"Other" workout registers excerise while sitting

[Armen]

i was out for a brisk walk for a hour with my girlfriend, and was credited for 2 minutes of exercise. without the 10 minute interval check, it's IMPOSSIBLE to fill the ring.

this is why I refuse to do Apple update, it's absolutely disgraceful to get rid of a feature without telling the users and then claiming it as a "feature"

In order for the watch to give you credit for exercise your heart rate has to be elevated and you have to be moving. It doesn't matter if you walked 10 miles. If your heart rate did not hit the target BPM the watch is expecting it will not give you credit for it.

 

[Betsy30]

In order for the watch to give you credit for exercise your heart rate has to be elevated and you have to be moving. It doesn't matter if you walked 10 miles. If your heart rate did not hit the target BPM the watch is expecting it will not give you credit for it.

OK, so what's the target BPM? How do I know what it is?

 

[digduggler]

I've found Other to be incredibly useful. We live in a very hilly neighborhood. My wife and I went on a walk, her walking one dog, myself walking two and pushing a two year old and a four month old in a stroller. We went at a good pace with both of us set to outdoor walk. Guess what? She got credit for almost the whole walk - I got two minutes. Because my arms weren't moving as I'm pushing a stroller. In this case I think Other is great. As long as I know I'm putting in more than a brisk walk it's not cheating anyone and let's me get the accomplishment. They will tweak the algos for sure. For now, whatever it takes to make you do more than before.

If you are cheating but still doing more than before? So what. It's motivated you to move more. And in my wife's case she was dissuaded because when she used outdoor walk and pushed the stroller she got very little credit. Now she gets it and is motivated to do even more.

Everything's amazing, nobody's happy...

 

[AlliFlowers]

Being disabled, I do non-impact exercises. I really don't care what it shows me for calories burned. I just want to keep track of how much exercising I'm doing each day. Using "Other" is very handy for that, and what I do normally does get my heart rate up.

My big thing so far is that every time my watch tells me to stand up, I do at least 5 minutes of some kind of exercise to help me close the circle faster.

 

[flur]

I've found Other to be incredibly useful. We live in a very hilly neighborhood. My wife and I went on a walk, her walking one dog, myself walking two and pushing a two year old and a four month old in a stroller. We went at a good pace with both of us set to outdoor walk. Guess what? She got credit for almost the whole walk - I got two minutes. Because my arms weren't moving as I'm pushing a stroller. In this case I think Other is great. As long as I know I'm putting in more than a brisk walk it's not cheating anyone and let's me get the accomplishment. They will tweak the algos for sure. For now, whatever it takes to make you do more than before.

If you are cheating but still doing more than before? So what. It's motivated you to move more. And in my wife's case she was dissuaded because when she used outdoor walk and pushed the stroller she got very little credit. Now she gets it and is motivated to do even more.

Everything's amazing, nobody's happy...

I don't think that's cheating. You know you're doing to work, the watch just can't register it because of the stroller. If you're doing to work, you're not cheating.

 

[paulisme]

The other day I used a paper and pencil to write down that I exercised for an hour, but I really had been sleeping the whole time!

 

[millerrh]

As stated by me and many others:

HR readings are not a good indicator in weight training for 2 reasons.

1) Muscle & artery constriction makes optical HR readings extremely inaccurate (unless using a chest strap) during weight training. Often the optical HR monitor will recored the HR about the same (near resting) or even lowing than sitting. So it can't tell by HR.

2) Anaerobic exercise's caloric burn can't be measured by HR. Anaerobic energy is independent of the cardio vascular system.

You can just not use Other and pretend it doesn't exists. Or you can return/sell it if you are so unhappy that Apple is offering people doing anaerobic exercises an option to record their workouts. I don't understand what yours and others beef is.

SIMPLE: If you don't know or understand how Other works or what it is for: Don't use it.

My beef is this - Read this web page: http://www.apple.com/watch/health-and-fitness/

Apple clearly goes on and on about how this tracks your activity in the background without you needing to do any Workout app nonsense. If this is the case, I would expect it to record calories and exercise minutes pretty similar to when the Workout app is on. Now, since you get more frequent HR measurements with the workout app and it can tweak its algorithm based on the type of workout I don't expect them to be exact. But they should be close (maybe +/-20%ish). Or Apple shouldn't really advertise the way they do.

The entire point (to me) of a step/calorie/activity tracker is so that I can reliably compare one day to the next and motivate me to increase my numbers. But when the numbers are so random depending on how you use it, the numbers they give lose all credibility to me. I don't feel like I can trust them. I can go a whole day, including workouts and barely top 400 calories in passive mode. The next day, if I turn on workouts for only an hour while I'm working out, I'll get 1200 calories. How can you reliably compare 400 calories to 1200 calories when the activities that created these two numbers are very similar? It doesn't tell you anything of value about your actual activity level between the two days.

If this is really how it is supposed to work, I guess I don't get the point of it. The data is rather meaningless and not motivating to me at all since it doesn't correspond to actual activity, but rather when you remember to turn the workout app on or not and for how long.

There are also reports of people with the 1.0.0 software saying that there really isn't a difference between engaging the workout app or not. So it makes me think it is possible for the watch to somehow passively track your activity consistently.

 

[flur]

My beef is this - Read this web page: http://www.apple.com/watch/health-and-fitness/

Apple clearly goes on and on about how this tracks your activity in the background without you needing to do any Workout app nonsense. If this is the case, I would expect it to record calories and exercise minutes pretty similar to when the Workout app is on. Now, since you get more frequent HR measurements with the workout app and it can tweak its algorithm based on the type of workout I don't expect them to be exact. But they should be close (maybe +/-20%ish). Or Apple shouldn't really advertise the way they do.

The entire point (to me) of a step/calorie/activity tracker is so that I can reliably compare one day to the next and motivate me to increase my numbers. But when the numbers are so random depending on how you use it, the numbers they give lose all credibility to me. I don't feel like I can trust them. I can go a whole day, including workouts and barely top 400 calories in passive mode. The next day, if I turn on workouts for only an hour while I'm working out, I'll get 1200 calories. How can you reliably compare 400 calories to 1200 calories when the activities that created these two numbers are very similar? It doesn't tell you anything of value about your actual activity level between the two days.

If this is really how it is supposed to work, I guess I don't get the point of it. The data is rather meaningless and not motivating to me at all since it doesn't correspond to actual activity, but rather when you remember to turn the workout app on or not and for how long.

There are also reports of people with the 1.0.0 software saying that there really isn't a difference between engaging the workout app or not. So it makes me think it is possible for the watch to somehow passively track your activity consistently.

The short answer is to make your behaviour consistent. It's like a scientist in the lab who sometimes records his test results one way, and other times he records them another way. It's going to make a mess when he goes back to review his data, right? So always record your data the same way. Every time you work out, use the workout app. If you're not doing a dedicated workout, don't use the workout app. Once you have consistent data recording practices, you'll have no trouble comparing the results.

 

[millerrh]

The short answer is to make your behaviour consistent. It's like a scientist in the lab who sometimes records his test results one way, and other times he records them another way. It's going to make a mess when he goes back to review his data, right? So always record your data the same way. Every time you work out, use the workout app. If you're not doing a dedicated workout, don't use the workout app. Once you have consistent data recording practices, you'll have no trouble comparing the results.

Yep, I've already started doing this. One benefit is that it's very obvious if I've gone to the gym or not in any given day.

I'm actually considering never using the workout app though. Since it makes it harder to fill the rings and it's measuring things constantly one way and doesn't change it might be more motivating to me and will be damn hard to actually fill them up so I'll feel pretty good when I do. Right now using any workout app feels like cheating.

 

[Night Spring]

I'm actually considering never using the workout app though. Since it makes it harder to fill the rings and it's measuring things constantly one way and doesn't change it might be more motivating to me and will be damn hard to actually fill them up so I'll feel pretty good when I do. Right now using any workout app feels like cheating.

Yes, "cheating" is exactly the problem. On the one hand, if I'm running late and don't have time to turn on the workout app while running to catch the bus, I feel cheated because I only get 1 minute of excerise credit for what, for me, is a fairly big exertion. And I know that if I'd managed to turn on the workout app to Outdoor Walk, I'd have gotten 3 minutes exercise for WALKING the same didstance. So now that I know that running the Other workout and not doing anything gives me exercise minutes, I can make up for that -- but now I feel like I'm cheating.

But if I don't use any Workouts, there's just no way I'm filling up the Exercise circle.

 

[ElctrcJellyfish]

Personally, I'm delighted to be able to use the "Other" app while sitting down. It's the only way I can get credit for swimming. I have a heart rate monitor strap that tells me how long/how many calories my swim was. I wish Apple would figure out how to credit me through the heart rate strap (which uploads the heart rate/workout!) but it hasn't.

So instead, I go swimming, start the "Other" app, and drive home. It's "cheating," but only in the sense that it allows me to make the Watch work with my workouts. I'll stop cheating when Apple lets me import heart rate data.

 

[gppittjk]

And you guys are both on 1.0.1? I have heard others say that they used to fill up their exercise rings on 1.0 and now they barely get any credit unless Workout app is engaged.

I am. The only difference I've seen between 1.0.1 WRT activity tracking is the HR sensor not taking my HR every 10 minutes. I'm still able to fill up the exercise and calorie rings fairly regularly, but I definitely have to work for it (kinda the point, right?). I should say I might not be the best test case, since I only had 1.0 for about a day before the upgrade came out. But I had no problem getting 18 minutes of exercise over two brisk walks last night - had to get 90 calories in the hour and a half before I knew I'd want to go to bed - which is about right for the amount of time that I spent walking. I probably covered just over a mile between the two walks.

 

[gppittjk]

I recently got my watch and it was already on 1.0.1. However, my exercise ring seems to be doing alright. I haven't done any "dedicated" exercise since I've had the watch, just normal walking around school and these were my rings yesterday...

And today (note the time in the screenshot...still only 3:57. Just got home from school). I have 17 minutes of exercise just from school.

From what I can tell, if I'm actually doing something that would be considered exercise, I get credit for it. I can get 2 or 3 minutes of credit for walking quickly from class to class. But it has to be VERY quickly, which makes sense, as when I walk my normal pace (which I think is still fast) my heart rate at the destination is usually in the 90s to low 100s...not much calorie burn going on there. However when I get credit for exercise, my heart rate is always above 120 (that takes a very brisk walk). I think some people may not realize that they're not doing as much exercise as they think. I don't have 1.0.0 to compare it to, but from what I can see, it's not that inaccurate. I've yet to use any of the workout app. Been raining constantly. Plan on trying it out today.

I think you nailed it in the sentence that I bolded. What a lot of people think is "exercise" really isn't. It's great that people are actually going for walks, but you really need to double your resting HR for it to count as "exercise," at least for the watch's purposes. Cleaning the house, walks that don't supercharge the HR, playing with the kids are all great forms of "activity," but they really aren't considered, at least with respect to the watch, "exercise." In reality, I believe most people wouldn't consider those activities "exercise" in the fitness sense of the term - they'd label them as "activity."

EDIT: The paragraph above isn't meant to judge anyone that is taking part in those activities. If you are going for walks and cleaning the house and playing with your kids, PLEASE keep doing that! It is great activity, and any activity is better than no activity! I just wanted to try to explain why the watch is reading things a little differently than what you might expect. Please keep trying to fill your rings. Your effort is all that matters - ultimately, it will improve your health and fitness.

 

[thefredelement]

Personally, I'm delighted to be able to use the "Other" app while sitting down. It's the only way I can get credit for swimming. I have a heart rate monitor strap that tells me how long/how many calories my swim was. I wish Apple would figure out how to credit me through the heart rate strap (which uploads the heart rate/workout!) but it hasn't.

So instead, I go swimming, start the "Other" app, and drive home. It's "cheating," but only in the sense that it allows me to make the Watch work with my workouts. I'll stop cheating when Apple lets me import heart rate data.

Can't you though? If you pair the heart rate strap with the watch and choose Other it should get the data from the strap.

 

[Betsy30]

I think you nailed it in the sentence that I bolded. What a lot of people think is "exercise" really isn't. It's great that people are actually going for walks, but you really need to double your resting HR for it to count as "exercise," at least for the watch's purposes.

I hope it's taking into account age! I'm doubling my resting heart rate, but just barely, and I'm not going any further at my advanced (and undisclosed ) age.

 

[millerrh]

I think you nailed it in the sentence that I bolded. What a lot of people think is "exercise" really isn't. It's great that people are actually going for walks, but you really need to double your resting HR for it to count as "exercise," at least for the watch's purposes. Cleaning the house, walks that don't supercharge the HR, playing with the kids are all great forms of "activity," but they really aren't considered, at least with respect to the watch, "exercise." In reality, I believe most people wouldn't consider those activities "exercise" in the fitness sense of the term - they'd label them as "activity."

EDIT: The paragraph above isn't meant to judge anyone that is taking part in those activities. If you are going for walks and cleaning the house and playing with your kids, PLEASE keep doing that! It is great activity, and any activity is better than no activity! I just wanted to try to explain why the watch is reading things a little differently than what you might expect. Please keep trying to fill your rings. Your effort is all that matters - ultimately, it will improve your health and fitness.

You guys are not getting the point though. The point isn't what is and what isn't an exercise. The point is that the same instrument measures the same activity very differently. If I'm just going for a casual walk, and choose "outdoor walk," I don't expect to be burning loads of calories. But if I don't choose "outdoor walk" and just start walking, I DO expect the watch to tell me I've burned a similar amount of calories as when I chose "outdoor walk." It doesn't. And that is why people are upset.

 

[5105973]

Actually my problem with the Apple Watch post update is that it DOES consider housecleaning to be exercise and credits me the past two days 2 minutes per day for housecleaning even though one day consisted of about four solid hours of cleaning and the next day only about 2 hours.

Yet last week I was doing a vigorous uphill canyon hike out west and got a minute or two. It was about a two to three hour hike one day and over four the next and I got no more than a lousy couple of minutes for hiking? But I get more credit for wiping down my kitchen?

And about three weeks ago I wasn't getting credit for any activity whatsoever. I actually thought the watch had stopped functioning at all for the exercise ring feature.

The lack of logic and consistency confuses and discourages me.

I'm 48 and some days my knees become badly inflamed and I can't easily walk. I've actually had this problem since I was 19. Until last summer I could afford to lie around all day when this would happen. But last summer menopause started and I found my previously bikini-fit figure literally went pear-shaped as the British say when things go bad. I have to stay motivated to stay moving to regain the figure I once maintained easily this time last year.

The AppleWatch was doing an amazing job getting me up and going through the pain of unfreezing my knees and at least staying on my feet and getting things done. I wanted to earn those stupid badges. I guess all those years of playing Pokemon conditioned my mindset for that. Whatever, it works, I will move my creaky knees for badges.

What I need is a Falling Apart Moldy Old Bat setting. Or FAMOB setting. For the guys it can be FAMOF (old fart). Which is what I had before that damned update! Now I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing to earn my exercise credits. I guess just keep on scrubbing the house.

 

[Betsy30]

What I need is a Falling Apart Moldy Old Bat setting. Or FAMOB setting. For the guys it can be FAMOF (old fart). Which is what I had before that damned update! Now I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing to earn my exercise credits. I guess just keep on scrubbing the house.

LOL, when you find it please let me know!

 

[ElctrcJellyfish]

Can't you though? If you pair the heart rate strap with the watch and choose Other it should get the data from the strap.

In short, no. Radio signals don't transmit well through water, period. Take a 25m pool and imagine trying to get signal through water at the far ends while the Watch is some distance outside the water. Add in that there's no good place to leave the watch at the side of the very public pool where I do laps. Especially now that it's summer and parents dump their teenagers here.

I did check the first day to see if it could maintain the connection through the all-metal lockers, but strangely enough, Bluetooth signals don't transmit well through Faraday cages.

 

[Night Spring]

I agree with both millerrh and GrumpyMom. I want the watch to properly credit me for a walk without having to start a workout. For things like elliptical workouts and weight lifting, I understand the need to start a specific workout so the watch knows what you are doing. But for a walk, I feel that the watch should give similar readings with or without workout being on. And we definitely need a setting for different target levels of what constitutes exercise. I'm never going to run a marathon, and it will take me months, if ever, to get to the level of say, jogging 30 minutes every day. If I need to exert myself to the level of light jogging in order to get exercise minutes, I'm never going to be able to fill in the exercise ring. And the thing about a partially complete circle, I think it's more discouraging than motivating. The activity goal is adjustable. The exercise goal should be, too.

 

[ElctrcJellyfish]

I think you nailed it in the sentence that I bolded. What a lot of people think is "exercise" really isn't. It's great that people are actually going for walks, but you really need to double your resting HR for it to count as "exercise," at least for the watch's purposes. Cleaning the house, walks that don't supercharge the HR, playing with the kids are all great forms of "activity," but they really aren't considered, at least with respect to the watch, "exercise." In reality, I believe most people wouldn't consider those activities "exercise" in the fitness sense of the term - they'd label them as "activity."

I hope they're not using the "double the resting heart rate" as their serious target. The thing is, if you're an athlete, your resting heart rate will be low--really low. My husband who runs ultra marathons has a resting heart rate in the 50s. When I was recovering from an injury and almost entirely sedentary, my resting heart rate was between 80-85 bpm. Right now, I'm more active and my resting heart rate is around 69-72 bpm. My theoretical maximum heart rate is 182 bpm. It makes absolutely no sense to say that I wasn't exercising back when I was more sedentary unless I got my heart rate to 170 bpm. That would require me to do 30 minutes firmly in the anaerobic zone.

A "double the resting heart rate" target creates the situation where people who are just trying to get active will not be able to get exercise credit.

As it is, I can't figure out what on earth their targets are. There's certainly a heart rate tag in there, but it's not solely heart rate. When I did an indoor cycling workout, a heart rate average of 139 bpm for a 30 minute workout (which is aerobic exercise) did not register as exercise. When I did an outdoor cycling workout, a 60 minute ride with a heart rate average of 135 bpm registered entirely as exercise. When I did an indoor rowing workout, almost none of it registered as exercise with a heart rate average of 142 bpm that never slipped below 140 bpm.

If I knew what Apple was using as its target heart rate, I could work with that, but it seems so completely random from workout to workout that I just feel like throwing my hands in the air.

THIS is a better calculation of what target heart rate should be: http://www.wikihow.com/Calculate-Your-Target-Heart-Rate

-- and if what they did tracked this, I'd be delighted. But it doesn't.

 

[millerrh]

As it is, I can't figure out what on earth their targets are. There's certainly a heart rate tag in there, but it's not solely heart rate. When I did an indoor cycling workout, a heart rate average of 139 bpm for a 30 minute workout (which is aerobic exercise) did not register as exercise. When I did an outdoor cycling workout, a 60 minute ride with a heart rate average of 135 bpm registered entirely as exercise. When I did an indoor rowing workout, almost none of it registered as exercise with a heart rate average of 142 bpm that never slipped below 140 bpm.

I don't think there is. They removed the functionality for your watch to take your heart rate while you are being active. So heart rate seems like it is not being taken into account for passive activity tracking, only motion.

 

[ElctrcJellyfish]

I don't think there is. They removed the functionality for your watch to take your heart rate while you are being active. So heart rate seems like it is not being taken into account for passive activity tracking, only motion.

Um. You know we're talking about running actual workouts, right? The heart rate monitor is 100% active while you're in the middle of a workout started on Apple Watch.

 

[millerrh]

Um. You know we're talking about running actual workouts, right? The heart rate monitor is 100% active while you're in the middle of a workout started on Apple Watch.

Sorry, getting confused with all these threads on similar topics. In other threads we are discussing the inability for the AW to pick up on exercise when not in Workout app mode. i.e. to just be a passive activity tracker like they advertise.

 

[ElctrcJellyfish]

Sorry, getting confused with all these threads on similar topics. In other threads we are discussing the inability for the AW to pick up on exercise when not in Workout app mode. i.e. to just be a passive activity tracker like they advertise.

Easy enough to confuse. So many ways that the fitness tracker can be improved, so few threads.