Technology
watchOS 11 fixes my latest Apple Watch complaint and I couldn’t be happier
I love my Apple Watch Ultra and have been using the tech giant’s smartwatches since they debuted in 2015.
During that time, they’ve helped me achieve new fitness goals every year, whether that’s running further or lifting heavier. The Apple Watch even helped me get medical attention for an underlying heart problem that would have gone undiagnosed without the Apple Watch.
The Apple Watch has been a big part of my life during that time, but there has always been one major flaw: it didn’t know when to stop…
Apple Watch’s biggest problem
Imagine this: you have achieved a new personal record by running, for example, 10 kilometers. Your muscles ache badly and you know you have to take a recovery day the next day. But like clockwork (pun intended), your Apple Watch will nudge you and try to get you moving again.
It’s not just big sessions either. Sometimes it’s just nice to have a rest day and play computer games – yes, it’s fine I have non-fitness hobbies too, Apple Watch – or you suffer a minor injury that requires you to be away from the gym for a day or your running route of choice.
Simply put, the Apple Watch couldn’t compete with Fitbit trackers that add up sleep, workouts, muscle fatigue, and more to compile a useful Daily Readiness Score. The higher the score, the safer it is to push yourself and minimize the risk of injury. Lower score? It might be wise to take it slower.
The idea is simple, but the execution is much smarter than I am
Why watchOS 11 will solve this problem
This (quite annoying) bug is fixed this time by a few new watchOS 11 features. The first, customizable Activity Rings, is nice and easy.
You can now adjust your activity goals on a daily basis, so shift workers no longer have to panic about getting their steps in, and workers on long-haul flights no longer have to walk from one side of the plane to the other over and over again.
It is also ideal in everyday life, especially for anyone, like me, with children and the ever-changing calendar that comes with it, when you are not sure when your next training day will be at any given time.
So you can now pause your Apple Watch activity ‘Streak’ if you sustain an injury, but the other new feature may also help you avoid it. You can pause it for a day, week, month or longer.
We are also introducing Training Load.
“Training Load helps users understand the strain on their body from workouts over the last seven days, compared to the last 28 days,” Apple says.
The idea is simple, but the execution is much smarter than I am. Your cardio workout now generates data that Apple’s new algorithm can analyze into an effort rating on a scale of 1 to 10, from easy to intense. This works together with data from the Health app, such as your height, weight, age and GPS data for outdoor activities.
You can also add effort ratings to non-cardio workouts, and the result is that you can map out the next 28 days of your exercise intensity level, and how hard you should push on a given workout.
If you take it too easy, your Apple Watch could theoretically give you a gentle kick in the ass. If you do it too hard, it will suggest that you take it a little slower, resulting in a more balanced experience.
Between these two new features, I can happily put my best foot forward with my workouts knowing that I’m no longer doomed to receiving “You haven’t closed your activity rings today” messages at 10pm at night while I’m trying to relax .
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