Excercise Minutes and Walking

Are you using your iPhone as well? Does your pace vary? I found it depends on heart rate tracked. I need to up my pace a little more on walks for it to count as pure exercise vs. strolling though it does improve with more use over time.

 

You MUST be walking at a minimum of a 'brisk pace' in order to get credit. This is clearly stated on the Watch site. Most sedentary people don't understand that 'brisk pace' is synonymous with walking VERY fast.

 

This poster is correct. You can walk slowly for 60 minutes and not get any exercise credit if you don't get your heart rate up. Think of the exercise minutes as "minutes in which your heart rate is maintained at a certain elevated level."

Edit: I might also add that it would not be a total loss if minutes aren't counted towards exercise because you should get credit on your Move ring in some way.

 

I had this happen to me this morning when I walked 45 minutes with my dog. I was walking around the perimeter of the dog park (1 lap = .35miles) and I was playing with her as we walked. When I got done and checked my watch I found that it registered only 1 minute of exercise

Added question. I would like to see what my heart rate was on that walk, I know the data was saved, but how do I get access to it? I would like to know what the threshold level is so I can make sure in the future to walk briskly enough. I figure it is basing it all on my heart rate.

 

Well, there may be other places but at least one place you can check is in the Health App on your iPhone and look under "Health Data", then "Vitals", then "Heart Rate" and find the day and time of your exercise session.

 

I see you can also see it in the Activity app on your iPhone if you recorded the workout using the workout app on the watch. Once you do the workout and save the workout in the workout app, the workout appears in the activity app if you scroll down for a particular day. Then click on the workout as it appears (eg. Outdoor Run) and it will give all the stats including heart rate.

 

On v.1.0 I discovered this by accident. I walked same pace and heart rate there and back using outdoor walk on workout. It only counted as exercise minutes on the workout app when I was on my way back. On my way back I also really swung arms as an experiment. Pace and heart rate and distance the same either way. On my way back 2/3 roughly of the minutes counted as exercise.

 

I believe it must use a combination of factors, such as heart rate, arm movement, and pace. I live in a very hilly neighborhood and can never get much credit on a walk, even though my heartrate is well within the "brisk walk" range. My pace is not there however since I am climbing mountains... So now I just record the walk using the "Other" category.

 

It is all about heart rate. Which, at times, the sensor does not record well.

 

You did not get credit On both 1.01 and 1.0 or just 1.01? You are swinging your arms while going up the hill, really rotating your spine from side to side?

 

I walk all the time and I've noticed that if I walk casually, I will not get exercise credit, and if I walk faster, often that is still not enough to get credit. I find that if start to move my arms more energetically in the rhythm of my stride, I look more like a dork but I do get the exercise credit I deserve.

 

Yes, arm movements seem to play a big part. I've found that one way to get exercise credit is to stand in the middle of the room and swing my arms around in big circles.

 

These extra movements likely get your HR up enough to make your actions be interpreted as exercise.

 

For me, this feature has been absolutely unstable and unpredictable since the upgrade to 1.0.1. According to my communications with Apple reps, it is something they are aware of and working to fix. They have not specified the HR or anything, I've only been dealing with them regarding the randomness of the activity tracking. My steps, calories, move and exercise tracking have all been unstable since the upgrade.

 

I found that I get exercise credit when I walk at a pace of 18 minutes per mile. I am 68 years old. On the Apple Support Forums another person who is much younger got credit at 16 minutes per mile. I think this is part of the puzzle.