How to Track Workouts With Your Apple Watch

Your Apple Watch is one of the best fitness tracking tools available, and using it to track your workouts is straightforward. Whether you're going for a walk, a swim, or a bike ride, the Workout app records your heart rate, calories burned, distance, and pace — all without you having to do anything beyond pressing start.

The Workout app comes pre-installed on every Apple Watch. It supports dozens of activity types: walking, running, cycling, swimming, yoga, strength training, hiking, and more. Selecting the right type helps your watch give you more accurate calorie and distance estimates.

When you're tracking a workout, your watch shows real-time stats on the screen — you can see your current heart rate, elapsed time, active calories, and distance by raising your wrist. You can swipe between different data screens to see more information.

Apple Watch tracks three "activity rings" throughout the day: the Move ring (active calories burned), the Exercise ring (minutes of elevated heart rate activity), and the Stand ring (times you stood and moved for at least a minute in each hour). Completing all three rings each day is the primary goal Apple Watch sets for users. Tracking workouts directly contributes to all three rings.

After a workout, the watch shows a summary screen with totals. All that data automatically syncs to the Fitness app on your paired iPhone, where you can see history, trends over weeks and months, and personal records.

For a walk in particular, Apple Watch is excellent. It automatically detects walking workouts if you forget to start the Workout app, and credits you even if you didn't officially track the walk.

You don't need to be athletic to benefit from tracking. Even 20–30 minutes of walking tracked through the Workout app gives you meaningful data about your heart rate and activity — information your doctor may find useful at your next visit.