your lifting in one history and one calendar.
The short table
| Your situation | Strongest fit | Why | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| You plan lifts and runs as one program | Method | One calendar, one history, cardio targets and intervals in the program, Apple Health import | iPhone plus web, no segments or running social features |
| You live in Strava and just want lifting logged | Hevy, or Strong | Established loggers; Hevy lists Strava integration and Health export | Two plans, two histories |
| You want sessions generated around recovery | Fitbod | Recovery-aware generated training, Strava and Fitbit listed | Subscription only, the app decides the plan |
| You want a run-focused week with maintenance lifting | Your endurance app plus any logger here | The running side deserves the specialist tool | The lifting record stays thin |
Every claim about the other apps comes from their App Store listings on the date at the top of this page; every claim about Method is checked against the shipped product.
Common questions
- Can one app track both my lifting and my running?
- Method is built for it: strength and cardio sessions live in the same programs, calendar, history, and analytics, runs are recorded on iPhone or Apple Watch with GPS and heart rate, and workouts from other apps arrive through Apple Health. The trade-off is iPhone plus web only.
- I love Strava. Do I have to leave it?
- No. Keep recording runs wherever you like. If the app writes them to Apple Health, Method imports them in the background with heart rate and, for outdoor runs, the route, so your runs land beside your lifting without changing your running setup.
- What do Hevy and Fitbod offer for runners?
- Hevy lists a Strava integration and exports workouts into Apple Health. Fitbod lists Apple Health, Strava, and Fitbit integrations and builds recovery-aware sessions. Both are lifting products first; neither describes planning runs and lifts in one program on a calendar.
- Does a hybrid plan need one calendar?
- It helps more than any feature. Interference between hard runs and heavy leg days is a scheduling problem, and you can only see the collision if both sessions sit on the same week.
Try Method
Write your program on the web, log every set on iPhone, and keep the whole history in one place. Free to start.
Related reading
Apple Health workout sync in Method: what imports, what writes back, and what does not
Method imports workouts from Apple Health in the background, including Apple Watch and Apple Fitness workouts and anything Strava or other apps write to Health. This page lists the activity types, the fields, the timing, and the edges.
Cardio on Apple Watch with Method: what the Watch app records and how it reaches your history
Method's Watch app is for cardio only. This page lists what it records, how it talks to the phone, what becomes a split in your history, and the edges, so you know exactly what to expect before you strap it on.
Fitness tracker apps by use case: wearable dashboards, workout loggers, endurance apps, and planners
Step counts, gym logs, GPS runs, and written programs are tracked by different kinds of app. This guide separates them, explains how they share data through Apple Health, and places Method honestly among them.
Method vs Hevy: a workout tracker comparison for people who plan their training
Hevy is a social gym logger built around routines. Method is a program-first planner and logger. This page lays out exactly where they differ so you can pick the one that fits how you train.
Method writes and maintains this page. Every statement about Method is checked against the shipped product. If something here is out of date, email contact@methodapp.net. For general references, link to the Method homepage.