By Rom Feria
Ever since I used an Apple Watch, I have been conscious about those three rings: Move, Exercise and Stand. Of the three rings, Stand, in inner ring, is the easiest to close, but it is one that you can do over time, at least twelve (12) hours. Essentially requires you to stand for a minute every hour.
The middle ring, Exercise, is the most challenging to close. The Exercise ring requires 30-minutes of physical activity, at a certain intensity, as measured/monitored via your heart-rate. I make it a point that I complete this ring in the morning — mostly before I start working. I mostly jog in the morning and aim to complete two miles, with each mile under 15 minutes. The Apple Watch helps me monitor this, whilst listening to music, saved on the watch from Apple Music, on my AirPods. Here’s a list of playlists that I listen to:
• 180 Main, shared by my good friend, Joel Suplido.
• A Rise and Shine Run, by Apple Music
• Ultimate Walk, by Power Music Workout
• Pop Workout, by Apple Music
I used to listen to podcasts when I bring my iPhone with me during my jog, but I decided to leave it on my desk a few months ago. I can’t wait for the next watchOS this September, so podcasts will be supported on the watch. Would also help if we can get LTE on the Apple Watch supported by Smart and Globe.
The Apple Watch also tracks your heart-rate recovery. In my case, I am hoping that regular exercise will improve my HRR — trying to keep it upwards of 22.
The outer ring, the Move ring, is the most flexible one as it is dependent on your target number of calories to burn during the day. At first, the target is easy to achieve as it is determined based on your height and weight. As you achieve the goal every day, for a week, the watch will nudge you to set a higher goal at the start of a new week. Mind you, it does not get any easier, as the watch increases the target considerably. In my case, when I figured out a certain number that is not too easy, nor too difficult to achieve, I stuck with it. Whenever I think I can do a higher target, I do adjust the target, but it is not that often.
Close Your Rings
Like Eric, on the Apple commercial, I feel the same way at the end of each day. If one of the rings is incomplete, I make it a point that I exert extra effort to complete it. At this point, the Stand ring starts to be the difficult one to complete, specially when it is already 9PM and you need 2 notches on the ring to complete it — means you can’t take off the watch and make sure that you stand for a minute for every hour, for the next two hours! A couple of minutes of jumping jack, which I often do when I’m in my hotel room when traveling, will close the two other rings.
I have used other fitness bands before, e.g., Jawbone Up and Xiaomi Mi Band, but nothing encourages me to push for a better health than the Apple Watch. Mind you, all of these features, the monitoring and the nudging, are done on device (both on the watch and the iPhone) — no uploading to the web (except when you back it up)! You can share your progress with friends with Apple Watch as well, and with the next watchOS, you can even send them challenges (right now, you need a third party app to do this), or challenge yourself to complete the monthly challenges sent by Apple, including setting a streak (consecutive days of completing all the rings).
So, have you closed your rings?