Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
How do you use Apple Watch at the gym?
- Thread starter Ghost31
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I think Apple thought of corrosion when developing the Nylon bands and Flueroastamer. They hold up really well. I cannot speak for any third party bands.
True. It's the same funk that collects on your skin, so it'll wash out the same way.
Glad to hear it. My gold/blue nylon is looking a bit grungy. Was planning to wash it. Good to know it cleans up well.
[doublepost=1471312184][/doublepost]
I find that the Apple nylon bands are very comfortable.
I purchased an Apple Watch that came with the nylon band and I had to go get the other sport fluoroelastomer band for working out because that nylon chafed the crap out of my wrist. I tried using a topical steroid after workouts, alternating wrists, using anti-chafing products, no go. If you workout low intensity, I can see how it might not bother you, but once my wrist got sweaty, the nylon band was horrible. Also, the nylon band holds water (and sweat) taking awhile to dry.
I do "other" for weightlifting, and pair my watch to my Polar H7 heart rate monitor chest strap. Otherwise once my wrist got sweaty, the Apple Watch HR sensor was saying "145, 72, 123, 180, 30, 54" like no joke how terribly inaccurate it was. It also takes forever to update readings whereas my chest strap provides constant readings. Regarding the calorie calculations, no way that's close to accurate. I've been gaining weight (bulking on purpose), yet if I used my daily myfitnesspal dietary calorie total and subtracted the calories from the workout plus walking calories burned and also subtracted my predicted basal metabolic calories burned, I'd be way negative.
I too weight lift primarily. I have had zero issues with the nylon band. As far as it getting wet, it dries rather quickly when laid out. It's possible the nylon bands need a breaking in period. But then again, I switch my bands out frequently. I think you will find everyone's results May vary based on how much they perspire, wrist size if it chafes, how often it's worn or cleaned, how tight the band is, ect....
Right, breaking in period could very well make sense too. My problem I think is I often wear it too tight because otherwise it frequently locks itself because wrist detection thinks I took it off and then it pauses my workout.
Probably close, I do one cross country ski machine and it shows me hitting 1000 calories an hour and my watch closely matches that. Like you my heart rate is in the 180 range and drowned in sweat to maintain 1000 c/h
Has anyone tried this: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gymatic-auto-workout-log-tracker/id1036069872?mt=8
Gymatic Auto Workout
I would highly doubt that you or anyone is hitting 1000 calories for an hour of effort. there are so few exercises that produce that amount of output and usually that output requires a RACE condition of effort. I'm not trying to slight your effort, just that if you are using this metric to calculate calorie requirements or input, I think you'll be over estimating by 200-400 calories.
Most machines will give a TOTAL amount of calories within period and that includes any BMR amounts, not the incremental activity amounts, so MAYBE you're burning between about 65-100 an hour just sitting and then burning the additional with the increased activity. But still, 1000 would be VERY high and most unlikely.
I just tried this quickly. Doing squats, reps were always correct. App even counted chin ups almost right (very little wrist movement). So Apple Watch can count reps and this app is interesting. I have to check the app better when I have more time. And yes, you can test it free.
Sounds High to me also, just posting what the machine shows as it scans the different things it measures. Think it shows time, distance, total calories, calories per hour, watts, HR and a couple other things that I have no idea what they are. On a side note, I run a 5k on the treadmill every other morning and for a 30 min run my watch shows avg 485 calories burned, I don't know if this is accurate or not.
I have a Polar H7 HRM, that i haven't synced with my apple watch, because I wanted to see the figures for comparison.
When I do a Body Pump workout (so fixed number of reps, exercises and rest periods) I get quite different readings from the Polar Beat App (using it's Body Pump setting) when compared to that I get on the Apple Watch. For example, last Saturday, I got the following figures:
Polar Beat app - 725 calories active - 814 total
Apple Other- Strength training - 436 calories active - 526 calories total (this is with the 'other - strength training option)
Both have my average heart rate as 121. Both figures come from the 'workouts section of the Apple Activity app on my iPhone.
But I must add that all of these calorie assessments should be taken with a huge pinch of salt. They are essentially the result of a calculation based on your heart-rate and some assumptions made about you by the app-writer. When running, I use an app called iSmoothRun on my iPhone to track my runs. It's USP is that it's data can be uploaded to Nike, Strava, RunKeeper and lots of other fitness websites where people have accounts. But the point I wish to make is this, the data being uploaded is always the same, but the calorie burn figure for each website is different. As is the figure on my Apple Watch, as is the figure on my Garmin, and yet it's all measuring the same run. The most extreme difference I have seen was 450 v 800 calories for the same run. Since I've realised that, I don't take any 'calorie burn' figures seriously any more.
When I do a Body Pump workout (so fixed number of reps, exercises and rest periods) I get quite different readings from the Polar Beat App (using it's Body Pump setting) when compared to that I get on the Apple Watch. For example, last Saturday, I got the following figures:
Polar Beat app - 725 calories active - 814 total
Apple Other- Strength training - 436 calories active - 526 calories total (this is with the 'other - strength training option)
Both have my average heart rate as 121. Both figures come from the 'workouts section of the Apple Activity app on my iPhone.
But I must add that all of these calorie assessments should be taken with a huge pinch of salt. They are essentially the result of a calculation based on your heart-rate and some assumptions made about you by the app-writer. When running, I use an app called iSmoothRun on my iPhone to track my runs. It's USP is that it's data can be uploaded to Nike, Strava, RunKeeper and lots of other fitness websites where people have accounts. But the point I wish to make is this, the data being uploaded is always the same, but the calorie burn figure for each website is different. As is the figure on my Apple Watch, as is the figure on my Garmin, and yet it's all measuring the same run. The most extreme difference I have seen was 450 v 800 calories for the same run. Since I've realised that, I don't take any 'calorie burn' figures seriously any more.
Last edited:
The algorithm for calorie expenditure should be fairly standard, it's in the measurement when I think many of these discrepencies lie. The apple watch is NOTORIOUSLY bad with tracking things like weight training, as the sensor moves around the wrist even when fairly tight. Even then, the ability to respond to the rapid movements of heart rate during that type of training is going to lead to measurement errors.
That said, I've shifted to using a scosche hr band on the upper arm - that links via BT to the watch and the data is nearly identical to what I get with my polar HR strap and watch. So, one might try that.
Also, as I noted in an above post, some devices show TOTAL calories, and others show just the activity calories -the net incremement to ones daily/hourly BMR
That said, I've shifted to using a scosche hr band on the upper arm - that links via BT to the watch and the data is nearly identical to what I get with my polar HR strap and watch. So, one might try that.
Also, as I noted in an above post, some devices show TOTAL calories, and others show just the activity calories -the net incremement to ones daily/hourly BMR
For weightlifting use Fitness Point. It has a Watch app that allows you to enter reps and weight. After your workout is complete calculates calories and syncs a weights workout to your activity history. No need to use other!
I use other, too. Even though I wear the watch fairly tight (leather band), the heartbeat measurements kinda vary all over the place, but, I do get readings if I sit or stand still a minute.
These are the figures from today's run to illustrate my point on the calorie discrepancies.
Distance 5.62 miles -
Garmin - calories = 664
Strava (using dated uploaded from the Garmin ) calories = 827
RunKeeper (using data from the iSmoothRun app on iPhone) calories = 719
Apple Watch - 530 active calories, or 610 total calories.
Nike plus used to give different figures as well, but since I've linked it to the Garmin, it gave the Garmin figures.
Distance 5.62 miles -
Garmin - calories = 664
Strava (using dated uploaded from the Garmin ) calories = 827
RunKeeper (using data from the iSmoothRun app on iPhone) calories = 719
Apple Watch - 530 active calories, or 610 total calories.
Nike plus used to give different figures as well, but since I've linked it to the Garmin, it gave the Garmin figures.
One of the Stair Stepper is actually a Stair Climber.
I definitely enjoy that theres a stair climber section since that's how I get my cardio since it helps with my endurance for cycling when the snow goes away. Also, thats some intense you have after weight lifting.