After cruising the same ship, That’s enough My fitness routine has been going on for so long that I finally have the motivation to step it up a notch and get back into my pre-baby shape.
For the past six years, I’ve relied on my Apple Watch to keep me honest about how much (or how little) I’m working out. My watch drives me out for late-night walks so I can close the moving ring and send alerts when my “fitness level” is trending down (I just gave birth to a human Apple Watch. Relax Please!). On the surface, it may seem like I’m doing everything right, but in reality, I’m just going through the motions to meet my quota, and my body knows it. I feel a difference in my body (and mental state) compared to when I was in peak physical condition and working toward my fitness goals.
these are my Goal: I want to be strong enough to hold a baby without hurting my back. I would like to increase my endurance so that I can run longer distances again and run a 10k or half marathon in 2025. And finally, you want to tone up and gain muscle mass so you can get rid of every last bit of stubborn postpartum fat. It still remains. Now that I’m in my 30s and have three kids competing with my training schedule, I know my “peak shape” looks a little different, but I also know there’s room for improvement. Thanks to my Apple Watch, I have some tools. To help you get there.
The biggest hurdle for many users (besides willpower) is figuring out what the Apple Watch’s health features are in the first place. Apple continues to prioritize health and fitness in its popular wearables, adding new tools and features with each new model and WatchOS update, including heart rate notifications, cycle tracking, fall detection, and electrocardiogram capabilities. The latest feature addition, sleep apnea notifications, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in September and will be available on Apple Watch Series 9, 10, and Ultra 2.
Related: The perfect fitness gift for every exercise enthusiast on your list
So far, two features have been game-changing in jump-starting my fitness routine: heart rate zone display and cardio fitness. However, customizing both the Apple Watch and iPhone required a little digging into both. This is what I found.
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Why do you care about heart rate zones?
Rather than overhauling your current routine, which you can hardly stick to as is, you’re increasing the time and intensity of each exercise to further enhance what you’re already doing. My daily routine is two Pilates sessions (strength training) and three brisk walks (cardio) a week. Aerobic exercise is effective at burning calories and building endurance, while strength training burns fat and builds muscle.
One way to measure how hard you’re working while exercising is to check your heart rate (beats per minute). A common way to make the most of this data is to calculate 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, Apple Watch does the math for you. Heart rate data is categorized into five zones and displayed in real-time on your wrist, giving you an overview on your phone after your workout and proactively tracking your effort level. This feature is already enabled for some workout types, but not for others. Fortunately, you can enable this manually and reorder the views so they appear first in your desired workout category.
How to enable heart rate zone display on Apple Watch
- Go to the Workout app on your watch.
- Tap “”…option in the top right corner for a specific workout type.
- Scroll to the bottom of the menu and tap setting.
- Tap. workout view top box.
- You’ll see several view options that you can add and adjust. Scroll down and heart rate zoneTurn on and then include.
Turn it on in Settings to enable heart rate zone views for specific workout types.
You can now see your heart rate zone during your workout by turning the crown on your Apple Watch mid-workout. According to the Cleveland Clinic, in zones 1-3 your body primarily burns fat, while in zones 4 and 5 it burns carbohydrates and protein.
This manual update will only enable the heart rate zone view for that specific workout category, so if you do other types of workouts at different times during the week, you will need to enable that view as well. Please note. Although you can manually set heart rate zones in your watch settings, by default Apple Watch automatically calculates your heart rate zones based on your existing watch data and recalibrates your zones on the first of each month. .
If you want to adjust your heart rate zones manually, you can do so in Settings, but by default, Apple Watch automatically builds heart rate zones based on your past heart rate data.
When I analyzed my last 10 workouts in the fitness app on my iPhone, I found that I was cruising in zone 1 for the entire Pilates session, barely reaching zone 3 during the time I was supposed to be doing cardio (brisk walking). It turns out there wasn’t.
To reach the next level, both types of exercise require training in a higher zone than what I’m comfortable with. To reach zones 4 and 5, my walk turns into a jog, interspersed with a few sprints and hills. To reach Zone 2, you need to add another 10 minutes to your regular 30-minute Pilates session.
Two other features you should know about
The next step was to think about how we would measure progress. I needed something tangible that I could use to measure my fitness level, along with subtle changes in my body that I might notice on the outside. Muscle mass is denser than fat, so it couldn’t be measured on a scale. This is where your cardiorespiratory fitness score comes in handy.
Track your cardio fitness score in the iPhone Fitness app.
In addition to heart rate zones, Apple Watch uses heart rate data and movement data over time to calculate VO2 max. According to the American Heart Association, VO2 max is the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use during exercise. Apple calls this your Cardio Fitness Score, and you can see it within the Health app on your iPhone.
Your score falls into one of the following categories: high, above average, below average, and low. My current score is 41, which is good enough to be in the “high” category, but not by much. My goal is to get closer to 50 before getting pregnant with my third child. Since the Apple Watch is not a hospital-grade device, I only use these numbers to track my progress and not for any kind of medical purpose.
With the release of WatchOS 11, Apple Watch also added a new feature called Training Load. This allows you to see how your workouts rank in terms of intensity compared to the past 28 days and visualize it in a graph. In the case of strength training such as Pilates, it is not performed automatically, but you can enter it manually and see the results in a graph. And while it can’t be viewed live during your workout, like the heart rate zone information above, it can complement your cardio fitness score and serve as a way to track your progress over time.
We feel that with the right tools and metrics, we can definitely move forward and achieve our goals. I’m not looking for a quick fix, so I don’t feel the need to set a specific time frame to achieve success. Rather, I plan to celebrate the wins as they come and check back in 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.
Opinions expressed by CNET Voices contributors are their own.
