Getting fit isn't about making massive sweeping changes. It is about making small incremental changes that add up to a significantly healthier lifestyle. The good news is that Apple has baked a lot of physical fitness goodies right into the new Apple Watch.
In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to:
- Start tracking a workout
- Track heart rate
- Access and read activity
Start Tracking a Workout
Press on the digital crown, then tap on the workout application icon. Scroll through the list of available workouts and choose the most appropriate one.
Flick through the available goals for that exercise and use the dial to set goals based on distance, time, or calories burned. Or choose the Open tab to have no goal. Once the goal(s) have been set, tap Start.
At the end of the workout, force tap on the watch face. Choose Pause to pause the workout for a quick break, or choose End to finalize the workout. You will be presented with the results of the workout and a detailed analysis. Flick to the bottom of the analysis and tap Save to save the workout to the Activity application.
According to the American Heart Association, keeping heart rates inside target zones is the key to a healthy effective workout. So checking heart rates throughout the workout is vital.
Press the digital crown to return to the watch face screen. Then swipe up to access the Glances section. Flick left or right until you see a heart icon. Leave the Apple Watch set to this screen and it will start checking and displaying the heart rate automatically.
Access and Read Activity
Both the Apple Watch and iPhone have an Activity application that will self install during setup of the Apple Watch. All of the walking, standing, and workouts performed while wearing the watch will be tracked and stored in the Activity app.
Apple Watch
To access the Activity app on the Apple Watch, press the digital crown then tap on the Activity icon. Alternately, customize one of many of the main watch faces to show a small version of the Activity App. Tap on that icon to access the app.
The red, outermost bar tracks the number of steps taken in relation to the daily goal.
The middle, green bar tracks the amount of exercise completed in relation to the goal.
The last, innermost, blue band tracks the amount of time spent standing.
Swipe left or right to see a more detailed view of each band. Note that once on a specific band's detail, there is also an option to flick up to scroll down and see a more detailed bar-chart style breakdown of that activity from hour-to-hour throughout the day.
iPhone
The iPhone allows for a beautiful monthly view to access any previous day's activity log. To access it, launch the Activity application on the iPhone. The default screen shows today's progress.
Tap the month in the upper left and navigate to any previous day or see a week- by-week overview of goals met and missed.
Choose any day scroll down to see a breakdown of each goal and the progress that was made towards the goal for that particular day. Note that flicking left will show a more detailed break down.
The move breakdown will even show the estimated calories burned while resting, active, and a grand total for the day.
Conclusion
The Apple Watch—and its partner iPhone app—provide a beautiful interface to help you set and attain simple goals each day. This new interface makes it easy to see successes, setbacks, and areas for improvement.
Find a few fun new exercises, start tracking them, and let me know how it goes in the comments below.
