One thing always bothered me about the Apple Watch. Rain or shine, in sickness and in health, I was driven to close the rings. Never mind if I had Covid-19, ankle sprains or was in a dark place mentally. It pushed me to be a “better” version of myself, as long as it preferably didn’t involve a day off. But with watchOS 11 — the public beta of which arrives today — it looks like the Apple Watch is finally cutting me some slack.
This is largely due to a trio of new features: the new Vitals app, the training load feature, and the ability to pause your Activity Rings. I waxed lyrical about the latter right after WWDC, but after spending some time with the developer beta program, I’m convinced these are the smartest fitness updates Apple has released in years.
The Vitals app and the Training Load feature are technically two separate things, but in practice, they go very hand in hand. The Vitals app contextualizes a set of metrics: heart rate, breathing rate, wrist temperature, blood oxygen and sleep duration. These are all recovery metrics, most often bundled into other apps as standby results, except Apple’s version doesn’t give you a single point. Rather, it tells you whether your metrics are “typical” or “outliers.” If two or more metrics are out of range, you’ll get a notification and some options to why certain metrics are incorrect.
The Training Load feature is also straightforward. It compares and visualizes your seven-day versus 28-day training load. Based on this, you can see if you are far below, below, stable, above or far above your usual activity levels. It breaks this down not only by overall activity, but also by individual activity types (eg running, pilates, cycling, etc.). After a workout, you can also rate your perceived exertion level. For popular workouts like running, it will automatically set your effort level. (You can edit it manually if you don’t agree, which I did occasionally, though it’s broadly accurate.)
It’s been nice to have both of these features over the past month, although, like most updates to watchOS 11, they’re a bit passive. For example, I haven’t had a single Vitals notification because, well, all my vitals have stayed within their typical range. Glad I’m consistent! That’s not a bad thing – you don’t they want to receive frequent notifications. It’s more than having the quick look of “is everything weird?” it’s helpful when you’re on the fence about whether to push it or take a day off.
This is also the benefit of training load, especially for people younger in training or exercise. I’m experienced enough to know that my current training load is a bit skewed because I took a whole week off from training over the holidays. (A little around the time I downloaded the beta.) However IS a handy visual reminder for me when I’m way over my 28 day base that I can take a day off. A day off won’t set me back.
Apple isn’t doing anything here that we haven’t seen from Garmin, Polar, Oura, Fitbit, Whoop, or any other health and fitness tracker in the past five years. In contrast, Apple’s version makes these concepts easily digestible for beginners. It’s also less data overload for burned-out athletes. Combined with the ability to pause alarms or customize your goals based on the day of the week, you have a much more flexible fitness tracking experience on the world’s most popular smartwatch. This is a huge deal.
Ultimately, these features make Apple Watch’s fitness tracking platform more personalized, which seems to be the main theme of watchOS 11. Instead of a blanket approach of always doing more, you can alternative choices based on your current day-to-day circumstances. I’m still testing a bunch of other watchOS 11 features, but as far as the fitness tracking updates go, I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how it’s encouraged me to be kinder to myself.
My main gripe is that Apple still doesn’t tell you to take a day off. You should draw conclusions from phrases like “heal as needed if you start to feel sick” or “you have been in the range above or much higher for 14 days”. I also lost Vitals data for a few nights because I had to charge my watch overnight—a reminder that battery life and charging times remain the Achilles’ heel of smartwatches. But in general, this is still much more sustainable long-term for most people than the previous general approach of “always do more”. Maybe in watchOS 12, the Apple Watch will finally force me to put my feet up on the couch. But for now, baby steps are still steps in the right direction.