Best strength training apps for Garmin watches

A Garmin watch is built for running and riding. Lifting is the part it handles least well, so a few apps fill the gap. This page covers the five options a lifter with a Garmin has today.

BulkForged is our app, so weigh this page accordingly. Every statement about another product comes from that product's own website or help centre. Each entry says when we read it.

The short version

• You want nothing extra to install: use Garmin's built-in Strength activity.
• You want to log every set on the watch, with the phone put away: BulkForged.
• You use an iPhone and want set logging on the wrist: Gravl.
• You want your routine sent to Garmin's own workout screens: LiftTrack.
• You use Hevy: it has no Garmin watch app. See Does Hevy work with Garmin?

1. Garmin's built-in Strength activity

Every recent Garmin has a Strength activity. It needs no app and no subscription.

• The watch counts reps from the movement of your wrist.
• After each set you can correct the reps and enter the weight on the watch.
• The session is saved to Garmin Connect with heart rate and a muscle map.
• You can build a workout in Garmin Connect and send it to the watch.

Where it falls short:

• Rep counting only sees movements the wrist takes part in. Leg press, leg curls and most machine leg work do not register. See Why your Garmin miscounts reps.
• It records what you did. It does not tell you what to lift next time.

2. BulkForged

BulkForged is an Android app with a Garmin watch app installed from the Connect IQ store.

• The watch shows the exercise, the target weight and the target reps for the set in front of you.
• Logging a set takes three presses: confirm the weight, confirm the reps, done.
• The rest timer starts on its own and vibrates when the rest is over.
• The watch app runs the whole workout offline. It syncs when the phone is back in range.
• After each session the app sets your next targets: more reps first, then more weight.
• Every change is written to a log you can read, and any target can be edited.

What to know before you install:

• Android only today. There is an iPhone waitlist.
• Colour-screen watches only: fēnix 6 and later, epix 2, Enduro, MARQ, tactix, quatix, D2 Mach 1 Pro, and Forerunner 255, 265, 955, 965 and 970.
• A lifting session is saved in BulkForged, not as a Garmin Connect activity. It records no heart rate.
• You can start on the phone with no account. Pairing the watch needs one.

3. Gravl

Gravl is a workout app for iPhone and Android with a Connect IQ watch app. Read on Gravl's help centre on 19 September 2026 (page updated 28 August 2026):

• It supports around 70 Garmin models. A colour display is required.
• The watch shows the current set and what is next, and you can log a set from it.
• Gravl's help page says the phone owns the workout and the watch app mirrors it.
• It also supports Apple Watch and Wear OS.

If you use an iPhone, Gravl is the option on this list that logs sets on a Garmin.

4. LiftTrack

LiftTrack is a workout app for iPhone and Android. Read on its website on 19 September 2026:

• Its site says workouts sync to your Garmin watch through Garmin Connect.
• After each workout it proposes your next targets, and you accept them with one tap.
• The site does not list supported watch models.

5. Hevy

Hevy is one of the most popular lifting apps and it has no Garmin watch app. Its help centre explains why, and we cover it in Does Hevy work with Garmin?

How to choose

1. Check your watch model against the app's own supported list before anything else.
2. Decide where the workout should live. Garmin Connect keeps heart rate. A lifting app keeps your sets, weights and progress.
3. Decide whether the phone stays in your pocket or in the locker. Only an app that runs on the watch itself works with the phone out of range.
4. Decide whether you want the app to set your next weights, or only to record them.

Related: Using your Garmin watch, Pairing your watch to your account, How progressive overload works.