2025: Here's how Apple Watch can help you reach fitness resolution this year

Just before the end of 2024, many of you would have made a new year resolution to get in shape and lead an active lifestyle. But, as we enter the second week of 2025, for most of us, the zeal to run daily and do workouts at the gym is steadily dwindling.

Apple Watches, which are touted to be the best smart wearable in the industry, have several fitness tracking and body health monitoring features that can help you stay motivated to continue till the end of 2025.

Before I delve into the apps and features of the Apple Watch, here are some tips by sports expert, Dr. Manan Vora, who is also a professional Orthopaedic surgeon.

"New Year’s resolutions can honestly fizzle out in weeks. And the best way to stick to them is to track your progress and stay accountable. If you're ready to commit to your health in 2025, just stay on top of these 4 points - 1) ⁠Set goals and create a workout routine. 2) Don't forget to track your nutrition - track everything from carbs to fiber; 3) ⁠Always monitor your progress: from steps to calories burned to heart rate and 4) ⁠Have an accountability partner - share your journey with someone," said Dr. Manan Vora.

Here are key features you should know about Apple Watch:

For motivation:

Awards and badges for completion of milestones: Apple Watches offers colourful badges. It gets flashed as soon as you finish a continuous streak of workouts for the week and the month.

With the latest watchOS 11.2 update, Apple has rolled out new badges. Users can earn these awards for closing all the rings 100 times, 365 times, 500 times, 1000 times, and more. Users can also earn other awards for personal records, streaks, and major milestones using Apple Watch.

Share your workout routine with friends and family: If your loved ones have Apple Watches, you need not have to do a workout together all the time. Sometimes, they or you won't be free to join at the gym together. So, the Apple Watch offers an option to share the activity. They will receive it whenever you complete the workout. And, you too, will get notifications when your friends meet their goals, finish workouts, and earn achievements.

For a little healthy competition, you can also challenge a friend to a competition in which you earn points based on the percentage of your Activity Rings that you close.

Dr. Manan Vora, Orthopaedic Doctor and Sports Doctor

"I've added my wife and a few friends on my fitness app. I keep checking their activity levels throughout the day and they check mine. It's so much fun to keep pestering each other to hit the gym or complete 10k steps," said Dr. Manan Vora.

Level up as you make progress in workouts

Set higher goals on the Activity rings app: Apple Watches offers the option to customise the Activity ring goals by the day of the week, so the rings provide the right amount of motivation at the right moments.

Here's how to increase goals onthe Activity Rings app:

Step 1: Go to the Activity app on your Apple Watch.

Step 2: Turn the Digital Crown to a ring, then tap the Change Goals button.

Step 3: Tap one of the following:

A) Change for Today: Set a temporary goal for your Activity ring for today.

B) Change Daily Goal: Customize your Activity ring goal by the day of the week.

If you’re customizing your goal by the day of the week, tap the Customize Goals button in the top-right corner.

Step 4) Tap the Minus button or the Plus button to adjust a goal, then tap Set.

Step 5) When you’re finished, tap OK.

Health monitoring:

Vitals app: Based on two weeks of usage, Apple Watch will offer health trends revealing critical body metrics such as respiration rate, cardio health (measured by VO2 max), and sleep pattern. Apple Watch is smart enough to calculate and designed to motivate the user.

If multiple metrics are outside your typical range, you receive a notification along with context for factors that may be involved—like medications, elevation changes, or illness.

Here's how to turn on Vitals notification:

Step 1: Go to the Settings app on your Apple Watch, then tap Vitals.

Step 2: Turn on Notifications.

Cardio fitness feature on Apple Health app.

Cardio Fitness: It offers more information about the user's Cardio Fitness and Cardio-respiratory fitness, as is the maximum amount of oxygen the body can use during exercise.

Here's how to view your Cardio health:

Step 1: Open the Health app on your iPhone or iPad.

Step 2: If you’re on your iPhone, tap the Browse tab. If you’re on your iPad, tap the sidebar to open the browse tab.

Step 3: Tap Heart, then tap Cardio Fitness.

Step 4: Tap D, W or Y to view your average for the Day, Week or Year.

Step 5: Tap Show All Cardio Fitness Levels.

Step 6: Tap a cardio fitness level to compare your results to other levels based on your age and sex

Apple Watch also provides walking asymmetry details too. In a healthy walking pattern, the timing of the steps the user takes with each foot is very similar. Walking Symmetry is the percentage of time he/she steps with one foot faster or slower than the other foot. This means the lower the percentage of asymmetry, the healthier the person's walking pattern.

Uneven walking patterns such as limping, can be a sign of disease, injury, or other health issues.

Safety:

Check-In: If you are working out alone at a gym in the early morning or late at night, you can notify us that you have checked in and out of the venue with your loved ones.

Here's how to Check In from the Workout:

Step 1: Go to the Workout app on your Apple Watch.

Step 2: Turn the Digital Crown to the workout you want to do.

Step 3: Tap Add Workout at the bottom of the screen for sessions like kickboxing or surfing.

Step 4: Tap the workout to begin.

Step 5: Swipe right, then tap Check In. The Check In feature notifies your friend if the workout completes.

Medical ID: Always update your Medical ID. It offers critical health information about you durign an emergency such as allergies and medical conditions. Medical ID helps first responders access your critical medical information from the Lock screen on iPhone, without needing your passcode, or on Apple Watch.

How to set up your Medical ID on your iPhone:

Step 1: Open the Health app and tap the Summary tab.

Step 2: Tap your profile picture in the top right-hand corner.

Step 3: Under your profile picture, tap Medical ID.

Step 4: To make your Medical ID available from the Lock Screen on your iPhone, turn on Show When Locked.

During an emergency, this gives information to people who want to help. To share your Medical ID with emergency responders, turn on Share During Emergency Call. When you make a call or send a text to the emergency services on your iPhone or Apple Watch, your Medical ID will be shared with the emergency services automatically.

Step 5: Tap Edit or Add next to the field you want to update. You can add details such as Medications, Allergies and any Conditions you have.

Step 6: Once filling all the required details, tap Done.

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