4 ms·

I do something similar though less taxing. I gave my brother an Apple Watch and we track each other's workouts but not competitively. Often, to close a ring, we

I do something similar though less taxing. I gave my brother an Apple Watch and we track each other's workouts but not competitively. Often, to close a ring, we'll WeChat during the walk; a chat or a podcast really takes the edge off of exercise. I also use the StrongLifts app to track workouts at the gym. Yep, I dropped three tech names. I'm surprised but they work. The key is daily effort. I close my rings every day, for weeks and months on end. On days when I don't feel like it, I still force myself and then I feel great afterwards. I've done that enough times that I know for a fact that it will work when I'm not feeling it. The other key is to set a reasonable goal so that everyday isn't a stress. For me, that's 600/45/13. From the depths of the COVID lockdown to now, my VO2Max has risen from 25.5 to 32 which for my age bracket is pretty good. Fun fact: donate blood and your VO2Max will go down. The silicon guilt works for me. Yeah, I enjoy being in the gym and maybe not everyone does. But this gets me over the hump of wanting to work out to working out.

bilsbie 4y ago
How do you measure that?
- justrudd 4y ago
  Your VO2Max? You can get a reasonable estimate using this - https://www.omnicalculator.com/sports/vo2-max https://www.omnicalculator.com/sports/vo2-max. But if you really want to know, you’ll need to go to a lab that knows how to run the test. I’ve done a lab test a few times. They’re challenging because you will go to failure. Cost me, at the time, $150. My test was on a stationary cycle vs. a treadmill. Which worked better for me as I have shit running form.
- CalChris 4y ago
  I assume you meant VO2Max; the real thing costs money. I feel like such a shill but your Apple Watch estimates it based on your activity, heart rate and movement. It shows up in the Apple Fitness on your iPhone. It is an estimate but it goes up with a fair amount of effort. It gets harder to make progress the further up you go. But I'm here to tell you that 32 feels a LOT better than 25.5 did. The downsides to working out is feeling sore. But the down side to not working out is feeling crappy. I'll take sore over crappy.
  - bilsbie 4y ago
    I get a ton of exercise but I still feel out of shape. I wonder how the Apple Watch would handle that?
    - CalChris 4y ago
      The only thing trackers do is track. I found that, for me, just walking every day helped a lot (starting from a COVID couch potato). It got me to 30. But to get to the next level, you really have to stress. I had to start climbing stairs, sets of stairs. Five sets of the Cleveland Cascade in Oakland did it. I had to get my heart rate up for at least a minute at a time. And again, the only thing trackers do is keep me honest with myself about daily effort. Works for me.

bilsbie 4y ago

How do you measure that?

justrudd 4y ago
Your VO2Max? You can get a reasonable estimate using this - https://www.omnicalculator.com/sports/vo2-max https://www.omnicalculator.com/sports/vo2-max. But if you really want to know, you’ll need to go to a lab that knows how to run the test. I’ve done a lab test a few times. They’re challenging because you will go to failure. Cost me, at the time, $150. My test was on a stationary cycle vs. a treadmill. Which worked better for me as I have shit running form.
CalChris 4y ago
I assume you meant VO2Max; the real thing costs money. I feel like such a shill but your Apple Watch estimates it based on your activity, heart rate and movement. It shows up in the Apple Fitness on your iPhone. It is an estimate but it goes up with a fair amount of effort. It gets harder to make progress the further up you go. But I'm here to tell you that 32 feels a LOT better than 25.5 did. The downsides to working out is feeling sore. But the down side to not working out is feeling crappy. I'll take sore over crappy.
- bilsbie 4y ago
  I get a ton of exercise but I still feel out of shape. I wonder how the Apple Watch would handle that?
  - CalChris 4y ago
    The only thing trackers do is track. I found that, for me, just walking every day helped a lot (starting from a COVID couch potato). It got me to 30. But to get to the next level, you really have to stress. I had to start climbing stairs, sets of stairs. Five sets of the Cleveland Cascade in Oakland did it. I had to get my heart rate up for at least a minute at a time. And again, the only thing trackers do is keep me honest with myself about daily effort. Works for me.