Here's how Apple Watch, iPhone can help reach your 2024 fitness resolution

Before the new year, many would have signed up to join the gym from day 1 of January. But, as we go into the second week, most of them are struggling to get up early morning or too busy to go to the fitness center in the evening.

It needs a lot of motivation to develop discipline and maintain fitness resolution throughout the year. Apple's Watch and iPhones come with some fantastic native applications that can help beat the blues and lead a healthy life.

Before I delve into the apps and features of the Apple iPhone and the Watch, here are some tips by the fitness expert Huzefa Talib.

The only way to get through the resolution and go past the excitation phase is by 1- setting realistic and achievable goals that make sense to you. 2- create a routine that can fit into your lifestyle and not what the internet would define; 3- find a way that is fun could be gym class/ sport/ outdoor activity or a simple dance class; 4- nothing better than a workout buddy who has similar goals and lifestyle who will get you to be accountable. And, most important- 5- track your progress. If you don’t know your progress journey you are always walking in a tunnel with no light at the end of it. And, yes you have to gratify and validate talk about our success stories. Sometimes we shy away from it and just feel we are alone in this. Share your story!

Huzefa Talib, Fitness Coach, Co-Founder, The Outfit Gym

Here are key fitness and mental wellness features of Apple Watch and the iPhone:

Just complete -- Move, Exercise, and Stand rings-- on Apple Watch: Users have to close the rings each day. Maintaining the streak will help develop a strict physical activity regime throughout the year.

Also, if the day is about to end and the user has yet to complete any one or two of the rings, it intelligently calculates activity enough to reach the day's target. For instance, it can tell how much outdoor or indoor walk for this many minutes, will help complete the rings. This is very unique to the Apple Watch. Also, with every successful streak such as a week or month, it will be rewarded with digital badges, which motivates to the user finish targets every day.

And, with the challenge option, users can compete with their friends or family members and even office colleagues to finish the daily target first or maintain weekly/monthly streaks to increase competitiveness and also camaraderie.

Also, over time (more than two weeks), it will offer health trends revealing critical body metrics such as respiration rate, cardio health (measured by VO2 max). Apple Watch is smart enough to calculate and designed to motivate you every step of the way. Provides users with more information about their overall health, we introduced Cardio Fitness and notifications. Cardio-respiratory fitness, as, is the maximum amount of oxygen the body can use during exercise.

Apple Health app on iPhone and Fitness app on Apple Watch.

It will also offer walking asymmetry details too. In a healthy walking pattern, the timing of the steps the user takes with each foot is very similar. Walking Symmetry is the percentage of time he/she steps with one foot faster or slower than the other foot. This means the lower the percentage of asymmetry, the healthier the person's walking pattern.

Uneven walking patterns such as limping, can be a sign of disease, injury, or other health issues. This metric can be recorded by iPhone too. Users can view this information on the Health app.

By just completing the activities, you can improve fitness without going to the gym. But, it is advisable to consult a nutritionist avoid eating unprescribed food supplements and getting injured.

The same goes for physical activities beyond walking and running; have an appointment with a doctor to decide what exercises are better suited to your body strength and avoid getting injured.

Journal app

Just a few weeks ago, Apple introduced the new Journal app with the iOS 17.3 update.

Recent studies have noted that journaling day-to-day activities significantly improves mental well-being among people. It is imperative to track symptoms such as moods, problems, and fears during the day. This is said to help people balance their work and personal lives.

With passing time, users can learn what to prioritize and work on it, and eventually lead a stress-free life.

With the latest Journal app, iPhone users can be able to record their important moments, and their mood during a particular time of the day and over time, improve their mental wellbeing.

Mindfulness app on Apple Watch

It comes with a Breathe and Reflect feature. The former will offer guided breathing exercise, which helps in reducing stress. Users should try to do this at least thrice or four times a day to distract themselves from everyday things and focus on clearing the mind and refreshing.

Whereas the Reflect mode offers users with a prompt or question to think about over a minute. While completing a reflection activity, the watch displays a screen that cycles through different colors in motion.

In the latest watchOS 10 update, Apple introduced the 'State of Mind' feature in Reflect mode. It allows users to log a range of emotions, either at a particular moment in time or their general mood for the day.

Focus

With the Focus feature on iPhone, users can create a Workout mode to avoid distractions while exercising.

For instance, if the user is in workout mode, only the related apps such as phone calls (only from family/office boss) work. Whereas notifications from messenger, email, and social media platform apps get muted so he/she can work out peacefully.

Note: Users can create work mode or personal mode and several other modes as per their requirements.

Sleep tracking

A good sleep of around 7-8 hours is a must for the body to replenish energy, and repair cells, tissues, and muscles. It also helps in improving immunity to defend against seasonal ills such as cold, and fever. And, it plays a critical role in helping the brain remain in top gear and this helps in making the right decisions not just related to office work but also in making important life choices.

Apple Watch comes with native Sleep pattern tracking that offers insightful data on deep sleep, Core sleep, and REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. With this information, users can improve the quality of sleep. One should have long sessions of deep sleep, REM, and Core for the brain to get refreshed and also the body to replenish its cells and release essential hormones.

Apple Watch is very intelligent compared to rival brands. Based on the predefined Sleep schedule, it intuitively notifies the owner to charge the device enough to last the entire night up to morning alarm time.

Apple Fitness+

The Watch owners can also subscribe to Apple Fitness+ and get personalized training to improve their fitness and overall health.

Apple Watch and iPhone owners can also try third-party fitness apps such as Nike, Prayoga, Asana Rebel: Get in Shape, and more, to develop a good fitness routine.

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