Customize this Apple Watch feature to ramp up fall workouts
After driving past it good enough When I follow a fitness routine for too long, I finally feel motivated to take it a step further and get back into my pre-baby shape.
For the past six years, I’ve relied on the Apple Watch to keep me honest about how much (or how little) I exercise, prompting me to take a late evening walk so I can close my movement rings or send alerts when my ” fitness levels” are trending downward (I just gave birth to a human, Apple Watch – relax!). At first glance it may seem like I’m doing everything right. But the truth is, I’ve just been doing my best to meet a quota, and my body knows it. I can feel the difference in my body (and mental state) from the moment I was in top shape and working towards a fitness goal.
These are Mine Goals: I want to get stronger so I can carry my baby without hurting my back. I want to increase my endurance so I can run longer distances again and sign up for a 10k or half marathon in 2025. And finally, I want to strengthen and increase muscle mass so I can get rid of that last bit of stubborn post-baby fat . that still lingers. I realize that “peak shape” will look a little different now that I’m in my 30s and have three kids competing with my exercise regime, but I also know there’s room for improvement—and thanks to the Apple Watch, I have a few tools to help me get there.
The biggest hurdle for many users (besides willpower) is knowing what Apple Watch health features exist in the first place. Apple has continued to prioritize health and fitness on the popular wearable, adding new tools and features with each new model and WatchOS update, including heart rate notifications, cycle tracking, fall detection, and the ability to perform an ECG. The latest feature addition, sleep apnea notifications, was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in September and will be available on the Apple Watch Series 9, 10 and Ultra 2.
So far, two features have made a big difference in getting my fitness routine started quickly: heart rate zone views and cardio fitness. However, I had to do a little digging on my Apple Watch and iPhone to adjust them; this is what i found.
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Why worry about heart rate zones?
Instead of overhauling my current routine, which I can already barely keep up with, I 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 measure how hard you are working during exercise is to look at your heart rate (in beats per minute). A popular way to make the most of this data is to determine your target heart rate for each activity based on your maximum heart rate (calculated as 220 minus your current age). This formula is known as the heart rate reserve method.
Luckily, your Apple Watch does this math for you. The device can then categorize your heart rate data into five zones and display it live on your wrist, so you can be proactive about your effort level and also see it summarized on your phone once the workout is over. This feature is already enabled for you for some workout types, but not for others; Fortunately, you can manually enable it and reorder the views so that it appears first in whatever training categories you want.
Enable heart rate zone views on Apple Watch
- Go to the Workout app on your watch.
- Tap the “…‘ in the upper right corner of a particular workout type.
- Scroll to the bottom of the menu and tap Preferences.
- Tap the Training views box on top.
- You’ll see several display options that you can add and organize. Scroll down to Heart rate zonesand then switch on Involve.
Enable the heart rate zone display for a specific training type by turning it on in the settings.
Now if you are in the middle of your workout, you can turn the crown of your Apple Watch and see which heart rate zone you are in during your workout. In zones 1-3, your body mainly burns fat, while in zones 4 and 5 it burns carbohydrates and proteins, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Keep in mind that this manual update only turns on the heart rate zone view for that specific workout category, so if you’re doing a different type of workout at another time during the week, you’ll want to turn that view on as well. You can also set your heart rate zones manually in your watch settings, but by default the Apple Watch automatically calculates these from existing watch data and recalibrates your zones for you on the first of each month.
If you want to manually adjust heart rate zones, you can do so in Settings, but by default your Apple Watch will automatically build these based on previous heart rate data.
After dissecting my last 10 workouts in the Fitness app on my iPhone, I realized I was cruising my entire Pilates sessions in zone 1 and barely hitting zone 3 during what should have been my cardio (brisk walks) .
To reach the next level, I need to train in a higher zone than the one I’m used to for both types of exercises. My walks will turn into jogs with a few sprints or hills sprinkled in to reach zones 4 and 5, and I’ll need to add another 10 minutes and extra resistance to my usual 30-minute Pilates session to reach zone 2.
Two other features you should know about
The next step was figuring out how I wanted to measure progress. I needed something tangible that I could use to gauge my fitness, in addition to any subtle physical changes I noticed on the outside. Since muscle mass is denser than fat, the scale wouldn’t cut it. That’s where the cardio fitness score comes in.
You can track your cardio fitness score in the Fitness app on your iPhone.
In addition to heart rate zones, Apple Watch uses your heart rate data, along with your exercise data over time, to calculate your VO2 max, which according to the American Heart Association is the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use during exercise. Apple calls this your cardio fitness score and it can be found in the Health app on your iPhone.
Your score is then divided into one of our categories: high, above average, below average and 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. Because the Apple Watch is not a hospital-grade device, I am only using these numbers to track progress and not for any medical purpose.
With the release of WatchOS 11, the Apple Watch also received a new feature called Training Load, which allows you to see how your training scores in terms of intensity compared to the last 28 days and displays it in a graph that you can visualize. With strength training exercises such as Pilates this does not happen automatically, but you can enter it manually and still see the results in the graph. It also can’t be viewed live during a workout like the heart rate zone information above, but it would serve as a great addition to the cardio fitness score and as a way to track progress over time.
Armed with the right tools and metrics, I am confident that I can move the needle and achieve my goals. Since 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 the wins as they come after a few months.
No matter where you are in your fitness journey, it’s important to check with your doctor before making any major changes to your routine.
