5 Common Exercises That Could Help You Close Your Apple Watch Activity Rings

If you're just getting started on your fitness journey or aren't motivated to workout on a particular day, a walk is one of the easiest ways to close your Apple Watch rings and help you stay in shape. Apple Watch automatically detects when you've been walking for a few minutes consistently and will send you a reminder to begin a workout if you haven't. If you want to make sure you log your walk, you can start an Indoor Walk or Outdoor Walk from the Workouts app.

Apple says Indoor Walk is meant for walking at an indoor track, the mall, or on a treadmill, while Outdoor Walk is for any walk that's outdoors. Apple recommends calibrating the watch for an indoor walk by recording at least 20 minutes of outdoor walking to improve the accuracy of the pace and distance recorded.

Since the Apple Watch has an inbuilt GPS, you can leave your iPhone behind while walking. However, carrying your iPhone with you will preserve battery life since the Apple Watch will use the iPhone's GPS instead of its own. Apart from pace and distance, your Apple Watch (Series 3 and later) can also track elevation thanks to a built-in altimeter.

Your Apple Watch is waterproof and can be used to track your swims. Apple offers two swim workout options: Pool Swim and Open Water Swim. Pool Swim is for recording laps in a pool, while Open Water Swim can be used for swimming in a lake or ocean.

If you're using Pool Swim, turn the Digital Crown to set the pool length to help your Apple Watch accurately measure laps and distance. Once the workout begins, your screen will automatically lock to prevent it from being activated by water droplets. If you want to pause your swim, press the Digital Crown and side button simultaneously. Next, press and hold the Digital Crown to eject water from your Apple Watch. The display will now be unlocked. To lock it again, swipe right and tap the Water Lock icon.

Once you're done with your workout, press the Digital Crown and side button, then turn the Digital Crown to unlock the screen. Swipe right and end your workout.

After your workout, the Fitness app on your iPhone will display data like Splits and Auto Sets. Splits refer to the total workout time divided by distance, while Auto Sets show your rest time and swim time. Your watch even records the type of stroke, including Freestyle, Backstroke, Breaststroke, Butterfly, Kickboard, and Mixed. You can also view information in the app like laps, distance, and calories.

Cardio isn't for everyone, and if you don't enjoy running or cycling, you can try lifting weights instead. You don't necessarily need to go to a gym to lift weights — you can do this at home, too, by taking an online fitness class or following a YouTube video. 

The Apple Watch has a workout called Functional Strength Training for tracking strength exercises for your upper body, lower body, or full body. It's meant for people using small equipment like dumbbells, resistance bands, medicine balls, and no-equipment strength workouts like calisthenics. If you deadlift or bench press at the gym, use the Traditional Strength Training workout instead. 

Functional and Traditional Strength Training workouts don't offer the detailed metrics recorded for running, cycling, and swimming, and instead show you the total time, heart rate, active calories, and total calories. The active calories burned after a strength workout tend to be lower than cardio-based workouts, but you can still close your Exercise ring with strength training. You might need to be more active during the day if you want to reach your Move goal on Apple Watch, though, which is easy enough to do by incorporating a few short walks.