What counts as "exercise" for the green ring??

Hi

To credit progress towards your daily Exercise goal, the Activity app aims to identify activity that equals or exceeds the intensity of a brisk walk. This requirement applies both during general daily wear and when recording workouts via the Workout app.

Exercise credit is awarded for each minute during which this requirement is met.

The definition of a brisk walk varies from person to person and depends on your personal information. To check that this is accurate - and to update it over time:

On your iPhone, in the Watch app, go to: My Watch (tab) > Health > Edit - tap and adjust items, then tap on Done.

Apple Watch uses different sensors and data sources to track the results of workouts, depending on the activity type. For example, with Apple Watch (first generation) and Series 1 models, the watch can access GPS data from the paired iPhone if it is taken along during outdoor walking, running and cycling workouts. Series 2 has built-in GPS.

During general daily wear and (for relevant activities) when using the Workout app to record workouts when GPS data is either not relevant or not available (eg Indoor Walk), the Activity app and Workout app track your arm motion (measured by the accelerometer) when estimating results including progress towards the Exercise goal. For the best results, allow the arm on which you are wearing your watch to swing naturally as you move around and during workouts (where relevant to the activity type).

Calibrating your watch can improve the accuracy of estimations made by Activity app and Workout app. More information and instructions for calibrating your watch are available via the link below. The article also includes instructions for resetting existing calibration data and starting afresh. Resetting your calibration data will not erase your Activity history.

If you would prefer to receive Exercise credit for the full duration of any given workouts, regardless of their estimated intensity levels, track them via the Workout app using "Other" as the activity type. This will credit one minute of Exercise for each full minute of the workout. Active calories will be estimated at a rate equivalent to a brisk walk or based on data recorded by the heart rate sensor, whichever is higher.

More information:

• Calibrating your Apple Watch for improved Workout and Activity accuracy - Apple Support
• Use the Activity app on your Apple Watch - Apple Support
• Use the Workout app on your Apple Watch - Apple Support

To credit progress towards your daily Exercise goal, the Activity app aims to identify activity that equals or exceeds the intensity of a brisk walk.

...

Exercise credit is awarded for each minute during which this requirement is met.

And that is exactly the problem. The documentation for the watch does not define precisely how each of us can ensure that our activity exceeds the expected intensity of a brisk walk.

It would help immensely, if the watch would give us hints during the workout, what the level of activity is, that it expects.

None of the watch user guide pages describes how the level is defined, so we can check if our method of "brisk walk" is what should register as a brisk walk.

And the documentation we have is inconsistent:

The "Keep your data accurate (https://help.apple.com/watch/#/apd7d17e9500)" document states:

the more you run with the Workout app, the more Apple Watch learns your fitness level—and the more accurately it can estimate the calories you burned during aerobic activity.

This suggests, that Apple Watch is continually changing the parameters for estimating the calories and the level of fitness, whenever we use the workout app.

Compare this to the "Calibrating your Apple Watch for improved Workout and Activity accuracy" (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204516).

You can calibrate your Apple Watch to improve the accuracy of your distance, pace, and calorie measurements. Calibrating your watch can also help it learn your fitness level and stride, which improves accuracy when GPS is limited or unavailable.

This suggests, that the parameters will primarily be changed by calibrating. I would expect them to remain the same, unless we calibrate, but the first snippet is indicating that using any formal workout.app can mess up the calibration.

The most disconcerting part of these documentation snippets is the " learn your fitness level". We do not know the artificial intelligence algorithms the watch is using; we do not know how smart the watch software is, and we do not know if it still trying to learn or already has learned our habits, and we do not know what it is thinking about our level of fitness. We are just left to wonder, why one day a bike ride of one hour results in an exercise credit of one hour, and the next day the same bike ride, with the same distance and same duration will result in only two-thirds of the result from the day before. If the watch would create a sensible protocol of the workout, showing the measurements it took and making which parts it considered equivalent to a brisk walk, and which parts not, and why, it would be much easier to tell, if the calibration went wrong, or if the heart rate sensor is not getting accurate data, or the motion sensor not sensitive enough.

As it is now, we are kept in the dark.

This is correct.

1. The watch will move the green ring any time your heart rate is elevated significantly. This is regardless of whether you start a Workout.

2. If you start a Workout, the watch monitors heart rate more frequently. However - you must still have an elevated heart rate and some speed of movement (depends on the type of workout) for the green ring to move. If you're moving slowly or stopping (low speed, low heart rate), the watch will not credit you with the green ring time.

3. An exception is the Other workout, which simply records the time, regardless of speed/heart rate.

You're right to make the point that "briskly" is unpredictable. It's most unpredictable with walking and cycling, where you can make progress without elevated heart rate.

But why should you have to choose other? Shouldn't you be able to get the credit of an "outdoor walk" like I do each and every day and get the credit I deserve in that app? I walk very fast for someone who's 52.5 and has had a stroke and just recently got off my cane. I got credit in my exercise ring for the first few weeks of the year (thank goodness because I got the 2017 badge for 100% in all 3 rings for a full week. It was shortly after I got that award that my stupid green ring started screwing up. I wasn't doing anything different except losing weight and feeling better. I know it seems stupid, but seeing those rings go completely around and then some is huge to me because where I was just a few years ago, on a walker, a lot of numbness on my right side, to where I'm at now, still weak on the right side but thankful to be walking without the assistance of any walking aid is huge and I take my exercise very seriously. If I have to play the game of using "other" to get my credit to which I deserve, I'll do it, but it seems so stupid. Get it together, Apple. If I'm setting myself for 45 mins in an outdoor walk and my movement ring is crediting me because that's what I'm doing, then give me credit for my exercise in my exercise ring, too!

I was just looking for a similar answer to this as well.

Today I'm showing 9 minutes on my activity ring which is constructed from:

- about 6 minutes from when I took a quick walk to the shop, sure whatever...it's activity. Honestly 6 minutes is generous there 😉

- about 3 minutes from a 45 minute workout where I used the watch app to track 'Indoor Walking' and went on the treadmill. So the watch is fully aware I exercised for 45 minutes and I get 3 minutes towards my activity ring.

The workout app even says I did 0:47 Indoor Walk: 1.8 Mi, 129bpm avg heartrate alongside the 3 minutes of 'Exercise' it allowed me to have.

That's actually the more important point. No one bought the Watch because of the exercise ring. It's there, so we gripe about it (me included) because it's so SNAFU'd, but that's not why anyone bought the Watch.

The weaknesses in heart rate monitoring are far more troubling.

I had all these problems, walking with a buggy, walking with my kids, doing an hours excercise and only logging 3 minutes at the best! For a £600 watch I figured it was going back to the shop! I walked purposely moving my wrist, and still it was not logong the green ring properly. last night I decided to unpair my watch from my phone and start again. After pairing the watch again, I went for a 30 minute walk with my little one in her pushchair and my iPhone also instead of going through the woods my normal walk I decided to go round the high street thinking the gprs signal would be better. I chose brisk walk from the app on my watch then off I went with my wrist pushing the buggy. I got home, checked my watch and my exercise ring was full, well over lapped! So I came to the conclusion, that maybe when I first paired my device, perhaps the 2 20 minute walks with my iPhone maybe the gps signal was not strong enough, and the watch got the wrong idea. It's just a theory, but pairing he device again seems to of worked wonders.

curty62 wrote:

Great question! Me too.

I've read most of the answers here and it looks like Apple is keeping separate the categories of "Exercise" and "Workout."

To me this doesn't make sense. Any time I'm moving that's exercise, whether walking to the train or going for a run. Someone should tell Apple to simply add the workout to the Exercise Ring!

It is intentionally, that Exercise and Workout are counted differnetly.

The Exercise Ring can be closed without running any workout.app at all. If you are moving briskly and the motion sensor detects you are moving, the watch will advance the Exercise rings. It is working independent of using any of the apps. And you do not need to carry the iPhone with you either.

The user guide says: "The Exercise ring shows how many minutes of brisk activity you’ve done. "

The problem is, that it is nearly impossible to predict, what the watch will consider to be a brisk activity because the algorithm is not documented at all. We only know that the calibration is important, the personal data, like weight and age, and the fit of the watch, and that the watch is trying to learn. And this learning is probably what is giving the surprising results, that we will see different advances of the Exercise ring for the same kind of activity every day.

While you are running a formal workout.app only the part of the workout will count towards the Exercise ring, where you moved briskly. When I am using my bike on my way to work and run the outdoor cycle workout, only roughly two thirds of the workout time will count as exercise. Probably my fault, because I prefer to stop at red traffic lights and slow down when pedestrians are walking on the bike lane. I tested a bit. The amount of time credited as exercise will be the same whether I do run the outdoor cycle workout or not. The calculated calorie burns differ a bit, with or without running the outdoor cycle, and the Health.app will show a workout, if I run the workout. The battery will drain faster. For me, the advantage of running a formal workout app is in keeping track of the time I did this workout, and the Health.app on the iPhone will show the time.

So,even though you choose outdoor walk from the workout app it doesn't count as exercise? I read on one of the support posts that exercise was counted if your heart rate was equivalent to a "brisk" walk. Today I walked 1.8 miles and for 45 minutes my heart rate was between 118 and 140. For a 55 year old that is much better than a brisk walk, yet I only got credit for 3 minutes of exercise. i will try choosing "Run" next time to see it it makes a difference.

When I use the exercise bike I choose an indoor bike work out and I get full credit for the exercise every time and I didn't "go" anywhere. It is disappointing that the app doesn't seem to function correctly on my Apple Watch 2.

Thank goodness for this support blog. I am going balmy. Using the treadmill for 70 mins seeing my heartbeat going to 120 most of the time. Then it says one minute of exercise or two minutes and no more. I walk at 6 km an hour which is brisk. I put 6 on elevation but nufink!! It is depressing. Also having had a heart problem and being 67 my max heart rate is 153 and 70% of that is 107 so really anything over 107 is exercising my heart and 120 is 80% of the maximum my heart should be doing.

IN my case Apple could be encouraging dangerous exercise if expecting anything more than 137 to register. My recent controlled cardio test was stopped at 142.

I think the rest of us need an exercise rate medically determined which is part of the Apple control settings. By the way I am now going to try telling the watch I am running outside whilst on the treadmill and see if that does make a difference. Re the arm-swinging that does go against treadmill instructions which say always hold on.

It seems to be solved. In Workout instead of using INDOOR WALK I used OTHER and every minute of walking over about 107 - my 70% of maximum heart beat for my age was entered. I got a tick of 30 minutes of exercise and felt good about what I had done. So it's Other from now on - hope this helps others!!