If you have an Apple Watch you would think that leaving your phone at home and relying on just your watch would be a no-brainer. But when your gym makes you check in at the front desk with their smartphone app it makes it that much harder to leave your phone at home. Well, there is likely a way you could just check in with your Apple Watch, even if your gym’s app doesn’t have an Apple Watch version.
The Benefits of Working Out Without a Phone
I have been lucky enough in the past to live close enough to a gym that I could walk to it from my house. But I no longer live that close. So like most people I have car keys with me when I go to the gym. Add in a water bottle, weight lifting gloves and a smartphone and you almost need a bag to carry all of your things around the gym. Just today I was at the gym and someone had decided to put their $1000 smartphone on a stack of machine weights…you know, the stack of weights that move up and down as you use the machine. What could possibly go wrong? Damaging your phone aside, minimizing the things you take into a gym is a huge plus. Not only does it minimize the things you have to stuff in your pockets or hold in your hands but it minimizes the chances that you will leave one of these things behind. The other unintended consequence is less distractions. The gym is an escape for me and the last thing I need is another link to my life outside the gym. I have my Apple Watch, so my friends and family can still reach me if they really need me but everything else can be left at home as to not interrupt my workout.
Getting Around the Smartphone Checkin Problem
So if you want to go to the gym without your phone but your gym requires you to check in with their app on your smartphone, there is a workaround. I go to Planet Fitness and their app doesn’t have an Apple Watch App. But I did some digging and their smartphone app is just displaying a QR code that is scanned at the front desk. So all you need to do is to display that QR code on your Apple Watch and you can leave that smartphone at home (or in the car). Luckily, there is an app for that (in fact there are many). The app I chose to use was free (with ads) and is called Pass2U. Pass2U, like many other apps out there, allow you to create your own passes for your Apple Wallet. If you own an Apple Watch you know that all you have to do to bring up a pass from your Apple Wallet on your Apple Watch is double press the side button and scroll to the pass you need and a nice big QR code is displayed. So now you just need to make a Planet Fitness pass for your Apple Wallet that will display a QR code that matches your Planet Fitness app generated QR code and you can check into the gym with just your Apple Watch.
Once you download the Pass2U app (or any other app of your choice that does the same thing) just do a search for “Planet Fitness” and you will get a list of templates that people have already created. Once you select a pass templateThe Pass2U app and get into the process of creating your pass you get the most important part in the process so pay close attention. Below is an image of what the Planet Fitness app looks like when you check in using the app.
Notice in the image you can see the QR code and a mix of numbers and letters. That string of characters is actually the information that the QR code is sending to the card reader at the front desk. This is NOT your member ID. So when you get to the step in the process for creating your pass and you have the option to fill in your member ID, don’t do this. Instead what you want to do is use a screenshot you take of QR code that the Planet Fitness app generates and use that image to create a QR code for your pass. This ensures that the QR code for the pass you are creating is conveying the same information that the Planet Fitness app does.
That’s it. Now you can leave your phone safely at home or in your car and have one less thing you have to carry around the gym as you workout. One note of caution with the Pass2U app. The free version has ads and the ad when I used the app had a large green button at the bottom left of the screen that said “Continue” which takes you to an unsecure website that is not affiliated with creating a pass (but it makes you think it is part of the process). So be aware that at no time during the process do you have to leave the app or sign up for an additional account or service to create a pass. Don’t press the “Continue” button at the bottom (the sleazy ad) but press the “Next” button at the upper right of the screen to finish making your pass.
