How The Apple Watch Helped Me Finally Commit to an Exercise Routine
…and why wearable tech is revolutionizing public health
I recently purchased an Apple Watch Series 4 which brought me yet one step closer to being completely enslaved by the Apple ecosystem. I had contemplated it for a long time and finally pulled the trigger when I found someone wanting to sell theirs in close to perfect condition at a bargain price. The purchase was initially not so much to fill some gap in my day to day life as it was for fun, but surprisingly enough, it’s proven to have some quite remarkable benefits. If you’re interested in getting an Apple Watch, I hope this article can help display how wearable tech can vastly improve your life, just as it has mine.
I’ve been a workout-person on and off for the past few years (fine… maybe more off than on) and, like many others, I’ve found it hard to stay committed for more than a week — maybe two. The same thing happens again and again; a burst of motivation, some initial enjoyment, and then a quite rapid fade to disinterest (kind of how a workout would look for me). I have, however, always found boring things to be a lot more enjoyable if there is some way I can track my progress. Make charts of it. Get a visual overview of what it is I’m doing — the progress I’m making.
A few days before I purchased the Apple Watch I decided to try committing to a daily routine of getting up reasonably early, take a brisk walk or run, and head to bed early enough to get plenty of sleep. I have always had a love-hate relationship with what a productive and healthy day looks like, so there was a good chance this new endeavor would face the same treatment — eventual abandonment. I have always loved the feeling of completing tasks, getting stuff done — but, at the same time hated getting off my butt to do something less instantly gratifying than mindlessly binging YouTube videos.
When I finally got the Apple Watch and combined it with my go at a productive daily routine, I was met with something surprising. The Activity app (called Fitness on the iPhone), and its in many ways gamified UX, pushed exactly the right buttons to keep me interested and invested in my exercise, while also keeping me committed. With the 3-ring-system, you’re encouraged to burn a target number of calories each day (red), exercise for a certain amount of time (green), and stand up in between long periods of sitting down (blue). The gamification, which becomes evident through the medal-system and the encouragement to increase the move-goal each week, serves as a powerful distraction from what I had always perceived to be the otherwise quite boring task of exercising. Getting up early to run in the mornings was all of a sudden fun, and going out for an evening walk just to close my rings became a regular part of my daily routine.
The encouraging messages that came with keeping up a streak (a certain number of days in a row of closing some or all of the rings) was a nice reminder of the progress I was making. Three weeks later, the will to stay committed hasn’t dwindled. In fact, the opposite has happened — I’m more eager to close my rings, keep up my streak, get out for a run early in the morning, and get a good night’s sleep than ever before. Admittedly, the thought of breaking my now 17-day streak of closing all three rings is mildly terrifying, which is undoubtedly playing a part in my eagerness to keep it up.
Not only is it fun to achieve the trivial goals of meeting my move goal or closing my exercise ring, but I’m noticing health benefits already. My sleep quality has increased significantly, I’m able to fall asleep faster, wake up more rested, and stay focused for longer throughout the day. If I every once in awhile happen to not get anything done during the day, I’ve at least done a workout and closed my rings — and that counts as a win in my book.
When it comes to specific workout apps, I’ve tried a handful of them (most specifically aimed at running) and usually find some small thing that irks me out of using it. I ran using Strava for some time but switched over to Apple Activity as soon as I got my Watch, mostly due to the simplicity of staying in the Apple ecosystem. I think the native Activity app does a terrific job of hitting the sweet spot between consciously encouraging you to exercise and “gamifying” the process, whereas most other fitness apps seem boring in comparison. There is a great benefit of staying in the Apple ecosystem, with the Apple Watch syncing to the iOS Health app, giving you more accurate statistics and goals. Something I would like to see, however, is support for coached workouts, similar to what’s offered in the Nike Run Club app.
There is an argument to be made that we shouldn’t need expensive tech or gamified software to get out and exercise. The physical and mental health benefits alone should be reason enough to fire up an exercise habit. But, sometimes our long term goals collide with our short term “wants”, most often in a fiery explosion of laziness, procrastination, and the inevitable sucker-punch to our morale that comes with not doing something we know we should.
Despite us running on highly modern software, technology is allowing us to tap into our six million-year-old hardware
The Apple Watch serves as a carrot dangling in front of our faces, making us more focused on the short term gratification of “closing our rings” or getting a medal for keeping up a streak than on the bigger, not as flashy, picture — that we’re out there getting exercise, seeing the world, and taking control of our health. In this regard, I don’t see the use of wearable tech to encourage us to do something that humans have done since the dawn of man as dystopian, or even sad. I see it through the lens of optimism — that despite us running on highly modern software, technology is allowing us to tap into our six million-year-old hardware in order to live better and more fulfilling lives. According to Pew Research Center, 21% of people in the US used some sort of smartwatch or fitness tracker as of January 2020, which amounts to close to 70 million people and increasing by the day. More and more people are catching on to the idea that wearable tech can contribute positively to our well-being.
I think it goes without a saying, but if you’re a chronic Netflix-binger or someone stuck in an unhealthy addiction, purchasing an Apple Watch is not going to solve your problems. Taking control of your health, and life in general, clearly requires more than a piece of tech — maybe willpower or even dread at what will happen if you don’t, maybe a combination of both. But if you’re like me, stuck oscillating between lazy periods and sudden bursts of motivation, the will to improve looming beneath the surface, the Apple Watch can serve a great motivator to finally stick with a habit of exercising and living a healthier and happier lifestyle.
If you enjoyed this article, please give it a few 👏’s and comment if you’ve got any thoughts on wearable tech of your own!
