Can't do pushups? Low-impact exercises to unlock your apps

Walks, stretching, chair squats and other gentle ways to earn your screen time. By Thomas Willheim · October 13, 2026

Hey y'all! HonorFit is mostly known as a pushup app blocker: your apps stay locked until you do some reps and log them yourself. But if your wrists, shoulders or knees don't love that, or you're at a desk all day, or pushups just aren't happening right now, that's totally fine.

The pushups were never really the point for me. The point is a small speed bump between you and the scroll, one that happens to be good for you. A walk around the block does that just as well. Here's how to set HonorFit up around stuff you can actually do.

If you're on the free version

Free gives you the four built-in exercises: pushups, situps, pull ups and squats. Of those, squats are the gentlest, and they're worth 30 seconds each.

And since it's the honor system, nobody's checking what a squat looks like. If a full squat is too much, standing up from a chair and sitting back down counts. Same idea with pushups against a wall or a kitchen counter. You decide what a rep is, and you just log it honestly.

With Pro: pick your own

Pro ($3 a month or $19.99 once in the US; the store shows your local price) lets you add, rename and remove exercises and set what each one earns. You get to it from the gear on the home screen, then the Exercises card. I wrote up every step of the editor here. These are the kinds of things I'd look at.

Timed workouts (logged in minutes)

Switch any exercise to Minutes, or tap one of the suggestions with a ⏱. The ones that fit here:

• 🚶 Walk. My favorite for this. Probably the easiest win there is.
• 🧘 Yoga, or rename it to Stretching if that's more what you do.
• 🏊 Swim and 🚴 Cycling, both easy on the joints.
• 🪷 Meditate. Not exercise, but it's in there, and ten quiet minutes is a pretty good trade for ten minutes of TikTok.

Timed workouts start at 30 seconds of app time per minute, so a 20-minute walk earns 10 minutes. The wheel counts whole minutes, up to 100 at a time.

Desk-friendly moves (logged in reps)

Tap ＋ Add exercise and type a name. A few that work in an office or a small apartment, with no equipment:

• Chair squats (sit-to-stands): stand up from your chair, sit back down.
• Wall pushups or desk pushups: pushups against a wall or a sturdy desk. The higher the surface, the easier.
• Calf raises: up on your toes, back down. You can do these waiting for the microwave.
• Marching in place: the High knees suggestion, just slower. Rename it if you want.
• Glute bridges and kegels: quiet, no equipment, and you can do kegels in a meeting without anybody knowing. I wrote a whole post on those.

Holds (plank, wall sit)

Since the minutes wheel counts whole minutes, a 20-second plank doesn't really fit there. I'd leave holds on Reps and decide what a rep means, like “one 20-second hold”. Plank and Wall sit are both in the suggestions.

What should each one earn?

New exercises start at 30 seconds a rep. You can go up or down 5 seconds at a time. Some starting points:

These are just my guesses at what feels fair. The right number is one you'll actually pay instead of fudging. If walking is the habit you most want to build, make it worth more, like 1 minute per minute.

A few setups to steal

• Desk day: Chair squats, Wall pushups, Calf raises, Walk.
• Gentle: Walk, Stretching, Chair squats, Wall pushups (that's the screenshot above).
• Calm: Walk, Yoga, Meditate.
• Quiet apartment: Glute bridges, Kegels, Chair squats, Walk.

I'd keep it to three or four, since each one gets its own wheel on the home screen.

And if you're dealing with an injury, pain, or a health condition, check with your doctor or a physical therapist about what's OK for you. I make an app blocker; I'm not the guy to ask about your knees lol.

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