Apple Watch Heart Rate Zones: Any Workout.
The Apple Watch has been my go-to tool for the last six years to help me stay on track with my fitness levels. It can remind me to take a walk at night to close my move rings, or alert me when I am losing ground. Apple Watch, I just gave birth to a human being – you can relax! It may appear that I am doing everything correctly. My body (and my mental state) are different from when I was in peak shape and working towards a fitness goal. I can see the difference in my mental and physical state from when I was working toward a fitness goal. I want to improve my endurance, so that I can run further distances and register for a half or 10K marathon in 2025. Last but not least, I’d like to increase my muscle mass and tone so that I can lose the stubborn post-baby fat that still remains. I know that “peak shape” is going to look different for me now that I am in my 30s and have three children competing with my exercise schedule. But I also realize there is room for improvement. And thanks to the Apple Watch I have some tools to help get there. Apple has prioritized health and fitness with the Apple Watch. With each new Apple Watch model, and WatchOS update, Apple continues to add new tools and features. Sleep apnea notification, the latest feature, was approved last week by the Food and Drug Administration and will be available for the Apple Watch Series 9 and 10. But the biggest hurdle for many users (besides willpower) is knowing features exist in the first place – and how to enable them on your device.
I had to do a bit of digging both on the iPhone and on my Apple Watch to arrive at the two features that have so far been game changing in jump starting my fitness routine: heart rate zone views and cardio fitness.
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Why care about heart rate zones?
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Instead of changing my routine, I am increasing the intensity and duration of each exercise. I find it difficult to keep up as is. I do two Pilates sessions per week for strength training and three brisk walk each week for cardio. Your heart rate can be used to determine how hard you are working when exercising. To get the most from this data, many people calculate their target heart rate based on their maximum heart rate (220 minus age). This formula is known as the heart rate reserve method.
Fortunately, your Apple Watch does this math for you. The Apple Watch can categorize heart rate data and display it on your wrist in five zones. This allows you to be proactive with your effort levels, as well as seeing the summary on your phone after your workout. You may already have this feature enabled on certain workouts, but not all. You can manually activate it and reorder views so that it appears first in the workout categories of your choice.
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How to enable heart rate zone views on Apple Watch
Go to the Workout app on your watch.
Tap the “…” option in the top-right corner of a particular workout type.
Scroll to the bottom of the menu and tap Preferences.
Tap the Workout Views box at the top.
You’ll see several view options you can add and arrange. Scroll down to Heart Rate Zones, then turn on Include.
Enable the heart rate zone view for a particular workout type by turning it on in settings.
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- Now, when you’re mid-workout, you can turn the crown on your Apple Watch and see what heart rate zone you’re in throughout your workout. According to Cleveland Clinic, your body burns fat primarily in zones 1-3, and carbs and proteins in zones 4 and 5. You can also set your heart rate zones manually in your watch Settings, but the Apple Watch will calculate it automatically based on existing watch data by default, and will recalibrate your zones for you every month. You can also set your heart rate zones manually in your watch Settings, but the Apple Watch will calculate it automatically based on existing watch data by default, and will recalibrate your zones for you on the first of every month.
- If you want to adjust heart rate zones manually, you can do so in Settings, but by default your Apple Watch will build them automatically based on past heart rate data.
- Nick Wolny/CNET
- After dissecting my last 10 workouts in the Fitness app on my iPhone, I realized I was cruising in zone 1 for my entire Pilates sessions and barely making it to zone 3 during what should’ve been my cardio (brisk walks).
- Getting to the next level will require working out in a higher zone than the one I’m used to for both types of exercises. My walks will become jogs, with some sprints and hills sprinkled throughout to reach zones 4 or 5, and to reach zone 2, I’ll need to add an extra 10 minutes of resistance and a few sprints to my 30-minute Pilates sessions. The next step was to decide how I would measure my progress. The scale was not going to do, because muscle mass is denser than fat.
You can track your cardio fitness score in the Fitness app on your iPhone.
Screenshot: Vanessa Hand Orellana
In addition to heart rate zones, the Apple Watch uses your heart rate data, along with your motion 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 refers to this as your cardio fitness score, and you can find it in the Health app of your iPhone. Your score will be categorized as high, above the average, below the average or low. My score of 41 is just enough to put me in the “high” category but not much. I want to reach 50 again, where I was before my third pregnancy. Apple Watches are not hospital-grade devices, so I only use these numbers for tracking progress. They’re not used for medical purposes. You can manually enter the data for strength exercises such as Pilates. The graph will still show the results. The heart rate zone data is not available live, like it is for the cardio fitness score, but you can still see the results on the graph. It’s a good way to monitor your progress. I don’t want a quick fix so I won’t set a time limit to reach my goals. Instead, I will celebrate each win and then check back after a couple of months.
Regardless of where you are in your fitness journey, it’s important to check in with your physician before making any major changes to your routine.
