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Tracking my fitness with Apple Watch

Apple Watch Gym

I’ve been using the Apple Watch since the very day it came out, purchasing a 42mm Space Grey Apple Watch Sports. One of the main reasons I purchased the watch was to help me keep track of my fitness especially during exercises at the gym.

my-apple-watch
Apple Watch Sports: 42mm Space Grey with additional white Sports band

It’s since tracked my everyday activities in addition has also allowed me to record more detailed fitness data during exercises at the gym.

So what have I been able to see & achieve since using Apple Watch?

Setting a personal daily goal

In a fairly quick process when you turn your Apple Watch on for the first time you go through a set up process, one of these steps is setting an activity goal for the number of calories you want to burn each day.

While setting up my Apple Watch I set my gender, age, height and weight which automatically set me my goal of 480 calories, I was able to adjust it but felt 480 calories was a fair target for me.

See the progress to my goal.

Detailed in a series of circles I’m able to see how close I am to reaching my goal of 480 calories, the aim is to fill up the circle completely and when doing so I know i’ve reached my target. The red ring shows my ‘move’ (calories) the green is my exercise time and the blue my standing hours.

This is possible because the Apple Watch is automatically recording information throughout the day which consists of things such as the number of steps I’ve done, the distance I’ve travelled, my average heart rate, how many times I’ve stood up and how much exercise I’ve done.

Unlock achievements & records

There’s 19 awards you can unlock it’s a great way to get you moving by trying to achieve certain goals and unlocking more. The Apple Watch will ‘tap’ you and display a animated badge when each award has been reached. I’ve so far managed to get 6 of them:

  • First Walking Workout
  • Walking workout record
  • New record – most calories burned in a day
  • New record – most exercise in a day
  • Move 200% – when I doubled my daily goal in a single day
  • Move Goal – reaching my calorie burn goal 4 times.

More accurate tracking at the gym

This is where you can have the watch record more detailed information by using the pre-installed ‘Workout’ app, this is also when the watch uses more advanced sensors such as the built in heart rate monitor plus the GPS in your iPhone.

I’ve been using the app every time I go to the gym, when opening the app I’m able to set a type of workout with the options being: stair stepper, elliptical, indoor or outdoor cycle, indoor or outdoor run/walk, rower or other. I’ve been setting rower for times I use the rowing machine and “other” for the rest of my exercise at the gym. Once set I’m able to raise my wrist to see the following on my Apple Watch:

  • Total time I’ve been there
  • Heart rate
  • Calories burnt

Finishing a workout in the app gives me a summary of how I went including all the information above plus active, resting calories, it’s then automatically added to my daily activities progress and sure does help reach my daily goal.

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Tracking my progress with #AppleWatch

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Being reminded

Apparently we’re to do at least 30 minutes of exercise a day and stand up and walk around at least once every hour (12 times a day). If you’re someone who sits at a desk most of the day you’ll be reminded by a notification when you have to stand up and how your progress is going.

At the end of each week I’m also notified of how I went during the week by showing which days I reached my daily goal and which days I didn’t. I’ve been able to reach my goal most days so I have the option to up the goal to even more calories or if you didn’t do quite well you’re able to lower it.


Apple Watch is available from the Apple Online Store with free shipping, starting at $499 with the 38mm Apple Watch Sports.

It’s available in a number of models and styles however every watch is exactly the same with the only differences being colour & material.

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