When the Apple Watch was first released in 2015, Apple introduced colorful activity rings that instantly made the innovative smartwatch popular as a fitness tracker.
While they will be familiar to Apple users, if you’re new to Apple Fitness or thinking of purchasing an Apple Watch, it will be helpful for you to understand more about activity rings. What are they actually recording, and how do you “close your rings” each day? We take a closer look.
What Is Meant by Apple Watch Activity Rings?
Activity rings are what you see when you open the Activity app on your Apple Watch. There are three rings, and each one measures a specific type of activity.
- Move: the red ring at the outside of the circle shows how many active calories you have burned that day.
- Exercise: the green ring in the center indicates how many minutes of exercise you have done.
- Stand: the blue inner ring shows how often you have stood and moved around during the day.
The goal for each user is simply to close the three rings by the end of the day. The rings reset, ready for the next day, so you can try to close them all over again.
How Do You Close the Activity Rings Each Day?
Here's how to close each activity ring on your Apple Watch.
Move
The Move target indicates that you’re living an active life since it tracks the active calories you burn through movement of any kind. Remaining active throughout the day is essential to living a healthy lifestyle.
Walking around at work, cleaning, gardening, playing with the kids—anything you do that involves movement contributes towards the target and will help you close the Move ring daily.
Exercise
Of course, exercise is a key element of staying healthy. You should aim to achieve at least 30 minutes of brisk activity that raises your heart rate each day, and your Apple Watch exercise ring will help you to record your progress towards this target.
Many of the best fitness and workout apps sync with your Apple Watch, so any workout automatically contributes towards meeting this target.
Alternatively, you can start an activity from the Workout app on your Apple Watch to track your walk, run, swim, or strength training.
Stand
Sitting too much is not good for your health. And so the way to close your Stand ring is simply to get up and move around for at least one minute in each hour, for 12 different hours during the day. You’ll close this ring without even noticing if you're active throughout the day. But if you live a more sedentary lifestyle or work at a desk all day, you’ll need to get up and move around regularly.
Your Apple Watch will give you a gentle nudge on the wrist to remind you to stand when there are 10 minutes left in the hour and you haven’t earned your stand minute. This is the only ring you can cheat on a little, as waving your arm in the air seems to fool your watch quite easily into thinking you’re standing. That’s not recommended practice, of course!
How Can You Achieve Rewards by Meeting Your Targets?
Closing your rings each day generates a satisfying little animation on your Apple Watch. And when you meet all your targets for a week or month or achieve personal bests in any of the activity areas, you’ll receive digital awards.
You can view your awards anytime in your iPhone’s Fitness app. There are special rewards to mark special events and seasons. If you’re feeling competitive, you can share your activity ring progress with your friends and family and even challenge them to a seven-day competition to see who can close the largest percentage of their rings.
How Can You Adjust Your Apple Watch Activity Goals?
When you first set up your Apple Watch Activity app, you’ll be prompted to set Move, Exercise, and Stand goals. The app will regularly advise you to revise these and suggest recommended targets based on your previous week’s activity.
However, you can adjust your targets very easily at any time, right from your Apple Watch:
- Open the Activity app on your Apple Watch.
- Scroll to the bottom of the Home page and tap Change Goals
- Adjust the Move goal using the plus and minus symbols and tap Next
- Repeat this for the Exercise and Stand goals.
- Hit Done, and you’re ready to go.
This is a handy fix to help with your activity rings if you’re on vacation and want to ease off for a few days. It’s also helpful if you’re ill, injured, or need a break for any other reason. The Gentler Streak iOS app is a third-party app that incorporates rest days and recovery workouts into your fitness schedule if you want further guidance.
Stay Active With Apple’s Activity Rings
Closing your Move, Exercise, and Stand rings daily is a simple way to live a healthier lifestyle. And if you use an Apple Watch face that features your activity either as a feature or a complication, you’ll be aware of your progress at a glance whenever you look at your watch. It’s one of the best features of your Apple Watch, and you’ll soon wonder how you did without it.