I struggle to see the point of most fitness apps.

Fitness really is a solved problem. The fitness apps and influencers will try to convince you that you need a whole database of “creative” and new exercises to see progress, making it seem like there’s “secrets” to getting the body you want fast.

There are no secrets. The truth is, you just have to do the same dozen or so “boring” exercises that everyone already knows. But you have to do them consistently, and you have to increase their difficulty over time. And then make sure you eat right.

A lot of coaching should just be on getting the numbers right and correcting your form. But once you learn how to get that right, you can pretty much be on your own, and fitness apps become little more than a place for you to track progress, if you even care about tracking progress. Progress will happen whether you track it or not, you can just go by feel.

The boring exercises too were once novel but you're right in that continued progression is the most important thing. However, you can't improve what you don't measure.