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Apps WorkOutDoors: New workout features

I now have the solution to my treadmill problem and it's called GymKit. Using GymKit as a protocol, you can pair the Apple Watch with a treadmill. As soon as you start the treadmill, the Apple running app starts.

The Watch then transmits the heart rate to the treadmill and receives pace, distance, etc. from the treadmill. And I have to say that is really accurate.

I ran the first 400m in 6:00/min, then 400m in 5:00/min.
The offset in the first 400m comes from the fact that you have to bring the treadmill to speed first.

So I will only use Apple's own fitness app on the treadmill and not WOD. :-(

@cfc
do you plan the support for GymKit in the future?
 

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Mauki said:
I now have the solution to my treadmill problem and it's called GymKit. Using GymKit as a protocol, you can pair the Apple Watch with a treadmill. As soon as you start the treadmill, the Apple running app starts.

The Watch then transmits the heart rate to the treadmill and receives pace, distance, etc. from the treadmill. And I have to say that is really accurate.

I ran the first 400m in 6:00/min, then 400m in 5:00/min.
The offset in the first 400m comes from the fact that you have to bring the treadmill to speed first.

So I will only use Apple's own fitness app on the treadmill and not WOD. :-(

@cfc
do you plan the support for GymKit in the future?
Click to expand...
FWIW, treadmill calibration is pretty shoddy at best, I would prefer to use a calibrated footpod if it matters a lot to you.
 
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Mauki said:
I now have the solution to my treadmill problem and it's called GymKit. Using GymKit as a protocol, you can pair the Apple Watch with a treadmill. As soon as you start the treadmill, the Apple running app starts.

The Watch then transmits the heart rate to the treadmill and receives pace, distance, etc. from the treadmill. And I have to say that is really accurate.

I ran the first 400m in 6:00/min, then 400m in 5:00/min.
The offset in the first 400m comes from the fact that you have to bring the treadmill to speed first.

So I will only use Apple's own fitness app on the treadmill and not WOD. :-(

@cfc
do you plan the support for GymKit in the future?
Click to expand...
GymKit has been on my to-do list for years, but is very rarely requested (maybe once a year) so never gets near the top of the list.

More likely is support for the bluetooth "fitness machine" protocol, which I plan to add when I next improve the sensor connectivity. My guess is that more treadmills support that than support GymKit, but I don't know for sure.
 
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cfc said:
GymKit has been on my to-do list for years, but is very rarely requested (maybe once a year) so never gets near the top of the list.

More likely is support for the bluetooth "fitness machine" protocol, which I plan to add when I next improve the sensor connectivity. My guess is that more treadmills support that than support GymKit, but I don't know for sure.
Click to expand...

That was the case, but I believe that most gym treadmills now support GymKit. It took a while to reach high adoption rates, but even the YMCA equipment supply GymKit now.
 
PaladinGuy said:
That was the case, but I believe that most gym treadmills now support GymKit. It took a while to reach high adoption rates, but even the YMCA equipment supply GymKit now.
Click to expand...
I have had a quick look and from what I can see third party apps cannot use GymKit, so it only works with Apple's Workout app.

It has been out for 5 years, so I guess that it is unlikely to be made available to third party apps. However I expect that the Bluetooth Fitness Machine protocol will provide similar capabilities when I eventually add it.
 
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Hello. I would like to know if when you run or ride a bike and you carry the iPhone, the AWU uses the iPhone's gps or uses its own. And WOD which gps would you use in this case? I have read several versions on this issue and I want to make sure before buying an AWU. Thank you.
 
redeco20 said:
Hello. I would like to know if when you run or ride a bike and you carry the iPhone, the AWU uses the iPhone's gps or uses its own. And WOD which gps would you use in this case? I have read several versions on this issue and I want to make sure before buying an AWU. Thank you.
Click to expand...
My understanding is that this year’s watches (including the Ultra) will always use the watch GPS, whereas previous watches would use the iPhone GPS if the phone is connected.

This is out of the hands of apps such as WOD, which simply ask watchOS for GPS locations and have no control over which device supplies the resulting locations to the app.
 
So I understand that if I buy the AWU to use WOD then the application will use the gps of the watch.

I had AW6 and when I ran with the connected IPhone tucked into my running belt the result of the race was very bad: track, distance, altitude...
 
redeco20 said:
So I understand that if I buy the AWU to use WOD then the application will use the gps of the watch.

I had AW6 and when I ran with the connected IPhone tucked into my running belt the result of the race was very bad: track, distance, altitude...
Click to expand...
Out of those results the GPS only affects the track. The distance comes from the calibrated pedometer by default and the altitude comes from the always on altimeter.

If the distance is off then the best thing to try is to calibrate the watch as described here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204516.

In terms of the altimeter, the current version of the app defaults to using the always on altimeter, which can be unreliable, so it may be worth disabling that in the Other Settings screen in the iPhone app (or More settings in the watch app). This will mean that the app will use the barometer for elevations, which is what it used to do in the past. The next version of the app goes back to using the barometer by default, which seems more reliable.

So if you did upgrade to an Ultra (or a series 8 or an SE 2) then from what I have heard the app should use the watch GPS, but that would only affect the visual track, and would not affect affect your metrics.

The exception is if you have configured the app to calculate the distance from the GPS instead of the default of using Apple's calibrated pedometer estimates. However if that is the case then it may be worth switching back to Apple's estimates before resorting to buying a new watch.

However there are plenty of other reasons to buy an Ultra, so please don't let me put you off! :)
 
cfc said:
Out of those results the GPS only affects the track. The distance comes from the calibrated pedometer by default and the altitude comes from the always on altimeter.
Click to expand...
I very rarely run with my phone but if I'm pushing a stroller I will often bring the phone along and then forget to turn off BT, so it ends up using the phone. On those runs my distance is off, not just the track. I can run the same route over and over and over and get the same distance... the second I run with the phone, the distance is not the same. I suspect the pedometer distance is assisted by GPS in some way.

The only thing I can think of is the stroller impacts the pedometer a little bit. I run with one hand on the stroller and my watch arm is free. Maybe it still affects the pedometer a little having one arm on the stroller?
 
noel18 said:
I very rarely run with my phone but if I'm pushing a stroller I will often bring the phone along and then forget to turn off BT, so it ends up using the phone. On those runs my distance is off, not just the track. I can run the same route over and over and over and get the same distance... the second I run with the phone, the distance is not the same. I suspect the pedometer distance is assisted by GPS in some way.

The only thing I can think of is the stroller impacts the pedometer a little bit. I run with one hand on the stroller and my watch arm is free. Maybe it still affects the pedometer a little having one arm on the stroller?
Click to expand...
I think that pushing a stroller affects the calibrated distance, even if the other arm is holding it. WatchOS uses accelerometer data to calculate the distance, and your arm would be moving differently to when running (or normal walking).

So it is probably better to configure the app to use the GPS when walking with the stroller.
 
Good morning.

I have an Apple Watch Ultra with last WachOS. Is it possible to add CURRENT POWER if I haven’t pedometer Or I only have option for AVERAGE?
 
Torque73 said:
Good morning.

I have an Apple Watch Ultra with last WachOS. Is it possible to add CURRENT POWER if I haven’t pedometer Or I only have option for AVERAGE?
Click to expand...
Yes, the app can now show current power without a footpod. It uses the Running Power metric provided by watchOS 9 to show current power and / or average power (and also power averages for the current lap/interval and previous lap/interval).
 
Torque73 said:
Today I run and no Power info shown in the app
Click to expand...
Please check that you have given the app permission to see all the health data. To check this go to the Settings app on the iPhone and select Privacy / Health / WorkOutDoors. Make sure that every health setting is enabled (you may need to scroll down to turn them all on).
 
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Mauki said:
Again, on the subject of the Apple Watch on the treadmill. I think the two will not be friends
Click to expand...

How much time have you spent outdoors using Apple's native app that calibrates your watch?
I'm asking because to my great surprise, since we talked about the inaccuracy of measurements on the treadmill (+/- 10%), it turned out that yesterday during a short interval training, the treadmill registered 6.2 km and AWU 6.3 km. I was really shocked. Maybe it's a one-off, or maybe the AWU just needs time to calibrate well, as was suggested here before.
 
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cfc said:
Please check that you have given the app permission to see all the health data. To check this go to the Settings app on the iPhone and select Privacy / Health / WorkOutDoors. Make sure that every health setting is enabled (you may need to scroll down to turn them all on).
Click to expand...
Solved. I had all metrics ON less power.

Thks a lot.
 
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Mauki said:
One run about 3 KM 🤪

All my runs I recorded with WOD.
Click to expand...
So your watch simply is not calibrated, which explains basically all the problems you have with the WOD-App…

Perhaps you should do a few longer runs or walks with the native app when you are outside, before you use the WOD-App again.
 
Mauki said:
One run about 3 KM 🤪
Click to expand...

I'm assuming it wasn't 20+ minutes 😁

Just use the native app for a while when running at your treadmill pace and you'll be good to go. AWU really takes time to calibrate and be accurate.
 
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kabzior said:
I'm assuming it wasn't 20+ minutes 😁

Just use the native app for a while when running at your treadmill pace and you'll be good to go. AWU really takes time to calibrate and be accurate.
Click to expand...
Am wondering if that’s also the case if you use the Stryd footpod. I’ve set up WOD to take pace & distance from Stryd so haven’t bothered with calibrating my AWU. Hoping that is correct.
 
Hi Ian. I've just upgraded to the newest Stryd and they have a new metric called Impact Loading Rate (https://blog.stryd.com/2022/12/09/impact-loading-rate-lower-body-stress-score/). Wondering if this is something that could be included in a future update for WOD? As I use WOD then transfer the FIT file to Stryd it would be great if this metric was also exported. Appreciate you have much more important updates to work on but hoping this might be a small request. Thanks.
 
mag1c10 said:
Am wondering if that’s also the case if you use the Stryd footpod. I’ve set up WOD to take pace & distance from Stryd so haven’t bothered with calibrating my AWU. Hoping that is correct.
Click to expand...
That is correct. If you are getting pace and distances from Stryd, then you do not need to calibrate your watch.
 
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