Workout length now means the whole workout

The Workout length slider on Today used to size only the lifting. Set it to 25 minutes, turn on a warm-up, some cardio and a cool-down, and you were really in for about 45. That's not what anyone means by a 25-minute workout, so we changed it. The slider now sets the whole workout, from the first stretch to the last.

Parts take their minutes from the lifting

Turn on a warm-up, cardio, your physio's rehab or a cool-down, and its minutes come out of the lifting. At 45 minutes with a 5-minute warm-up, 10 minutes of cardio and a 5-minute cool-down, the plan fills about 25 minutes with lifting. Turn the cardio off and the lifting gets those 10 minutes back. With nothing else on, the lifting gets the full length, as before.

A thin bar shows where the time goes

Under the slider, a thin bar split by colour shows each part: warm-up, lifting, rehab, cardio and cool-down, with the minutes written underneath, like Warm-up 5 min · Lifting 25 min · Cardio 10 min · Cool-down 5 min. It only appears when something besides lifting is on, and it moves as you slide.

Cardio and stretching days

Some days you only want cardio and a stretch. The Lifting row has its own switch: turn it off and the exercise list goes away, the cardio switches on if it wasn't already, and it takes the lifting's time. At 45 minutes with a warm-up and a cool-down, that's 35 minutes of cardio, set by the slider. Turn the lifting back on and everything goes back to how it was.

Lifting keeps at least 15 minutes

If the other parts would squeeze the lifting below 15 minutes, the cardio shrinks first, never below 5 minutes, and a short line under the bar says so. If that still isn't enough, the lifting keeps its 15 minutes and the line tells you the workout will run a little longer than the slider. You can always shorten the cardio yourself with its minute chips, and the lifting gets the time back.

Tip: Short on time today? Slide the length down first, then switch off the parts you can skip. The lifting is planned around what's left, so the most useful exercises stay in.

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