Buzz
The Apple Watch offers a plethora of health and fitness tools—so many that it can feel overwhelming. However, with a bit of planning, you can personalize your watch to enhance your workouts and ensure you're prepared for the next one.
Establish Your Activity Targets
In the Activity app (which is distinct from the Watch app), you can track whether you're consistently “closing your rings” each day, and set goals for two of the three rings. These rings include:
Move (the red outer ring) - this measures how much the watch thinks you’ve moved today, calculated in calories burned.
Exercise (the green middle ring) - this tracks the number of minutes you’ve exercised today. The watch detects exercise when your movement and heart rate elevate, but it also credits you for workouts logged with an app (for instance, you’ll get credit for a 30-minute yoga session even if your movement and heart rate didn’t trigger the automatic exercise detection).
Stand (the blue inner ring) - this tracks how many hours of the day you've spent on your feet for at least one minute. The goal is 12. It's not always accurate at detecting when you're standing, so you might need to wave your arm when it sends you “Stand up!” reminders while, for example, you're standing at your desk.
The app encourages you to keep streaks going, so if you're motivated by seeing all your rings closed daily (and earning the corresponding badges), ensure your Move and Exercise goals are set at a level that’s achievable even on your rest days.
Disable Most Notifications
Notifications are a nuisance, even on your phone, and there's no reason to let emails disturb you during a workout. Open the Watch app, go to Notifications, and turn off everything unless it’s truly urgent. (It can all wait.)
Select Your Preferred Fitness Apps
If you're a Strava user, you'll enjoy Strava on the Apple Watch. If Nike Run Club is more your style, there's an app for that too. If you're unsure how to track your workouts, stick with the default Activity app.
Some fitness apps can function on both the watch and phone simultaneously, while others require you to choose one or the other. You'll need to experiment to find what works best for you. (For example, I do outdoor runs on the watch and lifting sessions on my phone.) Take a few workouts to try different setups, and you may discover a new favorite app!
Set Up Your Audio Setup
You can play music and podcasts directly from your watch via wireless headphones, but you’ll need to download them to the watch first. This is perfect if you prefer working out without carrying your phone.
If you still prefer to have your phone with you, you can tuck it in a pocket, run the headphone cable to your phone, and use your watch as a remote to control playback. All your go-to music, podcast, and audiobook apps will work this way; again, it's all about what you like. For longer runs, I queue up podcast episodes in Castro, then stick my phone in my pocket and control everything from my wrist.
Add Motivating Complications to Your Watch Face
I use the Infograph watch face as my command center for planning my morning workouts. Here's what I've got:
My workouts synced with my calendar, so my watch face shows me what's coming up in the morning. For example: '6:30am Easy Run.'
Sunrise/sunset and alarm time, so I can plan when to wake up and how much of my workout will be in the dark (ugh).
Weather, specifically Dark Sky. I tap on this complication to check the forecast by the hour so I can pick the right gear for my morning run.
Moon phase, which isn't essential, but I find it less depressing to run on a full moon.
Battery level, to make sure I have enough power for sleep tracking overnight and my morning workout.
Monthly mileage, a complication from the Nike Run Club app. It automatically tracks how many miles I've run (with the app) this month, and I love watching that number grow.
I also use the Nike watch face (you can easily switch between multiple faces by swiping left or right), which includes the default 'start a Nike run' complication, as well as activity rings, battery level, and current heart rate. This is my go-to face for checking the time throughout the day.
Monitor Your Heart Rate
If you track your workouts with the watch, you can check your heart rate in the Activity app on your phone, or in the heart rate app on the watch itself. You can see your heart rate spikes during running intervals or while doing weightlifting sets. (I’ve even used this feature to remind myself how many intervals I completed during a workout.)
You can easily check your heart rate at any time on your watch by using the heart rate app. Scroll down to find additional information, with the final screen showing your heart rate recovery. This is a indicator of heart health and fitness. Typically, after a workout, the average person’s heart rate drops by 15 to 20 beats per minute, and the quicker it returns to baseline, the healthier your heart is. However, as a general guideline, remember that your watch isn’t a substitute for a medical professional.
If you wear the watch while sleeping, you can also monitor your resting heart rate. The heart rate app on your watch will display it, and you can also view it in the Health app in a graph. A lower resting heart rate is a positive sign, but if it increases unexpectedly, it might indicate overtraining, stress, or illness.
