Apple Watch gives you five heart rate zones. Apple says they are a percentage of your maximum heart rate, calculated automatically and personalized using your health data. They only appear if your date of birth is set in the Health app, and you can replace them with your own at any time.
Where do I see my zones?
During a workout: start a cardio workout and turn the Digital Crown to the Heart Rate Zone view. It shows your current zone, heart rate, time in the zone and average heart rate.
Afterwards: open the Fitness app on iPhone, tap the workout, then tap Show More next to Heart Rate to see the time you spent in each zone.
How do I change them?
On Apple Watch:
- Open Settings, then Workout, then Heart Rate Zones.
- Tap Manual.
- Tap zone 2, 3 or 4 and enter its lower and upper limits.
On iPhone the same setting is in the Apple Watch app under My Watch, Workout, Heart Rate Zones.
Are the automatic zones accurate?
They are as accurate as the maximum heart rate behind them. Apple does not publish its formula. Any estimate based on age is a population average: the familiar 220 minus age is off by 10 beats or more for many people, in either direction. Ten beats is a whole zone.
If your easy runs feel easy but the watch says zone 3, or you can chat comfortably in “zone 4”, your maximum is probably set too low. A better source is the highest heart rate you have seen at the end of a hard race or an all-out hill session. Set your zones from that.
Why are my zones different in Kiiro?
Because Kiiro uses its own zone settings and does not read the ones on your watch. Under heart rate zones in Kiiro’s settings you choose between two modes:
- Auto: your training zones are calculated from your maximum heart rate and update when it changes. The boundaries are 60, 70, 80 and 90% of your maximum.
- Custom: you set the boundaries yourself and they stay fixed.
The zones are named Easy, Base, Tempo, Threshold and Max. If you want the same picture in both places, enter the same boundaries in Kiiro’s Custom mode and in the watch’s Manual mode. For what Kiiro does with them, see heart rate zones in Kiiro and Zone 2.
A warning about the first minutes
Zones are only as good as the heart rate behind them. If your watch shows 175 in the first minutes of an easy run, that is usually the sensor. See Why is my Apple Watch heart rate too high at the start of a run?.
Related questions
- Why is my Apple Watch heart rate too high at the start of a run?: Usually it is the sensor, not your heart. In the first minutes of a run the optical sensor can pick up the rhythm of your steps instead of your pulse, especially with cold skin or a loose band.
- What is a good cadence, ground contact time and vertical oscillation?: There is no single good value. All three depend on how fast you run, your height and your build. Here are typical ranges for recreational runners and how to use the numbers from your Apple Watch.
