Finally, the Apple Watch will keep you comfortable

When I got coronavirus, I was miserable, my lungs were damaged and I was in bed for days due to terrible brain fog. I don’t remember much from that time. However, I remember waking up bleary-eyed and frantic to the Apple Watch notification. I was told that I wasn’t making much progress on my rings. I should do a brisk walk for 27 minutes. “You can still do it,” she said. No, I couldn’t.

It wasn’t my fault that I got sick, but my 85-day plan was broken anyway. Since then, I’ve had bad shin splints, migraines, and several cross-country flights that make it difficult to meet my workout goals — all excellent reasons to prioritize rest or build some extra flexibility into my schedule. Despite knowing better, I still felt disappointed whenever I listened to my body and prioritized comfort over an arbitrary streak.

So when Apple announced that rest days are… finally When I came to watchOS 11, I almost cried with joy. I know I’m not the only one. People have been really asking for this feature, truly long time.

With watchOS 11, Apple is introducing a number of features that finally provide space to rest and recover. What I’m most excited about is the ability to pause activity loops And Ability to modify goals based on the day of the week.

This is long overdue. The rest of the industry has been steadily moving away from gaming and toward recovery over the past few years. And for good reason.

Although lines may be motivating, they can inadvertently teach you to ignore your body’s signals. When I was sick, I asked my Apple Watch to fill it up. Many friends have told me over the years that they pulled themselves out of sick beds just to keep the streak going. Others said they lowered their goals but felt guilty for “cheating.” Get motivated – breaking the line may feel like you fell off a horse. (That’s blatantly untrue, but lines have a strange, addictive power that sometimes trumps logic.) But the ultimate goal of a fitness tracker is to help you improve your health. I feel like you I cannot Comforting because of an arbitrary line is the opposite of improving your health.

Not only that, but comfort is actually one of the requirements of any competent fitness plan. Runners who do not include rest days in their training plan are at risk of injury. If you want to build muscle, skipping rest is a very bad plan because rest is when you build new muscle. It’s no coincidence that elite athletes are turning to trackers like the Oura Ring or Whoop, which prioritize recovery and sleep above all else.

For these reasons, pausing episodes is an excellent idea. In watchOS 11, you’ll be able to pause episodes for a day, a week, a month, or whatever length of time you need without affecting your streak. This removes the feeling that you have failed. He admits that maybe when you’re on vacation, it’s okay if you want to hang out by the pool and be with family instead of worrying when you’re working out. That you are actually allowed to take breaks, and that doing so may help you stay motivated in the long run.

Likewise, adjusting your goals based on your schedule makes it easier for beginners to stick to an actual plan. If it’s easier to stick to the plan by lowering your moving goal on days you go to the office and then increasing it on the weekends, why not do it? And while you could technically do this manually before watchOS 11, the automation of it makes it seem intentional. It’s a simple shift in perception, but it can erase any irrational guilt about cheating from the equation.

Apple isn’t the first company to implement these types of features. But that’s not the point. When you try to do hard things — and improve your health He is It’s hard – it helps a lot when you’re given the grace to be imperfect. You will be imperfect. It’s not an issue if You will get sick or life will break your lines. It’s a matter of when. When I broke my longest streak to date, it was because something traumatic had happened in my life. After a day of ugly crying, I woke up the next morning to a broken line. I knew it was trivial in the grand scheme of things. However, I felt like I was being kicked while I was down. It took me a couple of months to get back into the game.

Looking back, I can’t help but wonder if it would have been easier if I had the ability to pause from the beginning. Some fitness buffs may scoff and say that I and others like me lack discipline or mental fortitude and that these traits are a crutch. Maybe so. But I’m all for making fitness fit into your life, not building your entire life around fitness. This is a much needed step in this direction.