Unpacked: Exploring the health and wellbeing features of the Apple Watch

Apple Watch is an invaluable tool for achieving wellbeing goals. We take a deep dive into some of the health features that can motivate you to set – and hit – your targets.

Hitting goals isn’t about competing with anyone, but it’s handy to have a PB or baseline to measure your progress against. The Apple Watch’s daily Activity rings help to visualise and gamify your everyday movement. Here’s how the Apple Watch Activity Rings feature works:

Three Rings: Move, Exercise and Stand. Your goal each day is to close each of these rings by meeting your personal daily targets. When you close the rings, if you’ve met your physical activity target, your daily movement could get you closer to earning your weekly Active Benefits reward.

Remember to sync by opening the AIA Vitality app to check your progress against your weekly Active Benefits target.

Why does that buzz on your wrist telling you you’ve closed your Activity rings feel so good? Well, gamifying goals – through closing rings or earning points – is proven to be an effective motivation tool for exercise. With each goal hit or milestone achieved, a positive feedback loop occurs, encouraging you to reinforce and foster that positive behaviour.

Apart from motivating you to stay active, Apple Watch delivers powerful health features on your wrist. Here’s some more detail on the metrics your Apple Watch can track.

• Heart rate

Your heart rate is a simple way to gauge your fitness levels and heart health – a lower resting heart rate generally signifies a healthier heart.

• Blood-oxygen
  

Measure the percentage of oxygen present in your blood directly from your wrist, to check how well your blood cells carry oxygen from your lungs to the rest of your body. Knowing your blood-oxygen levels can help you understand your overall health and wellness.

• Sleep-tracking

Create bedtime schedules to help you meet your sleep goals. If you wear your watch to bed, Apple Watch can track your sleep, show you your sleep trends and even automatically measure and record the number of times you breathe in a minute.

• Mindfulness

The mindfulness app encourages you set aside a few ‘mindful minutes’ with its ‘reflect’ or ‘breathe’ functions. ‘Reflect’ supplies a prompt for you to think on, while ‘breathe’ guides you through a gentle session of breathwork.

• Electrocardiogram (ECG)

The ECG app records an electrocardiogram, which represents the electrical pulses that make your heartbeat. The ECG app checks these pulses to measure your heart rate and see if the upper and lower chambers of your heart are in rhythm.

Regardless of the result, if you aren't feeling well or are experiencing any symptoms, you should talk to your doctor.

• Activity reminders

You can choose your notifications and reminders. For example, Stand Reminders if you’ve been sitting too long and Daily Coaching notifications, based on your previous progress.

• Workout tracking with the Workout app

Track dozens of different kinds of workouts and get progress updates while you work out.

You can share your fitness activity with your friends and family through Apple Watch. Encourage each other to close all three Activity rings or start a little friendly competition to see who’s the most active throughout the week.

With AIA Vitality, you can earn up to 100 Points towards your Active Benefits targets each week, too: for 30 minutes at a 60 per cent heart rate, you’ll earn 50 points. Or go hard for 60 minutes at 60 per cent and earn 100 points!

And if you’re craving classes without leaving home, Apple Fitness+ brings the gym to you.

A new subscription service powered by your Apple Watch and displayed on your iPhone, iPad or Apple TV, Apple Fitness+ includes guided workouts on HIIT, strength, yoga, Pilates, dance, mindfulness and more. Over 30 new workouts and meditations are added each week, so you’ll always have something new to add to your routine.

Subscribing to Apple Fitness+ also gives you access to guided meditations to listen to as part of your running, walking or mindfulness sessions. All new Watch users will receive a three-month free trial offer

Activating your Apple Watch benefit is simple. As an iOS user, simply tap the Apple Watch Benefit tile on the dashboard of the AIA Vitality app and you're on your way!

You just need to complete a credit check and delivery details to receive an Apple Watch Series 7 (GPS & Cellular) with no upfront costs. An Optus data plan is also included. Make sure you've linked the Apple Health app to your AIA Vitality app.

Then link up the Apple Health and AIA Vitality apps on your iPhone, and you can reduce your monthly repayments by achieving your weekly Active Benefit targets. By hitting four or five Active Benefit targets a week each calendar month, your repayment for that month will be covered by AIA Vitality, which means it’s a win-win situation for both your health and your wallet.

Staff writers come from a range of backgrounds including health, wellbeing, music, tech, culture and the arts. They spend their time researching the latest data and trends in the health market to deliver up-to-date information, helping everyday Australians live healthier lives. This is general information only and is not intended as medical, health, nutritional or other advice. You should obtain professional advice from a medical or health practitioner in relation to your own personal circumstances. The information in this article is general information only and is not intended as medical, health, nutritional or other advice. You should obtain professional advice from a medical or health practitioner in relation to your own personal circumstances

Disclaimer:
This is general information only and is not intended as financial, medical, health, nutritional or other advice. You should obtain professional advice from a financial adviser, or medical or health practitioner in relation to your own personal circumstances.

Apple Watch Series 7 requires an iPhone 6s or later with iOS 15 or later.

1. Blood Oxygen app measurements are not intended for medical use, including self-diagnosis or consultation with a doctor, and are only designed for general fitness and wellness purposes.
2. The ECG app is available on Apple Watch Series 4 and later (not including Apple Watch SE) with the latest versions of iOS and watchOS. See apple.com/watch for compatibility details. ECG is not intended for use by people under 22 years old. With the ECG app, Apple Watch is capable of generating an ECG similar to a single-lead electrocardiogram.
3. Irregular rhythm notification requires the latest versions of watchOS and iOS. It is not intended for use by people under 22 years old or those who have been previously diagnosed with atrial fibrillation (Afib).