FITNESS
62 AUGUST 2019Fruit of
labour
“Health is sacred,” says Sumbul Desai, Vice President
of Health at Apple. This is gospel truth, particularly
to a growing breed of individuals who’ve come to rely
heavily on the metrics that the Apple Watch uses to
keep you wired into its ecosystem. An ecosystem that
has, according to Desai, “Always taken the medical
community along, so that we walk before we run in the
health space.”
While connectivity and independent cellular
functions have gone a long way towards untethering
the Apple Watch from the iPhone, its use as a
health and wellness device is still the key factor
in differentiating it in the world of wearable tech.
Something that’s evident from the slew of updates
coming with the launch of the new Watch OS 6. Sure,
we’ve got a more intuitive version of Siri, now capable
of splitting the bill (which, many will attest, is a
mental health hazard of sorts) and an independent
app store; but the most noteworthy stuff comes in the
form of tweaks that bring it closer to becoming an
indispensable part of your tness apparatus.AURAL HYGIENE
The watch now comes equipped with a decibel meter,
which will continuously track the levels of ambient
noise in your immediate environment and warn you
of any spikes that can potentially lead to hearing loss.
A log can be checked for hourly, weekly or monthly
levels of exposure, with the app providing a warning
any time the sound crosses 80 decibels. According to
Apple, we often don’t notice the rise in damage-inducing
decibel levels. The feature promptly noti es us of just
how much more loudness we can take before it starts
to take a toll. The good news is that while the watch’s
microphone might be active in these instances, it isn’t
recording any audio or conversations.CYCLE TRACKING
In an effort to become a more holistic health device,
the watch also comes with a Cycle Tracking app
for women, which collects information about your
menstrual cycle and fertility window (all optional
and encrypted, of course). This, including a log of
symptoms, longevity, ow, etc, can also be shared with
your physician.FITNESS TRACKING
As a device that’s been optimised for measuring
cardiovascular activity, the Apple Watch was, thus far,
only using your heart rate to measure calorie burn.
The new update gives it an Activity Trends feature
that measures your VO2 Max – essentially, the level of
oxygen intake during strenuous activity. Which makes
the watch optimised for weight training (a relatively
overlooked aspect of exercising so far), given that
oxygen intake is key to muscle growth. In addition
to this, the Watch can also track the level of progress
you’ve made with each metric. Or lack thereof. Sadly for
you, it doesn’t accept any input in the form of excuses.Part-nanny. Part-boot camp sergeant. With
the arrival of the new Watch OS update, the
transformation of the Apple Watch into your
personal fitness coach is nearly complete WORDS: PARTH CHARAN