We all know the Apple Watch can be a great ally to help us get in shape. Now it’s the getting there that can be the problem. Sometimes the biggest hurdle outside of willpower is just knowing what features exist and which metrics you should be paying attention to. Today I’m showing you the 4 Apple Watch features I’m using to level up my fitness routine and get back into peak shape. I’m Hariana, and for those of you who know me, I’m back. And for those of you who don’t know me, I was a CNET reporter for 8 years, and after a brief hiatus, I’m now back with the CNET Voices contributors program sharing tips and tricks with you. Now if you’re just getting started, closing your move rings is a great place to start. Not only does it keep you honest about how much or how little you’re doing. It actually kind of gamifies the whole exercise experience which to me makes it a little more fun and somewhat addictive. Now if like me you’re already doing that, you’re doing the basics and you want to step it up, then you’re gonna have to work out harder and dig a little bit deeper to find those metrics. Now the good news is you may not actually have to completely alter your existing fitness routine unless you want to, and you maybe want to spend more time at the gym, which is great for you just as a mom of three, not realistic for me. I got to work with what. Go and make my existing workouts more intense. One way to measure intensity on your Apple Watch is using your heart rate zones. During a workout, your watch categorizes your live heart rate data into 5 different zones based on your maximum heart rate. In zones 1 and 2, your body is mostly burning fat. Beyond that, as you get closer to zone 5, which is your maximum, our body starts burning more carbs. Once you know where you want to be in terms of your goals, you can start using this data as cues during your workout. I love this. Because it lets me take action live while I’m still in the workout. My usual running route ends on a hill, so old me would just lose steam and walk up as a cool down. New me sprints up that hill with a baby stroller in my hand just to peek at zone 5 for a few seconds. To activate heart rate zones on your watch, go to your workout of choice and press on the 3 dots on the top right. Now scroll down to the bottom and hit preferences. Workout views and scroll down to heart rate zones. Some workouts like running and cycling have it on by default, but not all. Once you’ve toggled it on, scroll down to reorder and move it to the top if you want to have it as your main workout page. The Apple Watch uses your individual biometric data to calculate your own heart rate zones, so that’s what I use, but you can also customize it directly on the settings app from your watch. Once you’ve figured out what your starting point is by either reviewing old heart rate data on the fitness app or monitoring it live, you can really pinpoint what pushing yourself looks like for you. Whether for cardio or strength training, just don’t go near zone 5 if you’re just starting out. I’ve also set up alerts on my Apple Watch that notify me when I’ve reached my goals or when I’m kind of dipping below it. This can be for a specific heart rate zone, which I’ve done for most of my workouts or for different goals like pace and intervals. Hit the three dots again and go to preferences. Next, scroll down to alerts. These will vary by exercise, so it’s worth poking around the different options. These are my pace alerts, and this is how I set up interval times for strength training. This keeps me focused on crushing my goal rather than having to look at my wrist all the time. Now another way to measure intensity is through a new feature called Training load. This one is new to Watch OS 11 and sadly not available for Apple Watch models before the Series 6. It ranks the intensity of your workout on a scale from 1 to 10 as it compares to your 28 day average. Unlike Heart rate zone, this data is displayed after the fact on the workout summary. Once the results are in, there’s not much you can do, but you can use the data to guide your next workout and cut back. Or push yourself a little bit more. You can also see the past 7 days’ worth of data by clicking on the move ring and then that graph on the top right. The Apple Watch will do this automatically for some workouts like running and cycling, or you can grade yourself manually for any one of them. You’ll find even more data on the fitness app on your iPhone. Scroll down to the all categories, tap training load and toggle the date range. In my 7 day average, I’ve clearly started to lose some steam, so my goal would be just to start trending upward again. Now let’s talk about measuring progress over time. Now jeans don’t lie, but stretchy pants, they do. So I needed a better way to measure my progress than just the waistband plus muscle is more dense than fat, so you may not even see a big change on the scale even though your health is improving by a lot. For this, I’m using a metric called cardio fitness, and it’s hidden in the health app. Your cardio fitness score is basically Apple’s fancy term for your VO2 max or. Maximum amount of oxygen your body can use during exercise, and according to Apple, it’s a strong indicator of your overall health. Your score is categorized into 4 different levels high, above average, below average, and low. Humble brag, no big deal. I’m at a level high, but I have plateaued over the last couple of weeks, and my goal would be to get closer to 50, which is where I was before my 3rd pregnancy. And realistically I could expect to get there in about 4 months, but let’s be honest, the holidays are coming up and I’m just happy with an upward trends at this point. I’m also not a physician, so please check in with yours before you make any major changes to your existing fitness routine, especially as it relates to heart rate. Safety first. Now for all things Apple Watch, make sure to check out CNET.com. I’ll see you next time.

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