Studio wants to help you train on the treadmill with an Apple Watch

A new running app is aiming to help treadmill users by tracking progress and pulling in biometric data from an Apple Watch.

Studio, which is looking to emphasise the social element of running through in-app classes, allows users to see the progress and rankings of likeminded runners. The smartwatch, meanwhile, will provide info on heart rate and speed in order to add more depth to the leaderboards.

Read this: Best Apple Watch running apps

The process is also gamified through the concept of Fitcoins, the app's currency. These are awarded depending on your mixture of distance, time elapsed and heart rate, with the premise to essentially reward the more work you put into a run. So, for example, if you had a high average heart rate and ran for a long distance, you'd receive more Fitcoins to personalise the Studio.

For those who own a treadmill and want to take part in the classes, there are several levels of difficulty to choose from — beginner, intermediate and advance — as well as varying durations, with users able to run for 20, 30 or 45 minutes. You can take part in more focused sessions, too, such as a zero to 5K course, and decide whether the classes should emphasise a certain genre of music.

An Apple Watch isn't required for the Studio app, but it does certainly appear to help users get the most out of the social aspects involved. It's also one of the clearer examples we've seen of an app looking specifically to hone in on the smarts of the Watch.

Whether this expands into deeper areas remains to be seen, but Studio certainly won't be the last to try and take advantage of the device's capabilities - even though, as is often the case, tracking distance from the wrist can be a tricky task.

Those looking to get involved can sign up for a fortnight trial of the app, though this does rise to $15 a month or $100 for an entire year if you want to continue tapping into the app.