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

My 65 year old husband has a VERY low resting heart rate which hovers around 48-53 bpm. When we go out for a brisk walk, his heart rate gets up into the 70's or 80's which is plenty high for him, yet he gets zero minutes credited towards the green exercise ring. I wonder if it's calibrated to a person who's resting heart rate is around 72 and is young enough to need to get above 140 bpm to be considered "brisk". Polar has an app where it measures your resting heart rate so you get a more accurate picture of what 70% of Max HR. Apple, tell me you don't have a "one size fits all" code in your Watch.

Same thing here! I usually run 6-10 miles a day while pushing my twin girls in a stroller and I'll only get a few minutes for a full hours run. If I'm on the elliptical in the gym, I get full credit though and a pretty accurate distance measurement. I've noticed it's based more upon movement of the wrist you're wearing the watch on. I get credit (not using the workout app) just moving my wrist up and down while resting!

I had a similar experience with a Schwinn Air-Dyne. After weeks of brisk walking and NO exercise credit for my two miles, I did 30 minutes on an Air-Dyne and got FULL credit for the 30 minutes! The Air-Dyne is an indoor bicycle which also has arm exercisers that you push/pull in conjunction with peddling.

I originally thought that heart rate determined exercise credit, but my average workout BPM on the Air-Dyne was 115, which is actually a bit less than I get walking. So it's something else, perhaps arm movement.

Of course, Apple could solve the whole problem by just telling us how exercise credit is computed, but I don't expect THAT anytime soon.

Also, over a measured course, the GPS is off by 2 to 6% over two miles (200 to 600 feet) but that's not too bad. GPS isn't exact anyway, I think.

IT appears that there are issues with Move and Activity. Hopefully Apple will get them fixed before the doubters turn it to the greatest catastrophe since the Hidenberg. Here's my experiences...

I routinely go to the gym three days a week, 20 minutes on an elliptical and 20 minutes on a stationary bike. My Watch has never given me credit for 40 minutes of exercise. The most I've gotten is 29 minutes total. This is using the Workout app on the phone.

Yesterday I went for a four mile outdoor walk which took 80 minutes. Again, using the Workout app, I was given 29 minutes credit for the 80 minute walk on the exercise ring. However, looking at Workout in the Health app on my iPhone shows the full 80 minute walk. The Watch obviously wrote the data to the app correctly.

Something clearly is off. I've been trying a variety of things to debug this but haven't come up with anything concrete yet.

Decided to try a suggestion made by another user in this thread. I used Other in the Workout app instead of the actual exercise. 20 minutes on the elliptical and 20 minutes on a stationary bike resulted in near perfect readings. I got 43 minutes on the Exercise ring. The extra 3 minutes is due to a short indoor walk I made between equipment. Not only did my exercise readings improve but calories increased as well mirror almost exactly the machine readings.

so, until Apple either fixes or explains what they are doing, I'll be using Other regardless of what type of exercise I'm actually doing. Going for a long bike ride tomorrow and plan on the same strategy. I'll let you know how it works out.

Yesterday I used OTHER. 61 min average HR 131. Counted 61 min on exercise ring

today I used outdoor walk. Walked 73 minutes average HR 132 only counted 39 min on exercise ring

so HR the same so is it a bug?

I would say that it is a bug, since both the "Outdoor Walk" and "Other" workouts indicate that credit is given for exercise "at the rate of a brisk walk". I repeated the experiment you performed; today I did my usual walk over a measured 2 mile course but used "Other" instead of "Outdoor Walk". I got a full credit on the green ring for the whole time I was walking. Ordinarily I get little or no credit for the same exact walk using the "Outdoor Walk" workout. So the app is not doing what it says it will.

I'm not doing the walk just to get green ring credit, so I will continue to use the "Outdoor Walk" workout because of the statistics it keeps. But I would like the app to be consistent!

I discovered that the arm swing does make a difference. I do a 65- minute workout on the treadmill at the gym about five days a week. The first week or two, I couldn't figure out why I was getting so little credit. I typically hold on with both hands on the treadmill. I tried holding on just with my watchless hand and letting my watch hand (in my case, it's my right) swing normally. It made all the difference in the world.

Note, however, that after the upgrade to 1.0.1 I get less credit than I used to with 1.0.

I don't know if you've heard about all the problems with 1.0.1, but if I'm not using the workout app, I get no exercise credit for anything like I used to get for gardening, strength training, etc. Now when I do strength training I use the "Other" setting on the workout app and I do get credit. I'm hoping they come out with 1.0.2 soon -- a lot of people are very unhappy, although it's been reported that this may be intentional rather than a bug. I can now go for hours without my heart rate being checked, where it used to be every 10 minutes (12 times a minute when in workout mode).

I had the same issue with the treadmill. I solved it by holding on with only one hand instead of two, but I would really rather hold on with two. I'd love to see a treadmill option added to the workout app.

Charles, you probably know by now that the Activity App measures your exercise based on a "brisk walk". From what I can tell from several people's experience, that Apple defines BRISK using the target heart rate of some mythical average 20 year old in excellent health. I hope Apple is getting the message that their Watch users are not all 20 years of age and that as we age, our target heart rate lowers. What I've been doing is using the Workout App. & then looking to see what my average HR was at the end of my workout. If that number is in my target HR zone, I'm happy.

To see that info,

- open the Activity app on your iPhone (not the Watch app) on a day you used the Workout App (the little green jogger)

- scroll down past "Move", "Exercise", "Stand" to "Workouts" & click on that

- You will see all kinds of stats: including Average Heart Rate, Active calories, resting calories, Total Time & Distance, Average Pace & time of workout.

I hope that helps. I think I'll post this on a separate new thread.

- Julia

From what I can tell from several people's experience on this thread as well as my own, Apple defines BRISK using the target heart rate of some mythical 20 year old in excellent health & doesn't seem to realize that their Watch users range in age considerably & that our target heart rate lowers as we age.

What I've been doing is using the Workout app & then looking to see what my average heart rate was at the end of my workout. If that number is in my target HR zone AND I got at least 30 minutes in, then I'm set for the day **

To see your average heart rate & other info,

- open the Activity app on your iPhone (not the Watch app) on a day you used the Workout App (the little green jogger)

- scroll down past "Move", "Exercise", "Stand" to "WORKOUTS" & click on that ("Awards", "Steps", and "Distance" can also be found in this window.

- You will see all kinds of stats: including Average Heart Rate, Active calories, resting calories, Total Time & Distance, Average Pace & time of workout.

Would I like to see Exercise minutes calculated appropriately for my age & desired target heart rate & reflected on the Activity tracker. YES!
But until then, this is what is working for me.

I'm thrilled that my Polar Heart Rate Monitor talks to my Watch via bluetooth; however, I can't use Map My Walk at the same time. C'est la vie for now.

I find that when I set my Workout to "Other", the results seem really skewed; it gave me more credit than I think I deserved.

** A person's target heart rate might reasonably be something between 55-75% of their max heart rate- which can be calculated:
First find your Max Heart Rate: 220 - [your age] gives you a quick number unless you want to do a full stress test.

This # can then be multiplied by .55 or .75 - whatever % you want to set as your target heart rate / working zone.)

Example: The Max Heart Rate for a 58 year old is 162 (220 - 58 = 162).

55% of 162 = 94 BPM (.55 x 162 = 93.96)

75% of 162 = 122 (.75 X 162 - 121.5)

So, if the average heart rate for a 30 minute workout is between 94 & 122 bpm, then you have met your own personal cardio goal for your workout.

I sure hope this helps some of you still scratching your heads. I still have questions too! Come on Apple; make the definition of BRISK more dynamic!

It's really a terribly designed app.

I just did a 37 minute walk wearing a 20 lb. weight vest. My heart rate was consistently between 120 and 130. According to the exercise app, I was credited with 12 minutes of exercise. (And I had to restart both my phone and my watch to even get that much credit, arrgh.)

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, it's a first generation product. But it's designed very poorly. Fitbit does so much of a better job (except the band on their watch causes allergic reactions).

I'll just use other apps to track my activity level, and stop worrying about what Apple's ridiculous activity app thinks. The data gets pulled to other apps, so I'll just find one that's useful and actually works.

john67 wrote:

NIck101 tells me that Exercise is only recorded as part of a Workout, so for tennis I need to to do an 'Other' Workout. He stress the need to do the calibration exercise with your watch.

This is definitely not the case. Activity is added from Workouts AND other things. The reason I can only be vague about "other things" is that they are vague.

I do the same walk on consecutive days: one day 41 minutes Activity, the next day 9 minutes Activity. That's sans Workout.

And yes, I have calibrated, I always carry my phone, I have Location Services active, etc., etc.

When I got my watch I thought it was going to be useful but since the update, not so much. Because of the new Heart Rate Monitoring we apparently (according to the Apple Technical Note) only get regular data if we are inert... that's not much use. Other Heart Rate data is - unless you do a Workout - random, as is Activity time data.

It seems Apple now expects us to initiate a Workout whenever we walk outdoors or indoors, to reliably track walking Activity.

I don't tend to use Workouts because their Calorie data is far less than my rower computer, for example. Resting Calories, or BMR etc., doesn't account for the difference. My BMR is about 1 Calorie per minute, the shortfall over a 20 minute row is 60 Calories (Waterrower records 230 Calories, Watch records 170).

So now, after the update, I'm wearing a Heart Rate Monitor that doesn't monitor heart rate predictably linked to a GPS device that can't seem to tell when I've moved a couple of miles. Unless of course I fire up a Workout (which is otherwise of little use) each time I do an Activity.

Before the update I was optimistic, now I think I've wasted my money.

Several points:

1. The update has definitely broken some things that were working (for some people, at least, they were working)

2. Without a Workout, the watch will record (albeit inconsistently right now) some types of activity - it'll record steps taken, for example. If you're carrying your phone, the Health app on the phone will record walking/running distance, estimated steps climbed etc.

3. What you don't get without a Workout is a record of the activity as a labelled workout - you just get the raw data. So no Outdoor Run, time, pace, distance, average heart rate etc. Just you were active for so many minutes during the day, you consumed estimated calories etc

4. Since the update, if you don't start a Workout, you don't even get the level of heart rate measurement you used to get. Unless you're in a Workout, the watch doesn't capture heart rate if your arm is moving.

I'm not sure if I'm being clear enough, so feel free ...

Julia Siporin wrote:

My 65 year old husband has a VERY low resting heart rate which hovers around 48-53 bpm. When we go out for a brisk walk, his heart rate gets up into the 70's or 80's which is plenty high for him, yet he gets zero minutes credited towards the green exercise ring. I wonder if it's calibrated to a person who's resting heart rate is around 72 and is young enough to need to get above 140 bpm to be considered "brisk". Polar has an app where it measures your resting heart rate so you get a more accurate picture of what 70% of Max HR. Apple, tell me you don't have a "one size fits all" code in your Watch.

This is a big problem. Because Apple has been vague, and moved the goalposts with 1.0.1, issued a slew of new Technical Notes, and because - frankly - Activity now seems to be broken, we are all trying to guess how the Watch works. People swinging their arms on treadmills ⚠ pushing strollers uphill with one hand, and trying to guess what "brisk" means... it's ridiculous.

There is no reason on Earth why our Watches should not know who we are, individually. The Health app knows your Height, Weight, Sex and Age. You can either input that data there or it will pick it up from Health, and probably elsewhere.

The bottom line for me is this is not about Calibration, Brisk, Arm Movement or anything else. The Watch simply doesn't provide repeatable Activity metrics any more. Whether that is because Heart Rate Monitoring is now random, or for some other reason, I don't know.

Something is wrong.