Learn how the Apple Watch measures your heart rate accurately with its optical heart rate sensor.
If you are a regular sports person, you have probably heard of aerobic capacity. This is a really important value for anyone who wants to improve their physical endurance. This is a value that can be measured through different medical systems in which all the oxygen that enters your body is analyzed while you are doing physical exercise. But you will not have to go to a physical trainer or a doctor to have this information, since the Apple Watch will be able to measure your VO2 max or your aerobic capacity. In this article we will tell you all the details about this feature.
Checking your aerobic capacity and VO2 max on your Apple Watch is crucial for monitoring your cardiovascular health and optimizing your fitness performance . Aerobic capacity measures how efficiently your body uses oxygen during exercise, which is essential for endurance activities. VO2 max, in particular, is a key fitness indicator, as it represents the maximum amount of oxygen you can consume during intense exercise.
Monitoring these parameters with your Apple Watch allows you to adjust your workouts to improve your performance and endurance. It also helps you identify improvements or decreases in your fitness, which can be useful for detecting health problems early . Accurate and accessible data on your wrist motivates you to maintain an active and healthy lifestyle. Therefore, using these metrics can improve your quality of life by promoting better cardiovascular health and more effective training.
What is aerobic capacity and VO2 Max?
Aerobic endurance is the capacity of the heart and the vascular system in general to be able to carry out intense physical exercise for a long time, with hardly any fatigue and with easy recovery. Obviously, this is something that is linked to the oxygen consumption that the body can have. The more capacity the body has to retain oxygen, the better it will be able to distribute it to all the tissues so that it can be exchanged with the cells and improve the cardiovascular system. Thus, it can be seen that when you return to training after an injury, you feel more short of breath. This is because the body loses this aerobic capacity over time, which is measured through VO2 Max.
As we said, VO2 Max is a measure of aerobic capacity. It represents the maximum amount of oxygen that a person consumes in millilitres per kilogram per minute. This is really useful to be able to calculate the degree of efficiency with which the body manages all the oxygen. All high-ranking or elite athletes have astronomical figures, but this is something that requires a lot of training to gradually improve. The problem is that the body can easily get used to not using oxygen efficiently and reduce this figure.
This is how the Apple Watch measures your heart rate
The Apple Watch is a device closely linked to health , capable of detecting numerous important parameters. One of the most prominent is aerobic capacity, which is estimated by measuring VO2 max. This measurement is made by monitoring the intensity with which your heart works during any type of exercise, such as walking, running or cycling.
The Apple Watch algorithm collects data from your heart rate sensor, oxygen saturation, and exercise pace to calculate this crucial variable. Aerobic capacity reflects how efficiently your body uses oxygen during exercise, and VO2 max is a key indicator of your overall fitness. With this information, you can adjust your workouts, improve your performance, and keep more accurate track of your cardiovascular health. Ultimately, Apple Watch gives you a valuable tool to optimize your well-being and fitness.
This is something that can be checked at any time through the Health app. Obviously, it is not completely accurate and is not updated in real time , through an app, as can happen with heart rate, for example. It is also a value that has to be seen on a broad scale and not every day, since what is really important is the progress that must be made when doing numerous workouts. It must be taken into account that in order to estimate this level, the following data is used:
- Age
- Sex
- Weight
- Height
- Medications that can affect heart rate
Requirements to take into account
Obviously, you have to take into account that the Apple Watch must meet certain requirements when you want this value among the available data. Specifically, you are required to have an Apple Watch Series 3 or higher , as well as the most recent version available in terms of software. The minimum established, obviously, is the first version that this specific model had. This is a limitation that is applied precisely by the processor, since it is always necessary to have hardware that has the power to be able to process all the information and return the result of aerobic capacity.
It is also important that in order to perform this measurement you are at least 20 years old . This is because the studies carried out by Apple have taken a population that is older than this age. If you are younger, the feature will not be activated directly and if you lie in the configuration the data will ultimately not be adjusted to reality. In addition, the admitted interval is 14-60 mL/kg/minute.
Perform the configuration
By default, this is a feature that is disabled on Apple Watches. Therefore, the following steps must be followed to activate it:
- In the Health app on your iPhone, tap the Explore tab.
- Tap Heart , then tap Aerobic Capacity.
- Tap Setup, then tap Next.
- Confirm the information. Any changes you make here will be saved to Health Profile in Settings.
- Click Next.
- Follow the on-screen prompts to learn about other factors that may reduce your aerobic capacity, as well as normal levels for your age and sex.
- Click Next.
- Tap Turn on Notifications to get a notification if your Apple Watch detects that your cardio fitness is low. To turn on notifications, you must be at least 20 years old.
- Press OK.
From this point on, if your aerobic capacity levels are low depending on your age or sex, you will receive an immediate notification. In most cases, having levels below average is due to a lack of physical exercise. That is why you will have to increase the intensity and frequency of exercises focused on the cardiovascular system. However, some diseases or medications can also reduce your heart rate and this will completely alter your VO2 max.
Check the information
Once the option has been activated, you will obviously have to consult the data that has been collected. This is something that will be closely monitored and you will be able to access it at any time if you receive a notification of low aerobic capacity . Likewise, to be able to consult all the data you will have to follow the following steps:
- Open the Health app on your iPhone and tap Explore.
- Press Heart, then Cardiovascular Capacity.
- Press D, S or A to see your daily, weekly or yearly average.
- Tap Show all cardio fitness levels.
- Click a level to compare your results with other levels based on your age and gender.