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Walk appears as a workout, but not in exercise ring

sixxmum

sixxmum

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 15, 2010
606
58
I just did a couple of short walks today (busy day so trying to fit exercise in in spurts). In my activity app, for today, it shows both walks under workouts and the green ring next to them with credit for 33 minutes. But, the overall green ring hasn't moved at all and still shows 0/30 minutes.

Is there something else I need to do to get it to transfer that information to the exercise ring?
 
sixxmum said:
I just did a couple of short walks today (busy day so trying to fit exercise in in spurts). In my activity app, for today, it shows both walks under workouts and the green ring next to them with credit for 33 minutes. But, the overall green ring hasn't moved at all and still shows 0/30 minutes.

Is there something else I need to do to get it to transfer that information to the exercise ring?
Click to expand...

The green ring will only move if your heart rate is elevated and you're moving. I think it registers around 120BPM if I'm not mistaken.
 
Oy. Well, I'm on beta blockers, so that's never going to happen :) given that my resting heart rate is low/mid 50s.
 
so do you know if the heart monitor is always taking a reading even when you are not using the exercise app?
 
With the changes in 1.0.1 the heart monitor typically will not fire while you are moving. The best thing to do is start a workout in the Exercise app when you're going to be on the move. That will ensure accurate heart monitoring. For instance, I do this every time I take my dog for a walk so I get credit for that activity.

Your heart rate definitely doesn't have to hit 120. I typically get credit for anything over about 90 or so. My dog walks usually average around 100 - 110 and I get full credit for them.
 
Looks like I was between 94 and 102 for most of the walks. For me, that's not bad being about 170% of resting heart rate. I'll have to do some comparison to see what I need to get to in order to register. Thanks for the info, all!
 
does anyone know how the watch tracks different exercises? like what's the difference between selecting elliptical and inside walk? as long as it tracks my heart rate, why does it matter?
 
ericg301 said:
does anyone know how the watch tracks different exercises? like what's the difference between selecting elliptical and inside walk? as long as it tracks my heart rate, why does it matter?
Click to expand...

There are several reasons and I will just list 2.

HR and perceived effort are different for different cardio exercises. So the algorithms must be specific for the exercise. The most extreme examples would be your HR when swimming will be far lower than your HR in running for the same effort.

Distance is calculated in walking by stride length X cadence and this is not done for elliptical.
 
Sorry to piggyback off this thread, but I have a question somewhat along these lines as well...

This morning, I went to the gym and did two different workout sessions: one was a 27m 12s 'indoor walk' workout where my average heart rate was 118 BPM and the other was a 4m 43s 'other' workout (I was doing crunches) and my average heart rate was 105 BPM.

HOWEVER, in the overall ring, it is showing that I have only exercised for 7/30 mins! This is weird because I did a 33m 09s 'other' workout yesterday (where I mostly did treadmill but did some other things as well) with an average heart rate of 96 BPM, yet at the end of the day I was credited for working out a total of 36/30 mins.

Honestly, I am confuzzled... @_@
 
wchigo said:
Sorry to piggyback off this thread, but I have a question somewhat along these lines as well...

This morning, I went to the gym and did two different workout sessions: one was a 27m 12s 'indoor walk' workout where my average heart rate was 118 BPM and the other was a 4m 43s 'other' workout (I was doing crunches) and my average heart rate was 105 BPM.

HOWEVER, in the overall ring, it is showing that I have only exercised for 7/30 mins! This is weird because I did a 33m 09s 'other' workout yesterday (where I mostly did treadmill but did some other things as well) with an average heart rate of 96 BPM, yet at the end of the day I was credited for working out a total of 36/30 mins.

Honestly, I am confuzzled... @_@
Click to expand...

When you use Other, it credits you for doing exercises for as many minutes as you are running the Other workout. If you use any of the other Workout modes, it uses an algorithm specific to each mode to calculate if you are "exercising" or not. But Apple hasn't said what criteria are used for each mode.
 
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I'm confused by this, too. It seems like Apple needs to clarify how, exactly, the exercise ring is calculated. Saying "at or above a brisk walk" seems too vague, and even that doesn't seem to be consistent from what I've seen and others are reporting in this thread.
 
Night Spring said:
When you use Other, it credits you for doing exercises for as many minutes as you are running the Other workout. If you use any of the other Workout modes, it uses an algorithm specific to each mode to calculate if you are "exercising" or not. But Apple hasn't said what criteria are used for each mode.
Click to expand...
Huh... is that right? Seems extremely counter-intuitive and kinda bums me out, as that means it only took around 3 mins out of my 27+ min walk as me "exercising."

Ultimately, the fact that having the watch is proving to be a motivator for me to actually do some exercise is a good thing, but the gamer and OCD in me really wants to see those rings filled out and is somehow making me want to do irrational things like using the 'Other' workout all the time in order to fill the Exercise ring rather than use the 'Indoor Walk' workout for a more accurate reading.

I do suppose this will all be moot in the long run when I get used to waking up earlier and exercising for an hour instead of half an hour like now, but still... total bummer dude. :/
 
wchigo said:
Huh... is that right? Seems extremely counter-intuitive and kinda bums me out, as that means it only took around 3 mins out of my 27+ min walk as me "exercising."

Ultimately, the fact that having the watch is proving to be a motivator for me to actually do some exercise is a good thing, but the gamer and OCD in me really wants to see those rings filled out and is somehow making me want to do irrational things like using the 'Other' workout all the time in order to fill the Exercise ring rather than use the 'Indoor Walk' workout for a more accurate reading.

I do suppose this will all be moot in the long run when I get used to waking up earlier and exercising for an hour instead of half an hour like now, but still... total bummer dude. :/
Click to expand...

Oh, that's about how I feel about it, too. I tried walking as fast as I could down the street while using the Outdoor Walk setting, and I walked for five minutes but only got 1 minute Exercise credit. Actually, it used to be much easier to get Exercise credit in Watch OS 1.0, but since I updated to 1.01 it's gotten pretty much impossible, and the only way I can fill the Exercise circle is by using the Other workout. I'm hoping they change it back in the next update.
 
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Nothlit said:
I'm confused by this, too. It seems like Apple needs to clarify how, exactly, the exercise ring is calculated. Saying "at or above a brisk walk" seems too vague, and even that doesn't seem to be consistent from what I've seen and others are reporting in this thread.
Click to expand...
Because it is a relative calculation related to all your metrics. So Apple can't just give an absolute answer since each individual has a different threshold.
 
For me it quite happily counts up the exercise ring for most walks even if I don't specify I'm walking., Heart rate Doesn't usually go above 90 when doing so.
 
I think it's more movement based than HR based. When I walk to work from the train station I tend to get credit for everything regardless of if I get HR readings and when I take a walk at home I tend not to regardless of if I get HR ratings. I'm definitely moving with a purpose when going to work though and walking at a more relaxed pace at home but the results seem consistent weather or not it gets HR measurements by me kicking off an excercise. Only thing I can figure is its either measuring arm movement or accelerometer for this.
 
When you're not doing a workout, it bases exercise on accelerometer data--like how quick your pace is. I can get exercise credit for brisk walking even when I'm not running a workout, so long as I'm walking pretty briskly. ("Pretty briskly" = for me, a cadence of about 110-120 steps per minute -- it doesn't appear to be pace-based, because I can get exercise credit going up a hill at a relatively slow pace as long as my cadence is at that level.)

When you're doing a workout, it does tend to be more heart-rate based, and that's where it can get wonky. If I'm doing a really steep hill with high step-ups (some of the more technical trails here in Colorado), my cadence can be pretty low but I will be doing a LOT of work--I'll get credit based on heart rate if I have a walking workout enabled.

But I've found some really weird inconsistencies, like an outdoor biking workout gives me credit for exercise with an average heart rate around 134 bpm, but an indoor biking workout won't give me credit for exercise with an average heart rate around 142 bpm. Same darned activity!

I honestly can't figure out what their algorithm is, but it definitely needs some tweaking. But at this point, it really just motivates me to go pretty hard when I'm trying to go for my rings to make sure I get the exercise. The only time I "cheat" and use "Other" to get exercise credit is for my swim workouts, because that's really the only way I would ever get credit for them.
 
Nothlit said:
I'm confused by this, too. It seems like Apple needs to clarify how, exactly, the exercise ring is calculated. Saying "at or above a brisk walk" seems too vague, and even that doesn't seem to be consistent from what I've seen and others are reporting in this thread.
Click to expand...

I agree. I take the same walk twice a day with my dog and exert the same amount of energy. My heart rate stays between 118 and 120 consistently. However, first thing in the morning around 6 am I get 0/30 minutes credit for the 25 minute walk. Yet in the evening around 7:30 pm I will receive 25 minutes of exercise credit for the same activity. It's so confusing and inconsistent. I asked Apple about it in the past and received some generic message about calibrating my watch and doing activities where my heart rate is at 96 or higher (according to my age).
 
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