Exercise ring isn't updating.

I Tried swinging my arms on the treadmill at the gym today and I didn't get a single minute of exercise to register in Activity. Workout app is only registering about 50% of the distance that the treadmill says I have moved. So far, the only way I've been able to get an exercise minute is by wildly flailing my arms while standing still.

I have a theory that for walking, it's related to pace. We did some testing here - anything over 3mph seems to count, no matter what your HR is.....

And similarly, anything under 3mph doesn't seem to count, even if your HR is 130+

Did you walk the first time you used the treadmill with your phone in your pocket? the watch will use your stride etc to calibrate for when the phone is not with you. I have had very successful indoor bike workouts and then yesterday i used the other to walk outside in the park. of course, that simply records no matter what you do for the length of time you choose. today, i went to the park and used the outdoor walk. it took me about 2 minutes to get my heart rate up and then it started recording the walk just fine. when i finished after 32 minutes, the activity app was 2 minutes behind showing a 30 minute walk. that was perfect, showed my average stride as 16 feet per minute and i walked a bit over 2 miles. tomorrow i will try indoor treadmill maybe and see what it does. maybe i just fit the metrics that apple has tested it for perfectly for some reason.

I'm also seeing the same thing - for an outdoor bike ride. I did two work outs on Monday earlier this week. The first was a 56 minute walk for 56 minutes - my avg heart rate was 107 BPM and for the most part, it registered under the "exercise" ring. Then later, I did a 80 minute outdoor bike ride (18.65 miles) where my avg heart rate was 121 BPM ... NO segment of the outdoor bike ride registered under the "exercise" ring. The other thing I found strange is that the walk totaled 313 active calories (105 resting / 418 total) .. while the bike ride was only 227 calories (150 resting / 377 total).

Something seems out of whack here -

My exercise ring doesn't budge for me either. If its true that it will only monitor heart rate that's going to be a huge problem for me or anyone that takes a beta-blocker medication. I take it because I have syncope.. it is designed to keep your heart rate low. So no matter hard hard or fast I walk or run.. it wont go above 110. It would be really great if we would adjust our target heart rate for situations like mine and others taking this type of medication.

I've gotten better results after calibrating my watch with several Outdoor Walk workouts 20 minutes each at varying speeds. I followed the Apple recommended procedure having my iPhone with me turned on with a clear view of the sky. The terrain was not perfectly flat every time but it was close. I've been able to close all three rings two days in a row now. When I've done my outdoor workouts, it's been a bit nippy. My hands were in my coat pockets most of the time and not swinging around. I've done an Indoor Cycle workout since calibration and I noticed that the Exercise Ring did indeed move significantly this time. I got credit for more than half of it which is better than nothing at all. My experience seems to be that the watch is getting better at tracking my activity since I did the calibrations. I'm going to do an Outdoor Cycle workout next and see what happens. I'll report here what I find.

This is an update to an earlier post. In an earlier post I noted getting much better results after calibrating the watch per Apple's instructions. I just finished a 47 minute Outdoor Cycle workout. The exercise ring credited me with the entire time. Furthermore, I was using a Garmin GPS in addition to the Watch / iPhone combo. At the end of the ride they both agreed at a distance of exactly 7.58 miles. There were some minor differences during the ride but they both agreed at the end! My average heart rate was 93 BPM and I am 61 years old. I'm not saying there are not some legitimate concerns being experienced by some owners but this has been my experience after calibration. I have closed all three circles three days in a row now. I hope this means my issues are over! Hope this helps.

Similar issue here- I find that when I walk pushing the stroller, it gives me 1/4-1/3 of the minutes it "should". If I walk the same distance/pace/HR without the stroller, I get "full credit".

So it seems to me that wrist movement is key. (but you'd think for cycling they'd know better and would not measure that)

But, to confound things- if I say "outside run" but still push the stroller, it DOES give me credit. Even for the same distance/time/HR.

I've noticed that too.

20 minutes on the treadmill - 120 heart rate - not a single minute of exercise recorded.

10 minutes sitting folding laundry - 8 minutes recorded.

I'm sorry, but thats BROKE

tgwaste- wrote:

20 minutes on the treadmill - 120 heart rate - not a single minute of exercise recorded.

10 minutes sitting folding laundry - 8 minutes recorded.

I'm sorry, but thats BROKE

I agree it's not what I'd expect, but we know how it is working, if you are doing something where your wrist stays still, use 'Other' to record exercise, it works well on a treadmill because 'other' assumes a brisk walk, but it's not much good for anything more energetic.

The suggestions re: calibrating the watch helped a LOT. Did a 30 minute outdoor walk (using Workout App) on a flat part of my driveway with my iPhone in my pocket (not in an armband or my hand) and since then have been getting "credit" for most of my time walking, whether inside (pacing the hall, not on a treadmill) or outside. In the past, the inside walking gave me only a minute or two "credit" as exercise.

Ive tried Other. Same results. Not so much as a minute recorded. My wrists do not stay steady on the treadmill, they move just like they do when I walk outside.

I don't want to have to do some 'calibration finger dance' to get it to kind of work. I already played that game with my Pebble Watch. I do not want to play it with my $800 Apple Watch.

It should just work.

Then you aren't experiencing the problem that is being discussed by the OP, your watch either needs to be reset or you have a faulty watch, 'Other' clocks up exercise time whatever you do. It's up to you whether you do a calibration, but you shouldn't expect it to be accurate, where do you think it's going to get the information from to use when it calculates everything it tells you.

Height

Weight

Calories Burned

Heart Rate

Motion

Steps

Etc..

Thats where I think its going to get the information from. The only thing left is GPS which should be irrelevant.

Also my issue is _exactly_ related to the OP post. Go read it. The title "Exercise ring isn't updating." says it all.

I mean he has the exact use-case as I do. Just with a cycler instead of treadmill:

"I've used the Workout app for two days now and despite 20 minutes each time of indoor cycling, the exercise ring hasn't budged and just says 0 of 20 minutes."