Apple Fitness+ Launches Celebrity-Driven 'Time to Walk' Feature

When you think of fitness, activities like going for a run or lifting weights are usually top of mind. But fitness doesn’t always have to involve maxing out your heart rate. Just stepping outside for a walk can have tremendous benefits for your health. That’s exactly what Time to Walk, a new feature for Apple Fitness+, is all about. Released today, Time to Walk is a series of podcast-like episodes where celebrities including Dolly Parton and Draymond Green share stories and insight from their lives, accompanied by some visual elements. As the name implies, these episodes are designed to be listened to while taking a walk.

Aside from Parton and Green, Apple has also released Time to Walk episodes with Shawn Mendes and Emmy Award-winning actress Uzo Aduba. Each episode is recorded while walking or in a location that’s meaningful to the guest, and the topics for the 25- to 40-minute episodes vary widely. In Parton’s episode, the country music icon promises “a walk down memory lane,” while Mendes discusses the benefits of slowing down, and Green talks about the virtues of failure and tuning out criticism, according to Apple.

“There’s nothing better than a walk in nature, getting lost in my thoughts, and taking a deep breath of fresh air,” Green says in the press release. “I hope sharing my stories with those who go on a walk with me will give them the same drive to chase their dreams that I had in chasing mine.”

Each segment comes with corresponding photos that pop up on your Apple Watch as you listen, which adds a visual element to help bring the guests’ stories and ideas to life. At the end, each guest also shares a playlist of songs that motivates and inspires them, so you’ll get a fresh batch of music with each episode. There’s even a version for wheelchair users—called Time to Push—which combines the audiovisual content with an Outdoor Wheelchair Walk Pace workout.

Time to Walk is the latest addition to the Apple Fitness+ subscription service, which combines the fitness-tracking features of the Apple Watch with on-demand studio-style workouts accessible on your iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV (for $9.99 a month). Rather than a full-on workout, Time to Walk offers users a quick break and an easy way to get some exercise. Apple plans to release new Time to Walk episodes every Monday through the end of April, so your daily stroll is about to get a whole lot more interesting.