Water Aerobics Setting?

Hi

The Workout app includes two swimming activity types: Pool Swim and Open Water Swim.

Both of these activity types are designed to calculate calories (and to track laps, for pool swims) based on your swimming stroke, so neither is appropriate for water aerobics.

As water aerobics is not just continuous swimming, your best option is to record your activity as "Other".

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:

Work out with your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Jonathan, I briefly considered to recommend "Other workout", but the problem is, there is no way to name this workout sensibly. There is not a single water sports activity in the list of "Other" workout names. Using the Pool swim will at leat file it as a water sports activity in a pool. You are probably right, that the calory burns will be more precise with the Other workout, but none of the options are satisfactory.

léonie, it is not necessary to name workouts that are recorded using "Other" as the activity type. Naming such workouts is optional and makes no difference to how results (calories burned, Exercise credit) are estimated.

By contrast, recording water aerobics workouts using Pool Swim as the activity type would result in an inaccurate estimation of results. Pool Swim assumes continuous swimming, which is not what water aerobics involves. It would also adversely affect how the watch learns about a user's swimming stroke efficiency and estimates results for relevant workouts accordingly.

léonie wrote:

That is exactly the problem for owners of the first watch models. ..

léonie, you may find the following third-party app of interest for receiving Move credit (but not Exercise credit) on your model of Apple Watch for swimming sessions, without wearing your watch whilst swimming (which Apple advises against). Workouts are also shared to the Health app on iPhone:

Swimtivity

• "With Swimtivity, you can get credit for your swim workouts in the Apple Watch Activity Move ring--without risking your watch in the pool."
• "After your activity, use the Swimtivity Apple Watch app to enter your workout information."
• "Workouts are saved to the Health app and the entered calories are counted towards your Move goal for the day."
• "Note: Due to limitations with the Health API, you will NOT get credit for the Exercise ring."
• App:
  • https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/swimtivity/id1076174655?mt=8
• Support:
  • http://www.madebyjessie.com/swimtivity/

Great, thanks Jonathan! My watch is not showing Water Fitness in the list of possible names; it is jumping directly from Volleyball to Wrestling. So there is a difference between Apple Watch 1 and 2.

amblingalong wrote:

So I'll try using pool swim

As previously advised, this will not accurately track your results.

I suggest using "Other", as confirmed by Apple's recommendation of my reply here:

Re: Series 2 and water aerobics

amblingalong wrote:

... Hey Apple, there are a lot of aerobic people who would love the Apple Watch 2 if you give us a exercise toe for water aerobic.

If you would like to send feedback to Apple, you can do so here:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/watch.html

(You have posted in a user-based technical support community - you are not talking to Apple here).

When saving a workout that has been recorded using "Other" as the activity type, one of the available options for naming the workout (via the "Name Workout" option) is "Water Fitness", which is suitable / intended for labelling water aerobics workouts.

More information:

Work out with your Apple Watch - Apple Support

léonie wrote:

That is exactly the problem for owners of the first watch models. Because we cannot take them into the water, we need to run the "Other" workout on the watch, while it is waiting for us in the locker while we finish the swim. And then it would be nice to be able to label it correctly.

amblingalong's question does not relate to a 1st generation model.

If you would like to submit feedback to Apple regarding your own Apple Watch, you can do so here:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/watch.html

léonie, it is not necessary to name workouts that are recorded using "Other" as the activity type. Naming such workouts is optional and makes no difference to how results (calories burned, Exercise credit) are estimated.

For me it is important - I like to be able to see the type of the workout in the history. It may not be important, if you are only using one type of "other" workout, but I want to be able to see every month, how much swimming, biking, or dancing I have done and so I need to name the "other" workouts to keep them apart and correctly filed away. The accuracy of the calory burns is not that much important to me, but I know that others want them to be as precise as possible.

Neither Apple Watch (1st generation) nor Apple Watch Series 1 should be submerged in water (including being worn when swimming), which is reflected in the available preset workout activity types and "Other" workout naming options when using those models. (The question relates to a Series 2 model).

That is exactly the problem for owners of the first watch models. Because we cannot take them into the water, we need to run the "Other" workout on the watch, while it is waiting for us in the locker while we finish the swim. And then it would be nice to be able to label it correctly.

amblingalong, happy swimming with your nice watch!

Apple Watch Series 2 has two swimming workouts: Pool Swim and Open Water Swim. I'd use the Pool Swim.

Work out with your Apple Watch - Apple Support