Bought a new Apple Watch Series 6 or the Apple Watch SE? Or simply dusting off your old watch to get healthy and fit? This comprehensive step-by-step guide covers all the various aspects of the Workout app so that you can get the most out of your new Apple Watch!

Over the last six years, since the introduction of built-in GPS on the watch, Apple has made many improvements around workouts and associated fitness features.

Let’s take some time to explore some of the available Workout features directly related to staying healthy and feeling good using your new Apple Watch. 

First things, first!

Before you take out your Apple Watch for your first run or your 15-minute high-intensity interval training, let’s get you squared with some of the basics.

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Calibrating your new Apple Watch is important for three main reasons:

You want to make sure that your Apple Watch captures correct metrics around calories burned.

This is a function of your body weight, height, age, etc., so it is important to update these numbers.

It is, therefore, important that you enter your personal measurements accurately.

You can follow our detailed article below to set the required measurements.

These measurements are also essential for calculating your heart rate variability, which is used in many places, including third-party apps to calculate your fitness profile and cardio fitness levels, and more.

The second reason for calibrating your Apple Watch for workouts is that you want to ensure that the GPS is working correctly on the unit to track your run or cycle routes.

Calibrating your Apple Watch for workouts ensures that the unit correctly tracks distance, pace, and other related metrics.

Do this a few times, and your Apple Watch continues to calibrate the accelerometer on the watch by learning your stride length at different speeds.

When in doubt about the calibration on your Apple Watch, you can choose to reset the calibration data and re-start the calibration process. To reset,

Calibration is critical if you want to view your run’s correct distances and other important statistics about your outdoor workouts.

This is also the screen where you can make sure that Fitness Tracking and Heart Rate Tracking are enabled.

Do you want to see the distance covered in kilometers or miles? Want to change your swimming distance to yards versus meters.

Check out the detailed guide below that shows how you can customize the metrics.

Now that you have completed the necessary information for getting accurate workout metrics on your Apple Watch let’s get started with some of the basics around the Workout App on your Apple Watch.

When you are out for a run or out with your bike on a trail, you want to make sure that your emergency contact information and associated details are available for easy access if there is a problem.

We always suggest that Apple Watch enthusiasts who use their Apple Watch for outdoor exercise should, at a minimum, look into updating their Medical ID and other details.

You can also set up your Apple Watch to make emergency calls.

You can read about the SOS features available to your Apple Watch by following these easy setup directions from Apple.

This is a must-know feature for new Apple Watch fitness enthusiasts to save them from annoyance. 

If the exercise you’re doing or the gear you’re wearing causes accidental taps on your Apple Watch, lock the screen, so your workout record isn’t interrupted.

Swipe right on the watch screen and choose ‘Lock Screen.’

Turn the Digital Crown to unlock the screen once you are done with your workout.

Now that we have covered all the essentials around calibration for workouts and setup basic safety and emergency settings let’s explore how we can get going with some heart-pumping workouts!

Apple’s Workout app on the Apple Watch comes loaded with different types of workouts that you can take advantage of. 

The list of exercises and activities that your watch supports is growing with every new watchOS version that Apple releases.

Here is the most current list of workouts that your Apple Watch can support: (Some better than others!)

PLUS There’s a ton more in the new Apple Fitness+ offering, which is trainer-led programs.

The new watchOS 7 introduced the following additional workouts with the app:

When you open the Workout app on your Apple Watch and scroll down through the variety of available workout types, you find the option ‘Add Workout’ at the bottom.

Tapping on this offers additional popular workout options such as

 And tons more including ‘Fishing’ and ‘Hunting.’ Whoever thought Fishing was an exercise: ).. but there is that option as well!

The most popular workout types are walking, running, elliptical, cycling, swimming, yoga, and HIIT.

Depending upon your interest, feel free to explore the additional workout-types offered by your Apple Watch.

Now that we have covered the various workout types available to you on your Apple Watch let’s explore some of the basics around getting a workout started.

Starting a workout on your Apple Watch is super easy! There are a few different ways to start your workout, and we cover them briefly in this section.

You can tap on the screen and choose the workouts. Accessing workout types via digital crown comes in handy when you are wearing workout gloves.

Let’s say you started your run or walk and forgot to start it via the Workout app.

This Apple Watch feature, once set up, detects that you are exercising and prompts you to register for the workout.

It also credits you for the workout that you have already done. To set this up on your Apple Watch,

While on this screen, you can also enable ‘Press to Pause.’

This allows you to press the digital crown and the side button at the same time to pause a workout.

Waiting for the signal to turn green before you can cross the street and continue running? This Press to Pause feature comes in handy on your watch.

You can also choose the option to pause running workouts automatically. 

Turning on Running auto-pause automatically pauses and resumes your running workout.

This is especially handy when you are crossing a traffic signal.

Or use the Press to Pause to manually control the workout. Bump into a neighbor during your neighborhood walk? this option is handy 🙂

Did you know?

You can skip the countdown before a workout by tapping on the screen.

Ending a workout on your Apple Watch is straightforward!

As we explained in the prior section, your Apple Watch is built with intelligence to detect automatically when you paused a workout.

If you set up the ‘End Workout’ reminder on your Apple Watch via Apple Watch,> Settings > Workout > ‘End Workout Reminder.’

Your watch automatically pings you to confirm that you want to end the workout.

You can also manually end any workout by following these steps:

You also have the option on this screen to pause the workout or lock your display.

Once you tap on ‘End,’ your Apple Watch automatically shows you the related workout metrics via the activity app on your display.

There is always a third and easier option if you don’t want to tinker with the Apple watch display or buttons.

Raise your Apple watch and say, “Hey Siri, end workout’.

This leverages Siri to help you end your workout provided you have enabled Siri on your Apple Watch, as explained in the prior section.

What if…you forget to enter or flag the start of your workout?

You can still go back in and update your workout statistics manually.

To manually add workout information that you forgot to set up on your Apple Watch, you need to access the Health app on your iPhone.

This happens to many new Apple Watch users who do not have the ‘Start workout reminder’ turned on in their Workout settings.

To manually enter your workout information,

This sequence of steps allows you to enter workout information that you forgot to track on your Apple Watch.

Some users also use this to go back and edit workout information.

By adding this data manually, your Activity app can incorporate the missing readings and gives you credit for the forgotten workout.

Turned pro? Mixing different types of workouts into one routine?

Segmenting your outdoor runs to keep track of different paces? 

This section is designed to support every average joe who turns pro after a few months of basic Apple Watch workouts. And we hope that you all do turn pro.

Here are some of the frequently asked questions about the workout app on your Apple Watch.

The Apple Watch automatically learns your workout preferences.

As you workout more using a particular type of activity, it tends to show that activity at the top of the list so that it’s easy to tap and launch the workout instead of scrolling through a long list of activities.

However, if you want to remove some of the workouts from your quick menu manually, you can manually.

Simply swipe to the left on the screen and remove them.

If you are wearing weather gloves, it can be difficult to remove your gloves and then tap on the screen to pause or resume a workout.

It is easier to access the pause/resume function for workouts by using both the physical buttons. 

You can do this by pressing both the side and crown buttons together on your Apple Watch.

Please remember that to do this. You need to disable the ‘screenshot’ functionality on your Apple Watch; otherwise, you end up with many unwanted screenshots. 

To disable screenshots, open the Settings app on your Apple Watch and tap on General > Screenshots.

Next, tap here and disable the screenshots feature.

Disable the screenshots feature, and you can use the two side buttons on your watch to pause or stop in-progress workouts.

Instead of stopping one workout and then launching another one, you can switch to a different workout from your current one by swiping left from the current screen and then tapping the ‘+’ icon.

Select another workout and continue. It automatically combines these workouts. This helps you combine a HIIT routine with spinning on your stationary bike or combine a running workout with another.

Double-tap on the center of your Apple Watch screen during a workout, and it automatically launches a new segment.

This has been handy when using the HIIT workout on my Apple Watch.

You can also use this to differentiate between walking and running segments of a workout. Most runners use this feature to do split segment training as well.

If you’re using Apple’s Workout app, double-tap your watch every time you switch between run and walk to create a segment.

When you look at the workout in the Activity app, you’ll see the individual segments’ duration, distance, and pace below where you’d normally see the mile splits.

Apple Workout app on your new Apple Watch is not the only resource you have to get you going to stay fit and healthy.

There are loads of third-party apps out there that you can take advantage of depending on your workout style and personal preferences.

Perhaps you need that little nudge to start running or need that extra help with strength training or want to track advanced metrics related to your Marathon training. There’s an app for that!

In this section, we highlight 10 of the most popular workout apps and their offerings:

Intuitive interface with Recovery analytics and HRV

The Apple Watch app works great for the most part, and when there are issues, they are usually minor and can be easily fixed with a few change in settings or unpairing the watch and repairing it.

We leave you with some common Apple Watch related issues and workout related features that serve as a handy resource if and when you need it.

We hope that you found this primer helpful and actionable.

If after all these days of lockdown and inactivity, you are ready to dust off your Apple Watch and hit the trails, or if you just received the new Apple Watch Series 6 or the Apple Watch SE and want to take it out for a run, go for it and make use of this handy workout guide!