Apple Watch Can Now Estimate Your Fitness Level

Apple has added an interesting new feature to the Apple Watch’s Health App. It now has the ability to monitor your physical activity and compare it with information from the optical heart rate sensor, GPS and accelerometer. It will be able to tell your fitness level, and whether it’s classified as high, above average, below average or low.

This classification is relative to people in the same age group and of the same sex, according to data from the Fitness Registry and Importance of Exercise National Database (FRIEND). The Apple Watch is able to do this by monitoring your VO2 max levels. This is the maximum amount of oxygen the body can use during exercise. This threshold increases as you become more fit.

Prior to the latest update, the Apple Watch could already estimate average and higher levels of VO2 max but with the latest improvement, it can now estimate lower levels as well. This is due to its ability to pool data from the aforementioned sensors such as the heart rate and GPS ones. The watch monitors this data and your physical activity throughout the day to assess your fitness levels.

“Cardio fitness is increasingly recognized as a powerful predictor of overall health, and with today’s update to watchOS 7, we are making it even more accessible to more people,” said Jeff Williams

Apple considers this as a significant leap forward in terms of fitness data because in the past, clinical tests were required to acquire accurate VO2 max data. Now, the Apple Watch is able to provide reliable metrics thanks to continuous monitoring. This is especially useful for users to who aren’t in the habit of logging their workouts within the app.

The new fitness feature is available to Apple Watch users running watchOS 7.2 and iPhones that are on iOS 14.3. If you are interested to use this feature, it can be viewed in the cardio fitness level section of the Health app on the iPhone. You can also receive a notification on your Apple Watch if it falls within the low range.