Odd exercise ring behavior.

[maflynn]

More of a rant, then anything else.

This weekend, I visited my local amusement park with the family, and I turned on the walking outside exercise so I can track all my walking. Well after many hours of walking (I spent all day at the park), my exercise ring had only filled up 1/2 way.

Contrast this with what I did Sunday - I woke up, grabbed my coffee, let my dog outside and did light sundry activities inside the house, such as making breakfast for my kid, checked out MR, got more coffee. Low and behold, I filled in 10 minutes of the green exercise ring by doing absolutely nothing!

How can I barely move on Sunday and fill in 10 minutes of of the ring but yet, walk (on and off) for 8 solid hours Saturday and have the exercise ring struggle to move? I tried turning my phone on airplane mode, thinking that it was using the GPS to measure the distance, but 30 minutes later, not seeing the green bar move, meant that wasn't helping. Granted, I couldn't execute the walk outside exercise for all of the 8 hours, but it was on long enough that by the time I got home, the battery was in single digits

 

[Shirasaki]

Given that I could literally swing my arm for exercise ring before watchOS 5, I can see how random this ring is.

 

[Enjoylife1788]

I encountered this issue once few days back when i had gone outside and started a outside walk. It was a small garden and i was taking rounds of it. After 2-25 minutes, it did not recognize any exercise minutes. The only thing that was different was that i did not have my iphone with me then. That shouldnot matter with AW S3 since it has its own gps.

Never happened after that. And nowadays when i dont have a clear straight track or path for walking outside, i just turn indoor walk on. Its equally accurate if you have calibrated the watch before.

More of a rant, then anything else.

This weekend, I visited my local amusement park with the family, and I turned on the walking outside exercise so I can track all my walking. Well after many hours of walking (I spent all day at the park), my exercise ring had only filled up 1/2 way.

Contrast this with what I did Sunday - I woke up, grabbed my coffee, let my dog outside and did light sundry activities inside the house, such as making breakfast for my kid, checked out MR, got more coffee. Low and behold, I filled in 10 minutes of the green exercise ring by doing absolutely nothing!

How can I barely move on Sunday and fill in 10 minutes of of the ring but yet, walk (on and off) for 8 solid hours Saturday and have the exercise ring struggle to move? I tried turning my phone on airplane mode, thinking that it was using the GPS to measure the distance, but 30 minutes later, not seeing the green bar move, meant that wasn't helping. Granted, I couldn't execute the walk outside exercise for all of the 8 hours, but it was on long enough that by the time I got home, the battery was in single digits

 

[millerj123]

I think with the walk app you have to get your heart rate above a certain threshold for it to count. I normally get a few minutes of activity when getting breakfast ready, so potentially there’s a lower threshold when you haven’t set an exercise.

 

[BlueMoon63]

More of a rant, then anything else.

This weekend, I visited my local amusement park with the family, and I turned on the walking outside exercise so I can track all my walking. Well after many hours of walking (I spent all day at the park), my exercise ring had only filled up 1/2 way.

Contrast this with what I did Sunday - I woke up, grabbed my coffee, let my dog outside and did light sundry activities inside the house, such as making breakfast for my kid, checked out MR, got more coffee. Low and behold, I filled in 10 minutes of the green exercise ring by doing absolutely nothing!

How can I barely move on Sunday and fill in 10 minutes of of the ring but yet, walk (on and off) for 8 solid hours Saturday and have the exercise ring struggle to move? I tried turning my phone on airplane mode, thinking that it was using the GPS to measure the distance, but 30 minutes later, not seeing the green bar move, meant that wasn't helping. Granted, I couldn't execute the walk outside exercise for all of the 8 hours, but it was on long enough that by the time I got home, the battery was in single digits

I must be missing something, so apologies in advance. If you turned on the workout app for an outside walk, you should get 1:1 for the exercise ring, even if you sat on the couch. If you sat on the couch for 30 minutes, you should have received 30 minutes of exercise along with some calories tacked on as well. No stand of course.

If you didn’t turn on the workout that is a different story. It’s not the heart rate, it’s the speed of the walk from what I understand. When I walk with my wife for an hour, I barely get 15-20 minutes of exercise. If I walk by myself, I get 55-60 minutes. I walk much faster and it appears to be around 3.5mph as the threshold for me. If I walk around 3mph or less with frequent stops for the dog, etc., you don’t get much credit. I think that is a key.

With watchos5, I have tried the auto start and it seems to match what I thought. I walked slow and it never started the workout. I walk around 3.5+mph and I get prompted to start a workout or not.

 

[boch82]

I think with the walk app you have to get your heart rate above a certain threshold for it to count. I normally get a few minutes of activity when getting breakfast ready, so potentially there’s a lower threshold when you haven’t set an exercise.

I second this. I get a lot of random minutes just walking around my office.

If I take a walk to the park with the kids (about 1/4 mi from my house) a lot of times ill get nothing if i set it to outdoor walk, but more minutes when i dont turn on a workout. Heart rate really doesn't go up much unless walking at a fast pace.

Also, make sure that you have auto pause turned off. Or if you go too slow or stop moving your arms it will stop a workout.

 

[maflynn]

If you turned on the workout app for an outside walk, you should get 1:1 for the exercise ring,

Me too, but no. I had to do a workout at night before bedtime to close the ring, because 8 hours of walking isn't exercise

 

[OllyW]

Me too, but no. I had to do a workout at night before bedtime to close the ring, because 8 hours of walking isn't exercise

Sounds like your watch is beginning to take over your life.

I once did a similar thing before I gave up on mine and realised I must have looked pretty stupid running up and down the stairs at 5 minutes to midnight just so I could close a stupid ring.

 

[maflynn]

Sounds like your watch is beginning to take over your life.

I once did a similar thing before I gave up on mine and realised I must have looked pretty stupid running up and down the stairs at 5 minutes to midnight just so I could close a stupid ring.

In the sense I want to close all rings for a single month. I've never done that, in part because I have true rest days, where I'm not running, not doing any cardio classes or karate. Sunday was one such day, but since I was walking around, I thought it was a no brainer, to turn on the walking app and I'll close the ring.

Looking at the exercise ring today, I have 23 minutes of exercise as of 10:25am, how, I have no idea. a 10 minute walk from the subway to the office, and now mostly sitting, other then getting up for my coffee ¯\_(ツ)_/¯