For those of you that are interested in the workout capabilities, I did 3 different workouts today. Overall I am pleased with the capabilities but there is room for improvement/enhancements (as expected). I have used other fitness bands (mio fuse, fitbit charge hr) and have used a hr chest monitor.
I did tighten the strap one notch before each workout. I have a Sport model.
Elliptical:
I did 45 minutes with a mix of steady and high intensity intervals and the results were very close to what I get from my chest strap. Avg HR was exactly the same. Calories on the AW were a little less but Apple calorie algorithms might be better than other apps with all the recent research they did. But not sure about this, just guessing.
One thing to note about calorie reporting. While doing the workout the AW reports 'active' calories so when I was comparing calories it seemed to be underreporting to what I expected. But when I looked at the final workout results in the activity app it reports active and resting (metabolic) calories. The total of these two were close to what I have been getting from the chest strap. For example, Apple showed 298 active cal and 83 resting cal for 381 total. I was expecting low 400's.
While doing the workout I liked how you can just lift your wrist to get current workout results.
Also, my elliptical has moving arms and the watch face did not turn on with the back and forth which I was wondering how this would work. Same with running. Screen stays off unless you lift to look at it.
P90X Weight Workout:
I did 30 minutes recording this as "Other". When you start other is says it calcs calories about the same as a brisk walk. It did not seem to regularly record HR. Maybe because it is "Other". But calories were pretty close to chest strap. I am going to do my next Weight exercise as an inside run or walk to see if that continuously records HR.
I would like to see Apple add direct support for weight lifting workouts in the future.
Outside Run:
I did a 30 minute run but had some problems at first. I was using a new plantronics bluetooth backbeat fit headset. I got very erratic HR readings. Unrealistically high HR. So I stopped and turned off the headset. Then started a new run. Then my HR results were what I expected. And it started to rain. No issues with the water on the watch.
I had the plantronics paired to my iPhone. Maybe I need to also pair it to the watch? Not sure that is how to set it up. Will play around with that tomorrow.
Workout Reporting:
I would like Apple to add a HR graph for the workout results in the Activity iPhone app.
And Apple could add more status to the workout summary (like max HR).
You can view HR data in the Health app. There is also a graph but it doesn't give you detail for the workouts. But you can view every HR data point (including the 10 minute all day HR readings) in the Health app and I was able to delete the erratic HR data from the first part of my run. I wonder if there are any iPhone apps that use the health HR data to show the data in a more helpful manner?
And lastly, Battery Usage: the 45 min Elliptical workout used 11% points (65 to 54) and the Outside Run used 9% points (32 to 23). I was worried that the HR recording would use much more battery life.
I know this is a long post but hopefully it is helpful for those interested in the fitness capabilities.
Overall, the Apple Watch seems like it will really fit my needs for the type of workouts I do. It's not perfect but better than other fitness devices I have used.
I did tighten the strap one notch before each workout. I have a Sport model.
Elliptical:
I did 45 minutes with a mix of steady and high intensity intervals and the results were very close to what I get from my chest strap. Avg HR was exactly the same. Calories on the AW were a little less but Apple calorie algorithms might be better than other apps with all the recent research they did. But not sure about this, just guessing.
One thing to note about calorie reporting. While doing the workout the AW reports 'active' calories so when I was comparing calories it seemed to be underreporting to what I expected. But when I looked at the final workout results in the activity app it reports active and resting (metabolic) calories. The total of these two were close to what I have been getting from the chest strap. For example, Apple showed 298 active cal and 83 resting cal for 381 total. I was expecting low 400's.
While doing the workout I liked how you can just lift your wrist to get current workout results.
Also, my elliptical has moving arms and the watch face did not turn on with the back and forth which I was wondering how this would work. Same with running. Screen stays off unless you lift to look at it.
P90X Weight Workout:
I did 30 minutes recording this as "Other". When you start other is says it calcs calories about the same as a brisk walk. It did not seem to regularly record HR. Maybe because it is "Other". But calories were pretty close to chest strap. I am going to do my next Weight exercise as an inside run or walk to see if that continuously records HR.
I would like to see Apple add direct support for weight lifting workouts in the future.
Outside Run:
I did a 30 minute run but had some problems at first. I was using a new plantronics bluetooth backbeat fit headset. I got very erratic HR readings. Unrealistically high HR. So I stopped and turned off the headset. Then started a new run. Then my HR results were what I expected. And it started to rain. No issues with the water on the watch.
I had the plantronics paired to my iPhone. Maybe I need to also pair it to the watch? Not sure that is how to set it up. Will play around with that tomorrow.
Workout Reporting:
I would like Apple to add a HR graph for the workout results in the Activity iPhone app.
And Apple could add more status to the workout summary (like max HR).
You can view HR data in the Health app. There is also a graph but it doesn't give you detail for the workouts. But you can view every HR data point (including the 10 minute all day HR readings) in the Health app and I was able to delete the erratic HR data from the first part of my run. I wonder if there are any iPhone apps that use the health HR data to show the data in a more helpful manner?
And lastly, Battery Usage: the 45 min Elliptical workout used 11% points (65 to 54) and the Outside Run used 9% points (32 to 23). I was worried that the HR recording would use much more battery life.
I know this is a long post but hopefully it is helpful for those interested in the fitness capabilities.
Overall, the Apple Watch seems like it will really fit my needs for the type of workouts I do. It's not perfect but better than other fitness devices I have used.
Last edited:
Watch w/iPhone only said 11.6 miles. I even used the Nike+ App on my iPhone and it was correct.
