How to Use Heart Rate Zone Tracking on Apple Watch
Apple unveiled new training capabilities with the release of watchOS 9 that are meant to advance your level of fitness. Heart rate zones are one of these new characteristics. What they are for and how to utilize them are covered in this article.
With each new watchOS version, Apple has shifted its focus more toward fitness, and the most recent version, watchOS 9, brings more metrics to your wrist than ever before on the Apple Watch.
Now that heart rate zones can be viewed in real time for any cardio-based exercise, you may check your wrist at any moment to discover what heart rate zone you're in when jogging, for instance.
What Are Heart Rate Zones?
A percentage of your maximal heart rate, or the number of beats per minute, is represented by each heart rate zone. These zones may be utilized as training thresholds that inform you of your degree of effort, how hard your heart is working, and whether you are burning fat or carbs for energy.
As your heart rate increases, your oxygen intake decreases, placing a greater demand on your body to manufacture glycogen from carbs to feed your muscles. However, this is compensated by the fact that you are burning fewer calories overall than if you were exercising at a greater intensity. In contrast, the lower the heart rate zone, the more fat you burn.
You may optimize your training and push yourself to get fitter by keeping an eye on your heart rate zone. For instance, you might want to push yourself into the next heart rate zone once you can do so comfortably for the duration of your workout. In general, it's a sign of a stronger heart when you can raise and maintain effort at a higher heart rate zone.
How to View Your Heart Rate Zone During a Workout
Only if you've input your date of birth in the Health app on your iPhone will the Heart Rate Zones on your Apple Watch be automatically generated and customised using your health data.
- Launch the Workout app on your Apple Watch.
- Begin a cardio-focused workout, such as an outdoor run.
- Turn the Digital Crown to the Heart Rate Zone workout view.
The five Heart Rate Zone portions, which represent effort levels ranging from mild to more difficult, are displayed. In addition, you'll notice your average heart rate, time spent in the current zone, and your current zone's information.
How to Review Your Heart Rate Zone Data
Do the following to get a graph showing the anticipated amount of time you spend in each Heart Rate Zone:
- Launch the Fitness app on your iPhone.
- Tap a workout, then tap Show More next to Heart Rate.
How to Edit Your Heart Rate Zones
You may manually change your zones if you'd prefer not to rely on your Apple Watch to determine them based on your health information.
- Launch the Settings app on your Apple Watch.
- Tap through to Workout -> Heart Rate Zones.
- Tap Manual.
- Tap Zone 2, Zone 3, or Zone 4, then enter lower and upper limits.
Zones may also be modified in the iPhone Watch app. You may access the same three zones to enter higher and lower limits by tapping the My Watch tab, selecting Workout from the heart rate zones menu, and then tapping Manual.
