Workout reminders
You may be familiar with it: you are actively exercising with your Apple Watch, but halfway through you realize that you forgot to start a workout in the Workout app. Conversely, you may have forgotten to stop your workout, which may make the measurement more inaccurate because you have been sitting on a chair for a number of minutes. Thanks to the workout reminders and the automatic workout detection of the Apple Watch, the smartwatch helps you start and stop a workout. This is how automatically starting a workout on the Apple Watch works.
- How does it work?
- Suitable sports
- Set up
- Turn off finished workout notification
How can I start the workout automatically on the Apple Watch?
The workout reminders on the Apple Watch help you automatically start and stop a workout if you forget. With three taps on your wrist you will clearly feel the reminder to start or stop the training. This happens once you have been active for about 10 minutes. It has worked since watchOS 5. In practice, this means that it works on all models except the Series 0.
If you start a training via such a reminder, the minutes you trained before starting will count.
Automatic workout detection applies to these sports
To receive these reminders from the Workout app, you must practice one of the supported sports.
This concerns the following training sessions that can be started from a reminder:
- Outdoor/indoor running
- Outdoor/indoor walking
- Indoor cycling (cross trainer)
- Rowing
- Swimming (pool and open water)
- Outdoor cycling (Apple Watch SE and Series 5 and newer)
After tapping the notification, the correct workout starts immediately. In the notification you can see which workout it is, but you can also start a different workout. The reminder to stop a workout applies to all types of workouts, including workouts not listed above. The only exception is the ‘Other’ training.
How do I set these workout reminders on the Apple Watch?
By default, workout reminders are enabled. If you don’t get them or you want to disable automatic workout detection, do the following:
- Go to the Settings app on your Apple Watch.
- Scroll all the way to the bottom and tap Workout.
- Turn the switch on or off at the reminder to start or stop a workout.
There are two separate switches for starting and stopping a workout. So you can set this so that you only receive a notification to stop a training and not to start it, or vice versa.
Turn off finished workout notification
Sometimes the Workout app may send a notification to remind you to stop or pause the workout because it seems like you’ve stopped moving. Especially during less intense workouts (such as walking), you may receive such a message incorrectly. You are still walking (quietly), but the Workout app thinks you have finished your walk. You can disable these types of notifications separately if it appears that you receive them incorrectly too often:
- Go to the Settings app on your Apple Watch.
- Scroll all the way to the bottom and tap Workout.
- Turn off the switch for Reminder to stop workout.
Keep in mind that this may cause your workouts to run longer because you forgot to turn it off. After all, you no longer receive a reminder to pause or stop a workout, so you have to think about it yourself. This can also affect your performance: if you forget to stop a workout, it can continue unnoticed for hours, possibly creating an unfair record for that workout. We therefore recommend that you leave the workout reminder enabled before stopping your training. It is best to ignore the few times you receive an incorrect reminder to stop your workout.
There is also an option for automatic pause. This only works for the running and outdoor cycling workouts. Your workout can then be automatically paused based on your movement and will also continue automatically when you move again.
Want to do more with the Workout app on your Apple Watch? Then also read these tips:
- This way you can manually add a workout to the Activity app
- This way you can split an Apple Watch workout into segments and lap times
- This way you can combine multiple Apple Watch workouts
- Start workouts on the Apple Watch and view them while exercising
- This way you can adjust workout data on the Apple Watch
