Introduction to Health & Fitness on the iPhone and Apple Watch
The iPhone
In the last few years, the iPhone has become a powerful tool that can be used to help you on your journey to become healthier and more fit.
In December of 2018, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple said, “I believe, if you zoom out into the future, and you look back, and you ask the question, ‘What was Apple’s greatest contribution to mankind?’ It will be about health.”
These are not just words that are meant to impress. Apple has clearly demonstrated its commitment by continuing to add more health and fitness features to the iPhone and Apple Watch each year.
Apple has created a powerful health and fitness platform that is built around the Health app by utilizing low power motion sensors and bluetooth communications. Additional features are easily added via 3rd party apps and accessories while assuring that your personal information is never shared with anyone who has not been approved by you.
Health App
The Health App allows you to store and view all of your health and fitness information in one place on your iPhone
There are many 3rd party iPhone apps that have been designed to work directly with the Health app. This enables you to store all of your health and fitness data in one place.
You always have complete control over your personal Health and Fitness information that is stored on your iPhone. Before any app can read data from, or insert data into the Health app, you must explicitly give that app permission to access the information.
For additional details, read our post: Inside the Health App
Your iPhone can be used as an Activity Tracker
Your iPhone can be used as an activity tracker. It automatically collects and saves data about your activity and motion whenever you carry the iPhone with you, even when it is not turned on. It does this using specially designed hardware that allows it to collect data from its built-in accelerometer, gyroscope, compass and barometer.
The information that is collected is stored automatically in the Health app, and can be viewed in the Health app itself or one of many 3rd party apps.
The following data is continuously collected on the iPhone:
• Flights Climbed
• Steps
• Walking and Running Distance
The Apple Watch
Using the Apple Watch enhances your use of the iPhone for improving your health and fitness.
Although you may not carry your iPhone with you all the time, you are probably wearing your Apple Watch for most, if not all of your waking hours.
In addition, the Apple Watch gathers information that is not available on the iPhone.
Most importantly, the Apple Watch contains a built-in heart rate monitor which measures your heart rate every few minutes throughout the day.
The following data which is collected on the iPhone, is also collected from the Apple Watch:
• Walking + Running Distance
• Steps
• Flights Climbed
In addition, the Apple Watch collects the following information that is not available on the iPhone:
• Heart Rate
• Active Energy
• Resting Energy
• Workouts
• Stand Hours
• Exercise Minutes
• ECG (Apple Watch Series 4)
On the Apple Watch, the Activity app and the Workout app are used to collect and view the current day’s information. This information is automatically saved in the Health app on your iPhone.
On the iPhone, the Health app and the Activity app are used to view all of the information that has been collected on your Apple Watch.
Activity App
The Activity app on the Apple Watch encourages you to meet your daily goals of Move, Exercise and Stand.
Three concentric rings show your progress for the current day. Closing each ring indicates that you have met each of your daily goals. Move is the outer ring, Exercise is the middle ring, and Stand is the inner ring.
On the iPhone, the Activity app allows you to see the current information, as well as any past activity information that has been collected on the Apple Watch.
For additional details about the Activity app on the Apple Watch and the iPhone, see our post: Inside the Activity App
Workout App
The Workout app on the Apple Watch lets you record all workouts that you do while you are wearing the watch. When you record a workout, your heart rate will be checked every 5 seconds.
When you start a workout you can choose the type of workout that you are about to do. During the workout your progress will be updated continuously and can be viewed on your Apple Watch.
In the Health app or the Activity app on the iPhone, you can view a list of workouts that have been recorded and you can see the details of each workout.
For additional details about the Workout app on the Apple Watch, see our post: Inside the Workout App
