Heartwatch App – Best Workout App For Apple Watch

heartwatch app

Quick Summary

The Heartwatch app is the best workout & fitness app for Apple Watch, allowing you to get a very detailed, visual look at heart rate data. The Heartwatch app and its companion iPhone app are the best workout and fitness app for Apple Watch for someone that cares about their overall health.

Table of Contents

Introducing the Heartwatch App

The Heartwatch app and its companion iPhone app are the best workout and fitness app for Apple Watch for someone that cares about their overall health. Unfortunately, many of the other best Apple fitness apps tend to focus only on the exercise component of good health. The Heartwatch app takes a different approach. It is a complete heart rate monitor app for the Apple Watch that ensures comprehensive monitoring of your overall heart activity to ensure its wellness.

Furthermore, it monitors heart activity with a very high level of accuracy, comparable to a chest strap. This thorough approach that monitors your heart when walking, sitting, exercising, and even sleeping makes it powerful. The app on the iPhone then takes this big data, analyzes it, and creates some excellent data visualization and insights, so it’s easy to understand what is happening.

Heart Health

This focus on overall heart health is significant because Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of death globally. As recently as June 2021, the World Health Organization reported that over 17 million people died from CVD’s in 2019. Of those, 85% were due to heart health issues, either a stroke or heart attack. The biggest problem to address this is detection as early as possible. Detecting problems is where the Heartwatch app could play an important role.

My Early Fitness Journey

As context here, when I first started my adult fitness journey, I was in my early 40’s. I was significantly overweight; I didn’t exercise and drank too much. So when I decided to change, what I found compelling was the ability to track and read data. It started with using MyFitnessPal to track my food consumption and habits. Then when I began to run, it was RunKeeper to track the distances and routes.

For food, the ability to see details of calories in/out. Digging deeper into percentages of fat, carbs, and protein allowed me to make better decisions. Likewise, with running, I could push myself because I could see how many miles I ran, my pace, and the details of the splits. I’m not sure why data appeals to my brain, but It does, and it works for me to make changes. Of course, with the availability of the Apple watch and so many Apple Watch fitness apps, things are even better now.

Introduction to the Heartwatch App

The Apple Watch is a highly sophisticated wearable with a built-in heart monitor that collects a vast amount of information regarding your heart’s performance. However, the default experience doesn’t expose that data meaningfully, with only a summary graph. As a result, you have no way to understand where things are at with your heart.

Instead, the Heartwatch app reads the data and analyzes it in various ways, providing an in-depth view of your heart health. This functionality makes the Heartwatch app the best Apple Watch fitness app because if your heart isn’t healthy, nothing much else matters.

The Heartwatch app comes in two forms. First, there is the app that runs on your watch. Here, you can see a summary of your day so far, such as the number of steps taken and the current heart rate. You also use the watch app to start a workout. The other part of the Heartwatch app is the iPhone application. It’s in the iPhone app where all the analysis and big data visualization happens. And there is a lot of visualization to explore, which is why Heartwatch is the best workout app for Apple Watch available.

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The Heartwatch app comes from the same company that created the top-rated AutoSleep app.

Monitoring your overall wellness

The first way most users will get exposed to the data from the Heartwatch app is the Wellness tiles. Think of these tiles as the everyday summary for when you are not active or working out. For me, that’s my daily heart rate or daily beats per minute (BPM). In addition, the sedentary BPM is my heart rate when I have been still for at least five minutes. Let’s face it, with so much working from home, we are sitting a lot. I also have my sleep time and waking BPM. These tiles can all be customized to show what’s important to you. You can even display third-party measurements such as temperature and glucose if you capture them, making Heartwatch one of the best Apple fitness apps.

Although this summary is helpful, the detail gives you much more insight. For example, tapping on any tile will take you to another screen that explains the reading and why it’s essential to understand your heart health. Then, scrolling further, you can locate the actual heart rate at any specific time. And then if you have any concerning elevated or very low heart rates. As always, talk to your doctor about these.

Heartwatch

Not only will the Heartwatch app detects elevated or very low heart rates, it will also alert you that you might have a problem. These alerts are super helpful to know what you are doing when the issues are detected. Again, talk to your doctor if you are getting these alerts. The Heartwatch app’s intuitive and easy-to-use design and functionality make it the best Apple Watch fitness app for overall wellness.

Monitoring your Activities with the Heartwatch app

For many of us, the primary reason for purchasing an Apple Watch is for tracking our activities. Monitoring your activities and providing helpful insights is where the Heartwatch app outperforms any other app I have tried and why it’s the best Apple Watch fitness app available. Just like the Wellness tiles, you first get to see a summary of your progression for the day, including calories burned, steps taken, and miles walked. Then, you get to choose a cute avatar who reacts to your progress. Also, slightly lower down, you get to see summary details on your progress as a percentage of your goals—also, a view of your current weight.

To dig deeper into the data, click on the tile to get a wealth of information, looking at recent habits, goals that automatically adjust based on your current activities, and average heart rate while active. In addition, similarly, detailed information is available regarding your steps, distance, and weight. The amount of data that the Heartwatch app exposes is crazy – in a good way and why it’s the best workout app for the Apple Watch!

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Best workout app for Apple Watch for tracking your Workouts

As a data geek, I love the workout summary and the details behind each of your activities. I especially love that the Heartwatch app details the heart rate zones so that you can target a specific heart rate depending on your workout goals. As you move between these heart rate zones, your watch will vibrate when working out, which is the perfect way to track your performance. The app also tracks my average heart rate and max for each session. Tracking your workouts alone makes the Heartwatch app the best workout app for Apple Watch.

In the summary view, you will find a value called Load for each workout. Load is Heartwatch’s way of showing “Load Management,” which many trainers use with athletes. Load represents your response to exercising, quantified by the intensity and duration of each workout you perform. Calculating Load happens when you finish the training, and the Heartwatch will ask you how easy or hard the exercise was.

Getting real deep with fitness & workout data

Digging into each workout tile, you get additional details – minutes, average BPM, the energy calories burned, distance, and steps, along with how many minutes in each heart rate zone. The app gives a complete view of your whole workout. One feature that I like is that the goals are automatically created based on your recent activity behavior. So, for example, the app analyses your heart rate data from your current habits and creates a plan for tomorrow. These automatic goals make sense for most people, as improvements to your exercise habits happen over time. This approach is different from Apple’s static rings and a much better system. Another reason it’s the best Apple Watch fitness app.

I love and find the 6-week breakdown of activities very helpful. I believe that it’s important to vary our physical activities and not just focus on one or two exercises. This breakdown gives me an excellent overview, which I can also swipe into for more details. For the 6-week view, you can look by calories, time, or Load. This ongoing look at your recent activities is another thing that makes me think that the Heartwatch app is the best Apple Watch fitness app.

Final Thoughts on the Heartwatch app

The Heartwatch app provides a holistic view of your heart health, providing complete tracking of your heart, including notifications should there be anything to be concerned about happening. It works well for both very active humans and those that might have concerns about their health.

My review of the Heartwatch app is all based on version 4. Specifically, version 4.2.2. I have read that v4 was significant overall in displaying the data. If you have tried previous versions and found the app overly complicated, I think v4 is worth taking another look.

One feature that I don’t use, but others might like, is capturing thoughts on a specific exercise workout.

Another feature I like is that the Heartwatch app can read heart rate data when using other exercise apps. So, for example, an app that I use a lot is Paddle Logger. After getting done with a paddle, I loved looking at the data to see my workout. Another reason why it’s the best workout app for the Apple Watch.

Lastly, the app is not free. However, at only $4.99, it is a bargain and well worth the price. I would thoroughly recommend the app for anyone that cares about heart health. And especially if you are a data geek like me. For more information, click here.