How to Use Heart Rate Zone Tracking on Apple Watch
With the debut of watchOS 9, Apple introduced new workout features aimed at taking your personal fitness to the next level. One of these new features is heart rate zones. This article explains what they are for and how to use them.
Apple has continued to lean toward fitness with the release of each new version of watchOS, and the latest version, watchOS 9, adds more metrics to your wrist than ever before on the Apple Watch.
You can now view real-time heart rate zones for any type of cardio-based workout. So if you’re running, for example, you can always look at your wrist and see what heart rate zone you’re currently in.
What are heart rate zones?
Each heart rate zone is a percentage of your maximum heart rate, or the number of beats it beats per minute. These zones can be used as training levels, letting you know your intensity level, how hard your heart is working, and whether you’re using carbs or fat for energy.
The higher the heart rate zone, the lower your oxygen uptake and the more your body relies on carbohydrates to produce glycogen to fuel your muscles. The lower the heart rate zone, the more fat you burn, but this is offset by the fact that you burn fewer calories overall than when you exercise at a higher intensity.
By monitoring your heart rate zone, you can make your workouts more efficient and challenge yourself to improve your fitness. For example, if you can easily stay in a certain heart rate zone throughout your workout, you might want to push yourself into the next zone. In general, the ability to increase and sustain workload at a higher heart rate range indicates your heart is getting stronger.
How to view your heart rate zone during a workout
Heart rate zones are automatically calculated and personalized on Apple Watch based on your health data, but only if you’ve entered your date of birth in the Health app on your iPhone.
- start the Work out App on your Apple Watch.
- Start with cardio-focused exercise, such as B. an outdoor run.
- turn the Digital Crown to the training view of the heart rate zone.
The heart rate zones are presented in five segments, which indicate the level of exertion from light to progressively harder. You’ll also see your current zone, heart rate, time in current zone, and your average heart rate.
How to check your heart rate zone data
To view a graph showing the estimated time spent in each heart rate zone, do the following:
- start the fitness App on your iPhone.
- Tap a workout, then tap show more next to heart rate.
How to edit your heart rate zones
If you’d rather not rely on your Apple Watch to calculate your zones based on your health data, you can edit them manually.
- start the settings App on your Apple Watch.
- Tap through to Training -> Heart Rate Zones.
- Beat Manual.
- Beat zone 2, zone 3or zone 4then enter lower and upper limit.
You can also edit zones in the watch App for “iPhone”. Tap the My clock tab, go to Training -> Heart Rate Zonesthen tap Manualand you can access the same three zones to enter upper and lower limits.