Apple Watch as a Fitness Tracker

I stopped wearing wrist watches about 10 years ago. When the Apple Watch was announced, I was skeptic.

Why would I want anything on my wrist? Why would I want notifications of any sorts?

My husband works at Apple, and the employees get a 50% discount on the Watch. It was no brainer!

He bought me a 38mm stainless steel soft pink leather strap Apple Watch.  fact, I bought 2 wrist bands - one leather, and one sports band. 

I have had it for 2 weeks, and have been using it mostly as a fitness tracker.

The Set-up: Fairly simple. Leave it to Apple to make things easy for you. The Watch paired with my iPhone in about 5-10 minutes. The annoying part was that I had to update my iPhone 5S to iOS 8.1 or above first (which took 20 minutes). After the update, the pairing was fairly easy.

Since I was planning on using it as a tracker, I added some information such as my age, weight etc. 

Charging the Watch: Charging the Watch first time was a breeze. Apple still surprises me with their design after so many years. The Watch has a magnetic charger. It “sticks” to the Watch fairly easily. The Watch charged in perhaps, less then 15 minutes.

Why wouldn’t Apple apply a similar concept for charging their iPhones?

My fitness routine: I have a fairly active fitness routine. I run, body pump, train with a trainer, and work-out 5 times a week.

Use-Case 1: Using the Watch as a running tracker

Pain Points:

I started running earlier last year, and since then, I have been struggling to find a wearable that meets my needs.

I like to run without any props i.e. music, water bottles, ear-phones etc. I used to “wear” my iPhone on my wrist (which was inconvenient) with a wrist band. I bought a $9.99 marathon training app for running guidance. The app tracked pace, distance covered, calories, and mapped my route.

The annoying part was:

1. Pausing and resuming the app was distracting. I would need to fiddle with the strap, and pause / resume it. 
2. Running with this huge iPhone on your wrist was idiotic.
3. A couple of times, the app would randomly stop, or get stuck.
4. While running, I would like to know which leg muscle is making more effort. Am I using the right running form? Am I using left leg muscles more Vs. the right muscles? How do I prevent injuries? How do I improve my pace? How do I improve my running form? I want my “smart” device to guide me real-time.

The workout:

On Saturday afternoon, I decided to take my Watch for a test run. Apple recommends running with the iPhone, in addition to wearing the Watch for improved accuracy.

Well, what is the point of this Watch, if I still need to carry my iPhone while running?

Duh!

I ditched my iPhone.

I set my goal: 3 miles outdoor run. The Watch tracked my run - distance, workout time, active calories, resting calories, total calories, average pace, heart rate quite nicely. The Watch does an excellent job of monitoring the heart rate, while running. I could easily do interval runs, and measure my heart rate effectively.

A few surprises: 
I thought this Watch would be so distracting, but I hardly noticed it during my run. I tilted my wrist a little, and saw my progress, and then the screen disappeared. Loved the subtlety of it. Another surprise was that Halfway, through the workout, it tapped me to tell me that I had met half of my goal. And, finally, I could easily pause, or resume my run.

Overall, I enjoyed my run with the Watch.

A few off instances: 
While running, I spotted a swing. I decided to test the “smarts” of this Watch (also, I am a sucker for swings!). Instead of running, I went on the swing, and started swinging.

The Watch still kept tracking my distance, as well as the pace, which went from 8:40 to 29:15 suddenly!

Ok, this was a problem.

The Watch obviously thought that I was still running. The Watch should be smart enough to sense something is off when the pace dropped that suddenly. Perhaps, it thought I was walking eh?

So, I put that to test as well.

I started running again, and then suddenly stopped and started walking. The pace dropped from 8:40 to 17:15.

It is believable that the Watch thinks the person is walking, but I would still argue that the Watch should be smart enough to sense what kind of motion makes up as running, walking, or swinging!

I would have preferred to get an alert of some sort from the Watch. Maybe something like, “Hey Shalu, are we measuring your run right. Are you still running?"

Overall, the Watch solved my 1, 2, and 3 pain points. Pain point 4 still remains unsolved.

If you know of a device that will solve my pain point 4, please let me know.

I will continue to use my Watch while running.

Use Case 2: Using the Watch as a training tracker

Pain Points:

I love working out with my trainer, but I would like to know my heart rate, and calories burned during the workout.

I train for 50-minutes twice a week. He has helped me lose 4% of body fat in 12 sessions. We burn about 500 calories every time we train. Although, I have seen the results in measurements (before & after), I still want to be able to see data (heart rate, calories) when I am doing circuit training, or using battle ropes.

The workout:

The good: The Watch does an excellent job of measuring your heart rate during circuit training. For instance; while doing battle ropes, it accurately measured my heart rate. My heart rate went up from 120 to 177BPM. Or, while doing the plank (no motion, but effort), it measured my heart rate correctly; I saw it go up from 120 to 136BPM

Why is heart rate important?

When you are trying to loose weight, you need to focus on interval training. Let’s say, your heart rate is at 177BPM at the end of the first set of circuit training. You need to let it drop to 110BPM before you start the second set for effective weight loss.

The Watch measured the heart rate beautifully throughout the training session - battle ropes, TRX, circuit training, stability exercises, lunges, abs exercises etc. 

The bad: The Watch does not calculate the calories burned in some exercises accurately. I have noticed it several times. At the end of my 50-minute session, I had burned 250 calories, including resting calories, which is low considering how hard I train.

I tested the calorie count on a stationary bike as well. The machine said I had burned 50 calories, while my Watch said, I had burned 18. The heart rate was measured accurately.

Calorie count, heart rate, and diet go hand in hand when you are trying to lose weight. I wish it would calculate the calories correctly, but I do like the fact that I can guide my workout based on my heart rate, and achieve better results.

I would continue to use it while training.

Use Case 3: Using the Watch for Body Pump

Pain Points:

I want to be able to measure reps, sets, learn to make my left leg stronger while doing lunges. I also want to be able to measure the muscle effort that is exerted when I pick 20 lbs vs. 40 lbs while squatting.

The workout:

I went for a 50-minute Body Pump class.

After 50-minutes of sweating weights, squats, triceps dips, biceps curls, clean and presses, I looked at the Watch.

Only 215 calories burned! What??!

My heart rate was at 99BPM

Body Pump is a complete workout, and I only burned 215 calories in that hour?

I knew going in to the class that the Watch will not be able to solve my pain points. However, I did not foresee that more than being motivated, and feeling good about my workout, I was actually disappointed, although my body was screaming otherwise.

I have doubts that the Watch monitored the workout accurately. How can every rep and set in the class measure a steady amount of calories when these reps and sets target different muscle group? You may feel more burn in your leg muscles vs. your biceps.

I doubt that I will use it for Body Pump. The data presented by the Watch gave me little satisfaction.

Moments of Delight

There have been a few moments (unrelated to fitness tracking) with the Watch that have been delightful.

I had been wearing the Watch for about an hour when my toddler asked me to pick her up, and give her a hug. Just at that very moment, my friend calls. My toddler wouldn’t break the hug. I answered my friend’s call through my Watch while hugging my daughter. I did not have to put her down, and pick up the Phone to answer a call. The ease with which I answered the call was brilliant!

In another instance; I was cooking in the kitchen and my daughter was listening to some music on my iPhone in the living room. At one point, I did not like what she was listening to, I used my Watch to fast-forward it with much ease.

Bottom Line:

I am in the honeymoon stage with my Watch. I am still learning about its personality, functionally, and compatibility. It remains to be seen whether we will stick together, or break up. 

At a price tag of $375, I get to try a new piece of technology, and satisfy 75% of my fitness needs. That is certainly gratifying.

I keep thinking that perhaps, the future of fitness wearables is not on the wrist, or body, but in the fabric.

Author Shalu Attri