High excercise minutes

Exercise

This ring tracks a specific kind of activity. Apple defines exercise as anything equivalent to a brisk walk or more that raises your heart rate consistently. Apple monitors your heart rate and your movement data to make sure you're actually exercising, and you can track workouts using the Workout app on your Apple Watch. Additionally, you can feed workout data into the Activity app using third-party workout apps that support this feature, meaning you can use all of the features provided to you by your favorite workout app while still filling the Exercise ring.

One thing to note about the Apple Watch's exercise measurements is that, as you more, they will change over time. So the same activities that would potentially help you close your Exercise ring when you first got your Apple Watch may only get you part of the way there after months or even years of consistent activity. The Apple Watch learns your habits, and will consistently push you to go further.

Anything that qualifies as a 'brisk walk' is considered exercise.

It's not dependent on heart rate.

Do you wear the watch on your dominant wrist? (i.e. if you're right handed, are you wearing it on your right wrist?)

If so, wear it on the other wrist. Watches are traditionally worn on the non-dominant wrist. If you wear it on your dominant wrist, normal motions may be mistakenly be interpreted as whole body movement.