2 Hidden Apple Watch Features I Use to Get in Top Shape

After sailing along the same path good enough After a long time of ditching my fitness routine, I finally feel motivated to step it up a notch and get back into my pre-baby shape. For the past six years, I’ve relied on the Apple Watch to tell me how much or how little I work out, to push me to take a late-night walk to close my Move rings, and to send me notifications when my “fitness levels” are trending downward. (I just gave birth to a human, Apple Watch — relax!)

On the surface, it seems like I’m doing everything right. But the truth is, I’m just going through the motions to hit a quota, and I can feel a difference in both my body and my mental state compared to when I was in top shape and working toward a fitness goal.

Apple continues to add health features to its Apple Watch line, most recently with the addition of sleep apnea tracking announced during last week’s Glowtime event, a feature that was cleared by the Food and Drug Administration on Monday and will be available on the Apple Watch Series 9, 10, and Ultra 2. Many consumers don’t realize just how many health features the Apple Watch actually has; luckily, a few tweaks to your watch’s settings can help you get the most out of your workouts and set meaningful goals.

For me, reaching the next level means pushing myself to the limit. To achieve this, I want to focus on two Apple Watch features: cardio fitness and heart rate zones.

Keep track of your cardio fitness score

The term “in shape” is too vague and subjective to be a real goal for me. I’m not proposing a full mood board here, but I do believe that setting clear goals can increase your chances of success. These are Mine Goals: I want to get stronger so I can carry my baby without hurting my back. I want to build up my endurance so I can run longer distances again and sign up for a 10K or half marathon in 2025. And lastly, I want to tone and increase my muscle mass so I can finally get rid of that last bit of stubborn post-baby fat that’s lingering.

Now that I had my goals, the next step was to figure out how I wanted to measure my progress. I needed something tangible that I could use to gauge my fitness levels, in addition to any subtle physical changes I was noticing on the outside. Since muscle is denser than fat, the scale just wouldn’t cut it. That’s where the Apple Watch comes in.

Like many other fitness wearables on the market, the Apple Watch has a built-in sensor that continuously measures your heart rate from your wrist. It then uses this data, along with your movement data over time, to calculate your VO2 max, which is American Heart Association is the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use during exercise. Apple calls this your cardio fitness score, and you can find it in the Health app on your iPhone.

Your score is then categorized into one of four categories: high, above average, below average, or low. My current score is 41, just enough to put me in the “high” category, but not by much. My goal is to get closer to 50, where I was before my third pregnancy.

Since the Apple Watch is not a hospital-grade device, I only use these numbers to track my progress and not for medical purposes.

Enable heart rate zone visibility

Rather than overhauling my current routine, which I can barely maintain, I’m simply going to build on what I’m already doing by increasing the duration and intensity of each exercise. My routine consists of two Pilates sessions (strength training) and three brisk walks per week (cardio). Cardio is more efficient at burning calories and building endurance, while strength training burns fat and builds muscle.

One way to gauge how hard you’re working during exercise is to look at your heart rate (beats per minute). To get the most out of this data, you’ll then need to determine your target heart rate for each activity based on your maximum heart rate (to calculate this, take your current age and subtract it from 220). In my 10 years of writing fitness wearables, I’ve written countless articles on target heart rates, and I still sometimes have to look up how to calculate them.

Luckily, the Apple Watch does the math for you. It translates your live heart rate data into five zones, so you can take action when it matters most, not after your workout is over. According to the Cleveland ClinicIn zones 1-3 your body mainly burns fat, while in zones 4 and 5 it mainly burns carbohydrates and proteins.

To enable heart rate zone visibility on your Apple Watch:

1. Go to the Workout app on your watch.
2. Tap the “…” option at the bottom right corner of the screen.
3. Scroll to the bottom of the menu and tap Preferences.
4. Tap the Training Views box at the top.
5. You will see several display options that you can add. Scroll down to Heart Rate Zones and turn on Include.

After analyzing my last 10 workouts in the Fitness app on my iPhone, I realized that I was stuck in zone 1 during my entire Pilates session and that I was barely reaching zone 3 during my cardio workout (brisk walking).

To get to the next level, I need to train in a higher zone than I’m used to for both types of exercise. I need to switch my walks to jogs and throw in some sprints or hills to reach zone 4, and add another 10 minutes to my usual 30-minute Pilates sessions so I can do a few reps of each move.

With the release of watchOS 11 on September 16, the Apple Watch is also getting a new feature called Training Load, which will let you see how your workout scores in intensity compared to the last 28 days, and plot it on a graph so you can visualize it. It won’t do this automatically for strength training exercises like Pilates, but you can enter it manually and still see the results on the graph. It also won’t be able to be viewed live during a workout like the heart rate zone information above, but it would serve as a great complement to the cardio fitness score and as a way to track progress over time.

Armed with the right tools and metrics, I feel confident that I can move the needle and achieve my goals. Because I’m not looking for a quick fix, I don’t feel the need to set a specific time frame to achieve success, but rather plan to celebrate wins as they come and check in after a few months.

No matter where you are in your fitness journey, it’s important to consult your doctor before making any major changes to your routine.