Still do not know How to use the Activity app on your Apple WatchThe Apple Watch has established itself as one of the most complete smartwatches, not only for its elegance or connectivity, but because it's a true motivational tool for those who want to lead an active life. Among all its features, the Activity app stands out, designed to monitor your daily movement, encourage physical exercise, and motivate you to maintain healthy habits in a simple and even fun way.
If you just got an Apple Watch or want to get the most out of the Activity app, you've come to the right place. Here you'll discover all the ins and outs of the app, from how to set it up and customize goals, to interpreting its metrics, sharing your progress, and comparing your results with friends. We are going to break it down step by step so that you can make the most of each option that the Activity app offers. and encourage you to improve yourself day by day with the motivation that only your Apple Watch can give you.
What is the Activity app and what is it for?
The Activity app is the heart of the Apple Watch's fitness tracking system. Its main purpose is Help you move more, reduce sedentary lifestyles and encourage an active life through three colored rings which represent different daily challenges that are very easy to understand and follow.
These rings are the key to motivation: each one fills up as you reach your goals, and the challenge is to complete them all by the end of the day. As you achieve this, your Apple Watch will congratulate you and encourage you with motivational messages to help you stick to your routine.
The app is valid whether you are just starting to move or are an advanced athlete, since You can customize the goals and make them as simple or challenging as you want..
The three rings: Movement, Exercise and Standing
The Activity app's tracking system is based on three rings, each with its own color and interpretation:
- Movement (Red): This ring measures the active calories you burn throughout the day, meaning the calories you burn while moving, not the calories you burn at rest. Every time you walk, climb stairs, or do any physical activity, you'll add calories and the ring will fill up.
- Exercise (Green): This counts the minutes you perform moderate or vigorous physical activity, i.e., when your heart rate rises above normal. A gentle walk isn't enough; a certain amount of effort is required.
- Standing (Blue): This ring measures how many hours you've been standing, meaning whether you've stood up and moved around for at least a minute during each hour of the day. Apple Watch will alert you if you've been sitting for too long and encourage you to move.
As you complete the objectives set for each ring, you will see them close completely on the screen. and you will receive positive notifications about your progress.
How to set up the Activity app on your Apple Watch
As soon as you get your Apple Watch, one of the first things it will ask you to do is set up the Activity app. This process is very simple and customizable:
- Open the Activity app directly on your watch. If this is your first time, you'll be asked for basic information (gender, age, weight, and height) to customize your calorie and effort calculations.
- Choose your goals for each ring. The default values are quite accessible, but you can modify them whenever you want from the app. For example, you can adjust the number of calories you burn per day, the number of minutes you exercise, or the number of hours you stand.
You can modify these goals at any time.Simply open the Activity app on your Apple Watch, scroll to the bottom, and select "Change Goals." You can then adapt them to your fitness level, schedule, or personal goals.
Advanced Metrics and Data: What the Activity app measures
One of the great strengths of the Apple Watch is that, beyond the rings, Provides detailed data and advanced metrics so you can fully understand your progressYou can access all of this from both your watch and the Fitness app on your iPhone. The information the app provides includes:
- Active and total calories. Difference between the calories burned by moving and the calories your body expends at rest.
- Minutes of exercise. How much actual time you have spent on activities of sufficient intensity.
- Standing hours and movements per hour. So you don't spend too much time sitting.
- Distance traveled and steps taken. Especially useful if you walk or run frequently.
- Heart rate. Apple Watch monitors your heart rate throughout the day and lets you see your heart rate readings at rest, during workouts, or after exercise.
- Aerobic capacity data, walking and running pace. If you like to delve deeper into sports metrics, you can analyze your physical progress and cardiovascular fitness with graphs and trends.
The Fitness app on the iPhone perfectly complements the information on the watch., allowing you to review daily, weekly, monthly, or even yearly trends in your physical activity.
Activity trend analysis: your long-term evolution
A particularly useful feature for those looking to improve their fitness is the Trends section of the Fitness app on iPhone.
Here, You can compare your activity over the last 90 days with your average over the last 12 months. in aspects such as calories burned, minutes of exercise, hours standing, distance traveled, frequency of getting up, and performance metrics such as aerobic capacity or running pace.
If a specific metric shows an upward arrow, it means you're maintaining or improving in that area. If the arrow decreases, it indicates that your recent average has fallen relative to the annual average. The system will even send you specific motivational messages (for example, by setting a goal to walk 400 meters more each day) to help you reverse those negative tendencies and get back on track.
Would you like to know How to enable Do Not Disturb mode on your Apple Watch while you're working out? We explain it to you.
Tracking exercise load: Compare effort and intensity
In addition to basic tracking, the Activity app includes a tool called 'Exercise Load', which allows you to Compare the intensity and duration of your workouts from the last 7 days with the previous 28 days.
This is very useful for:
- Identify whether you are doing more or less exercise than usual.
- Avoid both overtraining and overly relaxed weeks.
- Understand whether your progress is sustainable over the long term and adapt your goals based on your abilities and fatigue level.
The exercise load is rated on a scale from "Very Low" to "Very High." You can also view details of each training session, view graphs, and analyze your performance along with other valuable data such as nighttime vital signs.
Getting started with the Workout app on Apple Watch
We shouldn't confuse the Activity app with the Workout app, which is the perfect ally for recording and personalizing your exercise sessions (running, walking, cycling, HIIT, weight training, team sports, etc.).
From Entreno you can:
- Select the type of training that you want to do (cardio, strength, specific sports...), with a wide variety of modalities.
- Define custom goals for each session: by time, distance, calories, or a free goal.
- Access real-time metrics during exercise: pace, calories burned, heart rate, distance traveled, etc.
- Pair your Apple Watch with gym machines compatible devices (treadmills, ellipticals, stationary bikes) for even more accurate tracking. Simply hold the watch near the machine's NFC reader and start training.
- Review your complete workout history from the Fitness app on your iPhone.
Customize your sessions and check all the details to optimize your workouts and avoid monotony..
Personalization of objectives and adaptation to your level
One of the advantages of the Apple Watch is that You can adjust the difficulty of your daily goals whenever you need to.To do this, go to the Activity app, scroll to the bottom, and tap the "Change Goals" option. There you can adjust:
- Daily kilocalories for the Movement ring.
- The minutes of activity for Exercise.
- Standing hours for the blue ring.
This is essential to staying motivated, especially if you're just starting out or if you're already at an advanced level and want to push yourself further. The flexibility of the system makes it a valid tool for any user, regardless of their physical condition..
How to share your progress and compete with friends
The social component is another great incentive of the Apple Watch ecosystem. You can Share your rings, complete challenges with friends or family, and even participate in weekly competitions..
How is it done?
- Access the Activity app on your Apple Watch and look for the sharing option.
- Choose a friend's name, scroll down, and select 'Compete.'
- Invite your friend and once they accept, you can compete for seven days, earning points based on the percentage of rings closed each day.
- During the competition, you'll receive alerts about whether you're ahead or behind, as well as information about the daily and total score.
You can also do this from the iPhone's Fitness app, under the 'Share' tab. This little healthy rivalry is very motivating and is ideal for those who don't want to train alone..
Tips, tricks, and frequently asked questions
To get the most out of the Activity app, here are some practical tips and tricks:
- Always wear your Apple Watch snugly on your wrist. to ensure the accuracy of measurements, especially heart rate.
- Make sure your watch is up to date and properly calibrated (for the first few days of use, take walks or runs outdoors to fine-tune the GPS and pedometer).
- Check the notifications and suggestions your watch sends you, especially about getting up and moving around if you've been sitting for a long time. These reminders are key to maintaining an active routine.
- Have you closed your rings several times in a row? The system will reward your streaks with badges and messages of encouragement, so don't be shy about bragging about your achievements!
- Use the share feature to motivate yourself with friends or family.Sometimes a simple, healthy snack is all you need to keep you from skipping a workout.
- Check out weekly summaries and trends to fine-tune your routines and stay on track.
We hope you've now learned how to use the Activity app on your Apple Watch.
