The fitness tracking app on your Apple Watch can do much more than count steps and track calorie burn. It focuses on your overall health by making a significant difference between basic movement and actual exercise. An Apple Watch can be an excellent stimulation if you’re looking for encouragement to perform better than before.
Your Apple Watch suggests various activities to help you fill up the activity rings in the app and reach your fitness goal. But what do the rings on Apple Watch mean? Stick around, and you’re going to find out.
Activity Rings Explained
Your Apple Watch captures activity and displays it through the Stand, Exercise, and Move rings. These rings are the main display point you need to follow to reach your fitness goals. If you scroll down in the app, you’ll see an hour-by-hour breakdown of your activity for each ring. Here’s what each ring represents:
Stand
The innermost ring painted in blue represents the Stand ring. To close this ring, you have to get up and start moving for at least a minute every hour, for 12 hours in the day.
The purpose of the Stand ring is to help you move around more often, as too much sitting can cause various health problems. That’s why the Apple Watch has incorporated a Stand ring that’ll track your progress and motivate you to get up more often.
To help you reach your standing goal and close the Stand ring, you should consider replacing your regular desk with a standing desk and reduce sedentary time throughout the day. You’ll activate your body and burn more calories by standing up frequently.
Therefore, if you don’t have a standing desk, stand up, and move around. Use the spare minute to get a glass of water or visit a coworker. Although it may not seem a big deal, regular movement can enhance energy and productivity.
Exercise
The middle green ring is the Exercise ring. It tracks a specific kind of activity that’s defined as exercise. According to Apple’s standards, exercise is anything equivalent to or more intensive than a brisk walk. Since the release of the Apple Watch Series 3, Apple watches have defined brisk activity depending on your body’s unique structure.
To close the Exercise ring, you need to complete at least 30 minutes of activity equivalent to or above a brisk walk. This ring displays how many minutes of active exercise you’ve completed during the day.
Whether you’re moving at a fast pace or performing a specific workout or exercise, this ring will report all your activity. You can choose to complete your exercise goal all at once or a little at a time, as the Exercise ring will keep track of active minutes whenever it works for you.
To keep better track of your exercise activity, you can connect your Activity app with another third-party workout app that supports the feature and use its features to fill the Exercise ring.
Move
The outermost circle colored in pink represents the Move ring. This ring displays how many calories you’ve burned during the day. It records all motion and heart rate changes to calculate your total movement, not just the exercise. You set up a calorie goal, and the Move ring will help you track it.
Your Apple Watch can measure the number of active calories you burn. Since these calories can be burned through various activities ranging from taking the stairs to playing with the kids or cleaning up your house, the Move ring records all actions as a part of a healthy life.
Your Move goal is adjustable, and you can set it up by going to the Activity app > Change Move Goal and using the plus and minus buttons to update your current goal. The Apple Watch recommends setting a new Move goal weekly to help yourself stay motivated and active.
Related: What Does GPS Mean on Apple Watch?
Creating Your Rings
After learning what do the rings on Apple Watch mean, you may find the Stand, Exercise, and Move rings to be limiting or not suitable for your goals. However, the manufacturer left some room for alternatives.
You can try out Apple Health – a flexible platform that allows third-party developers to read and interpret Apple Watch data and organize it in a way that’s more convenient and relevant for your fitness goals.
How to Change Your Activity Rings
Your Apple Watch allows you to adjust your goals represented by the activity rings at any time, so they can better suit your activity levels. Open the Activity app on your device. Swipe up, then tap Change Goals.
You’ll see your current goal displayed at the center of the screen, with a minus and a plus button on the sides. Tap them to increase or decrease the number of minutes you want to set as your daily Exercise goal. Click next to customize your Stand or Move goals as well.
If you cannot find the Change Goals option, you probably need to update your device to the latest watchOS version. To upgrade your Apple Watch, open the Apple Watch app and tap the My Watch tab. Go to General > Software Update, and tap to download the latest update. Once the update completes, you should have access to the goal customization feature.
Read More: How to Share Activity on Apple Watch
Conclusion
If you’ve carefully gone through the article, you now know what do the rings on Apple Watch mean. By better understanding the activity rings, you can customize your goals and use your Apple Watch to encourage you to engage in more vigorous workouts and daily activities.
However, you shouldn’t rely entirely on the colored rings of your Apple Watch. Try to use them as guidance, but don’t obsess with calorie count or let slow progress be your excuse not to work out.
If you set your Exercise goal to something manageable and healthy, you’ll always be satisfied with your performance. Let yourself advance at your own pace, and don’t forget to slightly raise the bar as you get used to your current goal and see noticeable results.