The Apple Watch Activity Rings are pointless

[Iwavvns]

I submit to you that the Apple Watch Activity Rings are pointless. Let me explain.

I purchased an Apple Watch series 10, cellular version, for the purposes of determining if I could leave my iPhone at home and just wear my Apple Watch when I’m out and about. So far it is working out perfectly, except that I find the Activity Rings horribly misleading.

The Stand Ring

I typically walk 10 to 15 miles per day with a 20 mile hike once per week - I’m ex-military and enjoy walking/hiking. I’m 62 years old, 145 lbs. and can lift 150 lbs. with moderate effort. I usually close all of my rings in the first two hours of my day. I have a friend, I’ll call her “Jane”, who brags that she also “closes her rings daily”. Jane is overweight and sits in front of the television most days. I visit her often and she typically stands for 60 seconds each hour in order to close her Stand Ring. Sometimes Jane uses this time to walk to the fridge to grab a Dr. Pepper and then to the cabinet to grab a candy bar or potato chips and then plops back down in front of the television. I have invited Jane to walk around the block with me but she needs several breaks, complains of “sweating too much” and that it “takes too much effort”. Besides, she says, “I close all of my rings so I’m being healthy.” She is 22 years old.

I have to ask, why was the Stand Ring even created? There is no way for the Activity app to know what is happening during this “stand session”, as seen above, so it shouldn’t even be seen as a health benefit.

We both close all of our Apple Watch rings daily, but which of us do you think has a good chance of seeing their 75th birthday. Think about it; exactly how many obese 75 year old people have you ever seen?

The Exercise Ring

I intentionally walk uphill because it requires more effort than flat terrain. Many times I notice my Apple Watch reporting that I have walked 4 or so miles, most of it uphill, but the Exercise Ring only reports 19 minutes of exercise for the entire walk. Now, someone please explain to me how a person can walk for 4 miles, most of it uphill, and only show 19 minutes of exercise for it. Four miles of walking usually takes me over an hour.

Is it really a challenge?

I see lots of people responding to various Apple Watch Activity Challenges with “easy peasy”, or “make it harder next time”. A challenge is defined as something that test’s one’s abilities. Is it really a challenge if it is so easy to complete? I remember one of the badges in the Apple Watch Activity app stating “earn this badge after completing a 5-minute workout.” A 5-minute workout?! One cannot even complete a proper warmup in 5 minutes, let alone an entire workout.

The best workout log

I was told years ago by a weightlifting trainer: “you can write down whatever you want in your logbook. But your body will log your true workout activity.” And he was right.

Conclusion

I’m fully aware that I can disable all health tracking on the Apple Watch. I did that last month and the watch seemed to burn through the battery life much faster. So, I reenabled the fitness tracking so I could go back to charging the watch every evening. Don’t get me wrong, the Apple Watch series 10 is a wonderful device for what it does. But, what about the people who think Apple know what they’re doing and rely on the Activity Rings for physical fitness?


Dear Apple: I really feel that this “close your rings” BS needs to stop.. it’s clearly pointless from a physical health perspective. Go spend four weeks with military basic training and you’ll learn the true definition of “physical fitness”.

 

[Apple_Robert]

The Apple Rings closure is simply a motivational guide. It in no way states or implies (via daily closure) that the wearer of the Apple device is physically fit, much less suggesting the wearer doesn't have any cause for outward or internal medical concerns.

I don't think the close rings aspect is "BS." A lot of people who haven't exercised in a long time (or ever) can find motivation from using the device, as well as with other users of like mind.

In my opinion, the real problem appears to be you judging Jane and others based on your personal experience and expectations of what you deem to be acceptable fitness.

I think your rant is very judgmental and ill-conceived.

 

[smirking]

Agreeing with @Apple_Robert. Use the rings as you wish. You can set it so you can close them by walking 500 steps. It's entirely up to you.

Also, you can levy the exact same criticism for nearly all of the stats that Apple Watch gives you. Very few of them are ironclad. If you want to game the system, you can game it.

As with all things fitness, if you cheat, you only cheat yourself. If someone is doing that, I don't care and it's none of my business unless they're a family member and I'm responsible for their well being.

 

[StumpyBloke]

The Apple Rings closure is simply a motivational guide. It in no way states or implies (via daily closure) that the wearer of the Apple device is physically fit, much less suggesting the wearer doesn't have any cause for outward or internal medical concerns.

I don't think the close rings aspect is is "BS." A lot of people who haven't exercised in a long time (or ever) can find motivation from using the device, as well as with other users of like mind.

In my opinion, the real problem appears to be you judging Jane and others based on your personal experience and expectations of what you deem to be acceptable fitness.

I think your rant is very judgmental and ill-conceived.

Couldn’t agree more.

 

[Iwavvns]

Did I mention that I actually went to medical school? And served in the military as a combat medic? I do have some idea of what I’m talking about when it comes to physical fitness. Is it such a bad thing to try and bring this topic to light in the hopes that I might benefit others?

 

[Apple_Robert]

Wow. Now, why on earth would other people be so up in arms about someone’s opinion. Did I mention that I actually went to medical school? And served in the military as a combat medic? I do have some idea of what I’m talking about when it comes to physical fitness.

I am not "up in arms" from you voicing your opinion. I am fine with you doing so. I just think your rant is based on logical fallacy and personal judgement against people who probably didn't ask for your judgement about their life.

You going to medical school and having served our Republic has no real bearing on what you said in your OP.

Some Apple Watch users take the readings given by the watch as gospel while others ignore everything. I think there should be a logical and balanced medium between the two extremes.

If someone sees me with my Apple Watch and starts asking me questions about my use and fitness, I will gladly share. When I have seen the watch on others, I have often made it a point to say something as simple as good on you for wearing your Apple Watch. Who knows, one day the Apple Watch might save that persons life.

 

[jz0309]

Did I mention that I actually went to medical school? And served in the military as a combat medic? I do have some idea of what I’m talking about when it comes to physical fitness. Is it such a bad thing to try and bring this topic to light in the hopes that I might benefit others?

It doesn't matter what your background is.
You have an opinion and you're entitled to it.
I for one am in agreement what @Apple_Robert and others have said.
It's your opinion, nothing else.

 

[fatTribble]

Just curious, have you ever tried to explain to Jane that closing the rings does not mean she’s fit? It’s admirable that you invited her to walks, but from what you said, she complains and has to stop. So do you still encourage her to walk with you? It sounds like you don’t want to wait for her or hear her complaints. But that doesn’t relate to the Watch really.

I find the rings are very helpful for me. They push me to do more. That’s enough for me.

When you go for a walk do you start an outdoor walk exercise on your Watch? Mine has never missed the duration when I start a workout. If you’re relying on it to detect your walk then you could complain it should have better detection or just start it manually or with Siri.

You focus a lot with what others are doing with their exercises or workouts. Are you competing with them? What others do with their watch doesn’t impact how you can use yours properly to improve your own exercise and fitness.

It’s great that you can complete a 5 minute workout with such ease. Could Jane? What if Jane started doing some exercise for 5 minutes then moved up to more minutes over time? Seems like an improvement at least.

Rather than the Rings, it’s your post I find pointless.

 

[fatTribble]

Did I mention that I actually went to medical school? And served in the military as a combat medic? I do have some idea of what I’m talking about when it comes to physical fitness. Is it such a bad thing to try and bring this topic to light in the hopes that I might benefit others?

I didn’t see any suggestions from you about how Apple could improve the rings or Watch in general. If you have ideas, Apple has a site to submit those. I’m sure they would welcome your input given your qualifications.

Product Feedback

We would love to hear your comments about any of our hardware and software products. Send us your thoughts.

www.apple.com

 

[Jonnod III]

As I understand it, the stand ring is more about not sitting still for long periods of time. Getting up and getting a bit of blood circulation. Even if it is to collect a Dr Pepper.

 

[Iwavvns]

As I understand it, the stand ring is more about not sitting still for long periods of time. Getting up and getting a bit of blood circulation. Even if it is to collect a Dr Pepper.

The stand ring doesn’t register sit-ups, pushups or planks, at least it doesn’t for me, but those exercises are much better at circulating the blood and working the muscles than simply standing. Standing, in and of itself, is a poor metric where fitness is concerned.

 

[hg.wells]

The stand ring doesn’t register sit-ups, pushups or planks, at least it doesn’t for me, but those exercises are much better at circulating the blood and working the muscles than simply standing. Standing, in and of itself, is a poor metric where fitness is concerned.

It’s purely to get you standing up every hour. Here’s how Apple defines it:

Close your Stand ring by getting up and moving around for at least 1 minute during 12 different hours in the day​

 

[PaladinGuy]

Apologies for a long post, but this gets me thinking. I’m only referring to things like activity rings below and not more detailed fitness metrics.

I think all fitness tracker metrics have strengths and weaknesses for how they attempt to motivate users to stay active. Some trackers place most emphasis on the number of steps the user takes, which doesn’t take into consideration that all steps are not equal. A slow and casual walk is not the same as a fast and strenuous one. However, tracking steps is easy and can be reasonably accurate.

Apple focuses on caloric burn, which takes that effort more into consideration. However, its weakness is that it’s extremely difficult to accurately calculate caloric expenditure (even more so with activity that isn’t cardio). Additionally, Apple Watch does not capture heart rate every second or even minute. Therefore, as you point out, it’s not always going to recognize an elevated heart rate and mark it as exercise. Sometimes, it misses it and may not factor exertion in correctly. Even if it does, that caloric number is very likely wrong.

I enjoy metrics and data, but I remind myself that all these figures are just data points and hopefully motivation to stay active. They show directional trends. They aren’t fully reliable and “gospel”. The human body isn’t a computer/machine that can be easily quantified, regardless of what marketing tells us for Oura, Apple, Garmin, etc.

As others said, it helps some people at least think about their activity, which they otherwise may not do. Others may obsess over the data and give it too much weight. Others find it annoying and useless. At the end of the day, we should all use the device in a way that we find most useful to us.

 

[Iwavvns]

It’s purely to get you standing up every hour. Here’s how Apple defines it:

Close your Stand ring by getting up and moving around for at least 1 minute during 12 different hours in the day​

But that’s not “standing”, is it? That is “moving around for at least one minute”. We already have a “move” ring, which should be tracking the moving around for at least one minute bit (caloric expenditure). Seems like Apple could remove the “Stand” ring altogether.

 

[hg.wells]

But that’s not “standing”, is it? That is “moving around for at least one minute”. We already have a “move” ring, which should be tracking the moving around for at least one minute bit (caloric expenditure). Seems like Apple could remove the “Stand” ring altogether.

It’s great for me as an office worker as a reminder to get up and walk around. The exercise rings have been a great motivation for me.

 

[GrassShark]

It sounds like the rings just don't work for you specifically, and that's fine, but that doesn't mean they're pointless. Your complaints just seem misguided. You seem to kinda misunderstand how the rings work, for a start, and then complain that simply because you don't find them useful that nobody else could possibly benefit from them.

To be clear, the Apple Watch is not some elite-level fitness device, its a mass market smart watch that happens to track some health metrics pretty well. If you are already in excellent shape and know how to track and manage your workouts without the watch then I'm mostly confused about why you're relying on the ring system at all. Obviously just closing your rings is never going to make you fit — you can set the rings to basically nothing and completely ignore them, or set them so high that it's unsafe to try fill them. Just like any equipment or tool, it's how you use it that matters.

When I was working at home during the pandemic, I found the stand ring really helpful to remind me to get up and walk around a bit. I was running a half-marathon every week or so and in probably the best shape of my life, but I could still find myself sitting in a chair for hours at a time because that's often just the reality of digital work, and the move ring wouldn't have done anything to help me there.

Consider that other people might not have the same experience, lifestyle, or preferences as you.

 

[Iwavvns]

It’s great for me as an office worker as a reminder to get up and walk around. The exercise rings have been a great motivation for me.

Yes, exactly. But that’s not standing, that is walking around. And the move ring calculates that as calories expended. So the stand ring.. is doing the same thing as the Move ring but only in increments of once each hour? The stand range just seems redundant.

 

[smirking]

But that’s not “standing”, is it? That is “moving around for at least one minute”. We already have a “move” ring, which should be tracking the moving around for at least one minute bit (caloric expenditure). Seems like Apple could remove the “Stand” ring altogether.

The reason why the metric is designed this way is that some recent research suggests that frequency of ambulatory activity is as important as the amount of it. People who remained stationary almost the entire day and then went and ran a 10K everyday did not overcome the detrimental effects of prolonged inactivity.

It's valid to question that finding, but I'm pretty sure that's why this metric exists in the way that it does.

So... No, it's not really a standing metric at all despite what the name might suggest. Likely the only reason it's called standing is because "Proof of Life Incidents" sounds like a hostage situation and "Hours in which you moved" just sounds weird.

 

[Skyrings]

The stand ring addresses a different measurable long term health indictor than the activity ring. The majority of people are considered sedentary, and this has strong associations with poor outcomes independent of daily energy expenditure.

Perhaps these guidelines didn't exist when you went to medical school, but it is now broadly known.

Long periods of sitting can offset the benefits of being physically active, so it’s important to:

• reduce the time you spend sitting – for example, by organising walking meetings, using a standing desk, or enjoying a walk during your lunch break
• break up long periods of sitting – for example, by doing lunges or star jumps or walking around when on the phone.

https://www.heartfoundation.org.au/healthy-living/physical-activity/sit-less-move-more

 

[CharlesShaw]

I work at a standing desk and sit on a tall stool when needed, so I never close the stand ring on work days.

 

[gaggle]

They are pointless! They’re circles!

…I’ll let myself out.

 

[arc of the universe]

I submit to you that the Apple Watch Activity Rings are pointless. Let me explain.

I purchased an Apple Watch series 10, cellular version, for the purposes of determining if I could leave my iPhone at home and just wear my Apple Watch when I’m out and about. So far it is working out perfectly, except that I find the Activity Rings horribly misleading.

The Stand Ring

I typically walk 10 to 15 miles per day with a 20 mile hike once per week - I’m ex-military and enjoy walking/hiking. I’m 62 years old, 145 lbs. and can lift 150 lbs. with moderate effort. I usually close all of my rings in the first two hours of my day. I have a friend, I’ll call her “Jane”, who brags that she also “closes her rings daily”. Jane is overweight and sits in front of the television most days. I visit her often and she typically stands for 60 seconds each hour in order to close her Stand Ring. Sometimes Jane uses this time to walk to the fridge to grab a Dr. Pepper and then to the cabinet to grab a candy bar or potato chips and then plops back down in front of the television. I have invited Jane to walk around the block with me but she needs several breaks, complains of “sweating too much” and that it “takes too much effort”. Besides, she says, “I close all of my rings so I’m being healthy.” She is 22 years old.

I have to ask, why was the Stand Ring even created? There is no way for the Activity app to know what is happening during this “stand session”, as seen above, so it shouldn’t even be seen as a health benefit.

We both close all of our Apple Watch rings daily, but which of us do you think has a good chance of seeing their 75th birthday. Think about it; exactly how many obese 75 year old people have you ever seen?

The Exercise Ring

I intentionally walk uphill because it requires more effort than flat terrain. Many times I notice my Apple Watch reporting that I have walked 4 or so miles, most of it uphill, but the Exercise Ring only reports 19 minutes of exercise for the entire walk. Now, someone please explain to me how a person can walk for 4 miles, most of it uphill, and only show 19 minutes of exercise for it. Four miles of walking usually takes me over an hour.

Is it really a challenge?

I see lots of people responding to various Apple Watch Activity Challenges with “easy peasy”, or “make it harder next time”. A challenge is defined as something that test’s one’s abilities. Is it really a challenge if it is so easy to complete? I remember one of the badges in the Apple Watch Activity app stating “earn this badge after completing a 5-minute workout.” A 5-minute workout?! One cannot even complete a proper warmup in 5 minutes, let alone an entire workout.

The best workout log

I was told years ago by a weightlifting trainer: “you can write down whatever you want in your logbook. But your body will log your true workout activity.” And he was right.

Conclusion

I’m fully aware that I can disable all health tracking on the Apple Watch. I did that last month and the watch seemed to burn through the battery life much faster. So, I reenabled the fitness tracking so I could go back to charging the watch every evening. Don’t get me wrong, the Apple Watch series 10 is a wonderful device for what it does. But, what about the people who think Apple know what they’re doing and rely on the Activity Rings for physical fitness?


Dear Apple: I really feel that this “close your rings” BS needs to stop.. it’s clearly pointless from a physical health perspective. Go spend four weeks with military basic training and you’ll learn the true definition of “physical fitness”.

hi Iwannns,

i think you are right. the name/word/catagory that apple calls this movement is actually a more "get up and move around" than it is just "stand".

since apple chose to use "move" for its caloric measurement, i guess they chose "stand".

from apple's own written definition they write:
quote

• Stand Goal:
  Apple Watch aims to motivate users to reduce sedentary behavior by encouraging them to stand and move for at least one minute per hour, for a total of 12 hours a day.
  
  
• How it Works:
  If you've been sitting for a while, your Apple Watch will remind you to stand up and move around.
  
  
• Importance:
  Regular movement, even short bursts, is important for overall health and can help reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and early death.

endquote​

and you are also right about anybody being able set their own goals. its quite flexible. many people are very lenient about their goals in terms of meaningful benefit to them. but that flexibility is still a good thing, i think.

for me, the apple watch really helped me to set incremental more difficult goals over a period of about 1 year.
some people prefer to set a minimum type of ring setting and be sure to do it every day, and others prefer a more challenging setting and dont care about not completing all 3 rings every day.

like you, i do a lot of long distance walking and hiking up the trails in my area.

you mentioned a little about walking or hiking a long distance, yet the Exercise ring not registering all the actual minutes of time you were hiking or walking.
yes. that's very true. it never registers the total time i am either doing walking or hiking, unless i am doing it in the context of a Workout. i hate it when i decide to just take a walk outside the context of a workout and it not picking up the entire amount of minutes i am walking. i have found that if i am stopping and starting due to traffic lights and things like that, its only registering about 70% of the minutes.

i hope you find the watch and its measurements to be more useful to you over time.

 

[Iwavvns]

hi Iwannns,

i think you are right. the name/word/catagory that apple calls this movement is actually a more "get up and move around" than it is just "stand".

since apple chose to use "move" for its caloric measurement, i guess they chose "stand".

from apple's own written definition they write:
quote

• Stand Goal:
  Apple Watch aims to motivate users to reduce sedentary behavior by encouraging them to stand and move for at least one minute per hour, for a total of 12 hours a day.
  
  
• How it Works:
  If you've been sitting for a while, your Apple Watch will remind you to stand up and move around.
  
  
• Importance:
  Regular movement, even short bursts, is important for overall health and can help reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and early death.

endquote​

and you are also right about anybody being able set their own goals. its quite flexible. many people are very lenient about their goals in terms of meaningful benefit to them. but that flexibility is still a good thing, i think.

for me, the apple watch really helped me to set incremental more difficult goals over a period of about 1 year.
some people prefer to set a minimum type of ring setting and be sure to do it every day, and others prefer a more challenging setting and dont care about not completing all 3 rings every day.

like you, i do a lot of long distance walking and hiking up the trails in my area.

you mentioned a little about walking or hiking a long distance, yet the Exercise ring not registering all the actual minutes of time you were hiking or walking.
yes. that's very true. it never registers the total time i am either doing walking or hiking, unless i am doing it in the context of a Workout. i hate it when i decide to just take a walk outside the context of a workout and it not picking up the entire amount of minutes i am walking. i have found that if i am stopping and starting due to traffic lights and things like that, its only registering about 70% of the minutes.

i hope you find the watch and its measurements to be more useful to you over time.

Oh, I love my Apple Watch for the things it can do.. especially for the fact that I can leave my iPhone at home and just use the watch. I’m seriously thinking about buying the Apple Watch Ultra 2 just for the increased battery life and scuba capabilities. I typically end my day with the Move ring above 1,000 so I may just increase that ring and ignore the other two. I wonder how difficult it would be for Apple to replace the Stand ring with one marked “Custom”. Users could set it to distances, repetitions, etc.. or have it act like more of a stopwatch/timer.

 

[johannnn]

I wonder how difficult it would be for Apple to replace the Stand ring with one marked “Custom”.

Not difficult. But I doubt it will ever happen.

You’re better off looking for a workout app with a relevant watch complication

 

[Iwavvns]

Not difficult. But I doubt it will ever happen.

You’re better off looking for a workout app with a relevant watch complication

Yep, I was doing that earlier and found an app called iSmoothrun which might be a good replacement for me.