This was one of the most important years for the Apple Watch and its users. With three new smartwatches available, including the rugged Apple Watch Ultra edition, Apple has also revamped and introduced several new features with watchOS 9. In addition, Apple Fitness+ has expanded to a broader audience now that only requires an iPhone to work with.
Apple Fitness+ exec Jay Blahnik, in an interview with The Sun, shared six tips and tricks for Apple Watch users to take advantage of this holiday season. Here are some of them.
Switch and edit your Apple Watch workout views
As you know, Apple lets you glance at several workout information while walking, running, swimming, etc. This is very useful for users to understand if they are at a good pace and meeting their goals, but they can take advantage of more data if they edit their workout views.
Jay Blahnik explains what you should do:
“Set the distance, set the time, and what will happen is you’ll get paced against what your goal was. When you set Pacer up, that will be your default view. But you can always flip the Digital Crown and go back to a regular metric view or heart rate view.”
Defy yourself with Race Route
When watchOS 9.2 launches next week, Apple Watch users will finally be able to defy themselves with the Race Route feature. For example, suppose you are used to doing the same course periodically. In that case, you’ll be able to race against yourself and discover whether you can keep the pace or even outstand your previous running workout. Blahnik says:
“Any time you’ve done a run more than twice, Race Route starts to remember it. It will keep track of your best time and your last time, so when you go back to that route, you can say ‘I wanna match or beat my best or my last time’, and it will pace you up against the actual route you ran, and where you need to be.”
Heart Rate Zones are the key to a healthy workout
watchOS 9 finally brings one of the essential features for when you’re working out: displaying the Heart Rate zones in real-time. This helps you understand how intense is your current workout.
Not only is this a big deal, according to Jay, but Apple has even awarded fitness tracker Gentler Streak as the Apple Watch app of the year because it helps users to have compassion with their fitness goals while working out by basing exercise measurements on Heart Rate Zones.
Gentler Streak’s case says whether you’re doing OK in an exercise by showing your Activity Path based on Heart Rate Zones. If you’re pushing too hard, it will let you know during and after a workout, and then it will suggest for the next day resting or a more breeze exercise.
Custom Apple Watch workouts are a must
Apple Fitness+ exec Jay Blahnik says that users should try customizing workouts by setting goals for segments and more.
“I’ve actually used it for strength training,” Jay told The Sun. “So in the gym, because I work out very early, now and again I’ll find myself sitting on my sets for a lot longer than I should – and I take a lot longer than I need to. So now what I do is, I do 30 seconds for a set, 30 seconds rest, on the third one I give myself 45 seconds to get to the next machine.”
Wrap up
In the interview with The Sun, the Apple Watch exec gives a few more tips and tricks for users to try during this holiday season.
