There’s one thing about the Apple Watch that’s always been annoying me: Rain or shine, in sickness or in health, it’s reminded me to lace up my rings. Even when I had COVID-19, a sore shin, or was in a dark place mentally, it reminded me to be my “better” self. And I don’t have to take a day off to be my better self. But with watchOS 11, released in public beta today, it feels like my Apple Watch is finally giving me some breathing room.
This is primarily due to three new features: the new Vitals app, the Training Load feature, and the ability to pause your Activity rings. I raved about the ability to pause your Activity rings shortly after WWDC, and after spending some time with the developer beta, I’m convinced that these are the smartest fitness updates Apple has released in years.
The Vitals app and Training Load feature are technically two separate things, but in practice they work closely together. The Vitals app contextualizes a set of metrics, including heart rate, respiration rate, wrist temperature, blood oxygen level, and sleep time. These are all recovery metrics that are commonly packaged together as a readiness score in other apps, but Apple’s version doesn’t show a single score. Instead, it tells you whether a metric is “normal” or an “outlier.” If two or more metrics are out of range, you’ll get a notification and some possible reasons why a particular metric is abnormal.
The Training Load feature is also straightforward. It visualizes your 7-day and 28-day exercise load compared to each other. Based on that, you can see if you are significantly below, below, constant, above or significantly above your usual activity level. This is broken down by overall activity as well as by individual activity type (running, pilates, cycling, etc.). After a workout, you can also rate your perceived effort level. For common workouts like running, the effort level is set automatically. (You can manually edit it if you don’t agree; I did that sometimes and it’s mostly accurate.)
It’s been nice to have both of these features over the past month, but like most watchOS 11 updates, they’re a bit passive. For example, I didn’t get a single vital alert notification because all of my vital metrics have remained within normal ranges. I’m happy with the consistency! This isn’t a bad thing, as I don’t want to be notified so often. Rather, having a quick visual of “Is everything OK?” is helpful when I’m wondering if I should push myself or take a rest day.
The benefit of training load, especially for those just starting to exercise and train, is this. I’m experienced and I know my current training load is a bit lopsided because I took a full week off training over the holidays (right around the same time I downloaded the beta). Still, it’s helpful when I’m way above my 28-day threshold, as it gives me a visual reminder that it’s okay to take a rest day. A rest day doesn’t set me back.
What Apple’s doing here isn’t something we haven’t seen in Garmin, Polar, Oura, Fitbit, Whoop, and other health and fitness trackers over the last five years. Rather, Apple’s version makes these concepts easier for novices to understand. It also reduces data overload for exhausted athletes. Combine that with the ability to pause rings and customize goals based on the day of the week, and you get a much more flexible fitness tracking experience on the world’s most popular smartwatch. That’s a big deal.
Ultimately, these features make the Apple Watch’s fitness tracking platform more personalized, which seems to be the overall theme of watchOS 11: instead of a blanket approach of always doing more, you can make different choices based on your actual day-to-day circumstances. I’m still testing many other watchOS 11 features, but when it comes to the flagship fitness tracking update, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how it has encouraged me to be kinder to myself.
My biggest complaint is that Apple still doesn’t explicitly tell me to take rest days. I can only guess from phrases like “If you start to feel fatigued, recharge as needed” and “Out of range or well above range for 14 days.” I also lost a few nights’ worth of Vitals data because I had to charge the watch overnight. It’s a reminder that battery life and charging schedules are a weak point of smartwatches. But overall, this is much more sustainable in the long run for most people than the previous “always do more” blanket approach. Maybe in watchOS 12, the Apple Watch will finally force me to put my feet up on the couch and sit down. But for now, even a small step is a step in the right direction.
