The Apple Watch is a fantastic device that has gradually become oriented towards health, training measurement, heart constants in our body and after the addition of new sensors also other important measurements such as blood oxygen saturation. However, we’re not aware of everything we can learn from the Apple Watch’s health features and that is why I want to tell you all about them here. Ready to get the most out of your device?
Let’s start with the native health and sports features (or physical activity) that our Apple Watch brings with the iPhone and we will later make a a quick tour of some of the best third-party apps which offer different things from what we have natively in watchOS.
Health Features (iPhone)
The two main places we should go to check aspects of health and physical activity on our iPhone are in two native apps:
In the Fitness application we have a complete panel that shows us our physical activity and movement data. Just scroll down when you open it to see a summary of your latest workouts (not only physical, but also Mindfulness) and the interesting trending section, where you can view each of them in detail for the last 12 months and a daily average for each day of the week. Always compare the last 3 months with the previous 9.
This fitness app also includes the Apple Fitness+ service in the middle tab, where you can contract it directly for $9.99/month or with the annual package of $79.99/year. If you rented it, here You can search for workouts of all kinds: kickboxing, meditation, yoga, pilates, HIIT, core, strength, cycling, etc.. If you do a workout through Fitness+, a summary will be added the same as the rest of the workout you do with the Apple Watch on the main Fitness screen and you can enter to see the details.
On the other hand we have the Health app, which stores a bunch of metrics divided into different categories including a part similar to Fitness with activity, body measurements, menstrual cycle monitoring, hearing, heart measurements, medications, mindfulness, mobility, nutrition, breathing, sleep and much more.
We can add all these metrics manually for our tracking or if we have the Apple Watch many of them will be completed automatically as the days go by and as he gets details for each of them. Other accessories that have access to the Health app and can automatically save data can also be used.
Health functions (Apple Watch)
While the iPhone serves as a “viewer” and storage of all health and physical activity data, the Apple Watch is our best ally to obtain data for each of the metrics described in the previous section. It does this automatically (and what fun it is) so wearing it and enjoying it forgets us to fill in the data manually. Some of the best metrics the Apple Watch gives us are as follows.
High or low heart rate notifications
A very important feature for many people who cannot (for health reasons) exceed certain beats per minute. If what you want is that your Apple Watch notifies you when your heart is pumping at a certain rate (up and down) or stay in this rhythm for more than 10 minutes (at rest), just:
- open the Watch app on iPhone
- Scroll down the menu and select Heart
- In the section Freq. other cardiac, choose the keystrokes we want to be notified about
- In the section Freq. low heart ratechoose the keystrokes we want to be notified about
Irregular Heartbeat Notifications
We can enable this feature to notify us (according to the description itself) cWhen Apple Watch identifies heart rhythms that may be atrial fibrillation or not considered normal. This feature may not be available in some regions and depends on the availability of ECG in your region.
To activate it and be able to make it operational, you just have to follow these steps:
- open the Watch app on iPhone
- Scroll down the menu and select Heart
- Activate it to fall over “irregular rhythm”
ECG and atrial fibrillation
As I mentioned in the previous section, ECG must be active in your area for these two features to be available. It will depend on the approval of the health authorities in the region and Apple is increasing the number of regions in which it is available over time.
Despite atrial fibrillation is also monitored in the background As indicated in the previous section, when performing an ECG, it also gives you an indication at that time.
To obtain an ECG, all you have to do is go to the dedicated application on the Apple Watch and follow the steps indicated. Later, You can see the result in Health app on your iPhone, in the explore section, Heart and Electrocardiogram.
Aerobic capacity and recovery
Apple bases its aerobic capacity designation on VO2 max.. It does this in the following way: It is the measurement of your VO2 max, which refers to the maximum oxygen capacity your body is capable of consuming during exercise. It’s a very powerful metric for defining your overall physical health and predicting your long-term health..
On another side, aerobic recovery is less known, but the Apple Watch is still able to measure it and we can see it in the summary of any training we do. This measurement is none other than the number of beats per minute that you decrease after the effort (HRR in English: Heart Rate Recovery) and measures how quickly your heart responds to the nervous system. The faster you lower your heart rate, the better your recovery will be.
HRV or variation in your heart rate
The heart rate variation is automatically detected by your Apple Watch but If you want to check the data collected from this variable, you can only do so through the Health app on the iPhone. You can do it directly in the categories part, in the Heart section.
Now well, What is this HRV? Well, this variable measures the evolution of the time interval between two heartbeats. It is measured in milliseconds and it makes more sense to view it as a trend than a point value, as it can vary from day to day. This variable is considered one of the most important in the world of health not only to know your physical condition but it can also give indications of mortality (and without going into too much detail since we are not experts and always in medical matters it is better to have a specialist).
In sporting matters, HRV is used to better understand when your body is ready for more intense exertion and training or when you need a break. Many third-party apps on the Apple Watch use it for this purpose.
Basic and historical information about the heart
From the Apple Watch itself, we have the ability to access some of the recorded data from our core. To do this, just go to heart rate app (the icon is red with the silhouette of a heart inside). Once inside, we can see different information simply by sliding or rotating the crown of the Apple Watch to scroll the screen:
- current heart rate (always updated when opening the app) and information about the last measurement at the bottom of the app.
- resting heart rate (average daily data)
- Average heart rate while walking (average daily data)
- Average running heart rate (average daily data)
in each of them you can click and go to a small chart where you can see the pulsations you have had for each of the modalities throughout the hours of the day.
This information You can also see it on iPhoneby searching for Heart in the menu and searching for those same categories with the same names.
sleep monitoring
Apple included native sleep monitoring with the Apple Watch a long time ago, but to obtain much more data and especially to understand them and that they give you an analysis of your sleep and help you orient your day according to your state of health, It is strongly recommended to use a third-party application. Some of our favorites are:
- Softer series: It gives you information on your sleep, your physical activity and also allows you to follow in a very visual way all your workouts with your Apple Watch application. It is also compatible with live activities. Without a doubt, one of the most complete applications.
- Auto Standby: Focused on your sleep stages, With a very simple and visual interface, it gives you all the information about how you slept
- Others: Sleep tracking, Pillow, Sleep+. All you have to do is find the one that best suits your needs and tastes.
We have very powerful devices between us to be able to achieve understand, treat and improve our health with them. Let’s make the most of it.
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