How To Sync Your Apple Watch Heart Rate With iFit’s ActivePulse
There’s no denying that heart rate zone training has taken the exercise world by storm. Five years ago, very few people knew what a ‘max heart rate’ was let alone how much time they should spend in each zone for optimal cardiovascular health. Today? Well, that’s a different story. It seems like every major brand is implementing zone training and guess what? I 👏 am 👏 not 👏mad 👏 about 👏 it.
I, like many people, was first introduced to zone training through Orange Theory Fitness. It was the first time a major fitness brand had been built upon the pillars of heart rate training: zones, points and the much-anticipated EPOC effect following an intense workout. Fast forward to 2021 and zone training is being implemented into just about every major fitness brand, especially in the at-home market, from Peloton to Tonal to Echelon just to name a few. And while zone training has progressed significantly in the last few years in terms of its prolificacy— only iFit has taken this kind of training to the next level with its new technology, ActivePulse, by actually implementing heart rate training into the content itself— giving you a truly integrated workout experience. E.g. the intensity of your workout (incline, speed, etc.) is automatically adjusted when you’re on a piece of fitness equipment. So, when you’re on the tour de Chicago or climbing to the base camp of Mount Everest — the machine will automatically adjust to make sure you‘re working out at the right intensity as measured by your heart rate. Ipso facto — all you have to do is hop on the machine and it does its thing to make sure you get the best, most productive workout possible.
The only problem? This kind of training requires a heart rate monitor, which, for the most part all suck (I’m looking at you heart rate strap that only works half the time). However, if you’re one of the 100 million+ people with an Apple Watch — there’s a pretty easy solution — cue the ECHO app. What this app has done is create a solution that bypasses the watch’s current bluetooth limitations to actually be able to use it as a heart rate monitor with any smart workout equipment. It’s a super simple connection process. Just download the app on your watch and phone -> start an iFit workout -> the app will automatically connect your watch’s heart rate to the equipment and start showing your heart rate up on the console. The result? A seamless Apple Watch/iFit connection that allows you to experience the magic of ActivePulse.
