When I first got an Apple Watch it was running Watch OS 7. Most of my daily exercise is walking my dog for 6 or 8 miles. Closing the move ring was a piece of cake. But closing the exercise ring was hard, and I didn't have it set for a high value. I couldn't imagine what Apple considered a "brisk pace." I tried walking faster (not always easy with a dog in tow). I added more hills in to keep my heart rate up — some days the Health app credited me with walking 20 or more flights of stairs, but the exercise ring would be barely completed.
Then came Watch OS 8, and everything changed. Now it's the opposite. I can take the dog out for a stroll around a few blocks and close the exercise ring. But that move ring barely... moves. Something obviously changed in the algorithm, and you can see the spike in exercise in the yearly stats. But I didn't change my actual exercise at all. I'm still doing the same 6 or 8 sometimes hilly miles every day. Now I just go for the goals I think I can hit and ignore the rest. It's fun to hit them, but I'm not going to kill myself for a stupid algorithm that only cares that I do more until I collapse.
I sent two suggestions to Apple. I doubt that either will be implemented, but hope springs eternal. My suggestions were:
1) Recognize sick days and rest days. Bodies need time to recover after exercise. People get sick. Down time can be good time. Other fitness trackers recognize this. Apple should be doing it better.
2) Instead of just one goal every month, suggest three goals — one for each ring — and let me decide which one I want to go for.
Maybe if more of us send in these suggestions, somebody will take notice.
I get this. My Move goal was 720 before my surgery. Post surgery, I was lucky to get 100. I adjusted my Move goal to 200, and it's stayed there since. I worked my butt off to get to 200. Now, I have 'bad days', and it's hard to peak that small number. I am old. I have 'off days', I have days when I am paying for the previous 'good days'.
I think, when you are young, you have the
luxury of a body that recovers quickly, and can lose weight, and gain muscle easy. I can gain weight pretty easily, and gravity is definitely a huge draw, but the consistency from day to day, week to week, and month to month isn't what it was. I'm not saying that I'm ready for hospice, but I am also saying that the days of beating myself to a pulp and recovering for the next day. (Or it could be that I'm still recovering from surgery, or have an 'extenuating circumstance' (COVID?))
Thinking more about what's possible and practical is more important now. If the craplet tells me to kill myself to get the special award for the month, I can say 'No!'. Some months I will have to say no, even 'HELL NO!' on occasion.
I'm not ready to die, and am not surrendering, but I am perhaps listening to my body (for the first time?) and will not feel shame for a 200 on my Move goal, and 15 minutes on the Exercise goal. When I was 'young' (I'm still young!) I also recovered from injury way more quickly, and I would really rather avoid pain, self caused pain, as much as I can.
So the craplet really may want to kill us, but WE have the ability to pass on the prescription for permanent reminders of temporary feelings. We are NOT immortal. I grew out of that sometime around the year I hit 20. HAH!
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Just to clarify, I am also NOT asking for a 'Silver Activity App'. I
GAG at all the 'Silver' crap on the market. I realize I am probably an outlier, and for my age, am in really great health (all considered), but refuse to be lumped in with the lumps that ride the couch and think that 5 minutes on a rickety 80's era exercise bike shaped object is amazing. As long as I can do it, I will FIGHT AGING LIKE A GLADIATOR!!! Shove that sliver' crap up your... And I did not join AARP, someone thought it would be hysterical to sign me up as a prank. Shove it. I intend to go out fighting as best as I can, but I will not hurt myself following an app made for people that are cursed with a younger body.
Hope that makes sense.
I'm not dead. At least not yet...
