Physical exercise can have a positive impact on our mental state. Even if you don't have an hour to spare, spend 30 minutes walking outside. It'll also count towards your daily step goal, which can earn you up to 100 AIA Vitality Points. It's a win-win situation!
Unpacked: Exploring the health and wellbeing features of the apple watch
ARTICLE
28 March 2022
4 mins read
4 mins read
Small somethings: move well, get rewarded
Apple Watch is an invaluable tool for achieving wellbeing goals. We take a deep dive into some of the health features that can motivate you to set – and hit – your targets.
Finding the motivation to meet your goals doesn't need to be an uphill battle. While there's no shortcut to setting or reaching your fitness targets, having a little push from AIA Vitality – and the Apple Watch benefit – can help get you there.
- Measure your blood oxygen with a powerful sensor and app
- Take an electrocardiogram (ECG) anytime, anywhere
- Get high and low heart rate, and irregular heart rhythm notifications
- Daily activity tracking and workout monitoring to track dozens of different workouts, including tai chi, Pilates, running, dance and heaps more.
- The Sleep and Mindfulness apps remind you to rest, relax or stay in the moment.
Even better, AIA Vitality members can get their hands – well, their wrists – on the latest Apple Watch Series 7 with loads of health monitoring features you can use anytime, anywhere, including:
Just think of it like a personal trainer and health coach on your wrist!
1. Gamification makes exercising easier
Hitting goals isn't about competing with anyone, but it's handy to have a PB or baseline to measure your progress against. The Apple Watch's daily Activity rings help to visualise and gamify your everyday movement. Here's how the Apple Watch Activity Rings feature works:
Three Rings: Move, Exercise and Stand. Your goal each day is to close each of these rings by meeting your personal daily targets. When you close the rings, if you’ve met your physical activity target, your daily movement could get you closer to earning your weekly Active Benefits reward.
Remember to sync by opening the AIA Vitality app to check your progress against your weekly Active Benefits target.
Why does that buzz on your wrist telling you you've closed your Activity rings feel so good? Well, gamifying goals – through closing rings or earning points – is proven to be an effective motivation tool for exercise. With each goal hit or milestone achieved, a positive feedback loop occurs, encouraging you to reinforce and foster that positive behaviour.
2. Monitor your health with the apple watch
Apart from motivating you to stay active, Apple Watch delivers powerful health features on your wrist. Here’s some more detail on the metrics your Apple Watch can track.
- Heart rate
Your heart rate is a simple way to gauge your fitness levels and heart health – a lower resting heart rate generally signifies a healthier heart.
- Blood-oxygen
Measure the percentage of oxygen present in your blood directly from your wrist, to check how well your blood cells carry oxygen from your lungs to the rest of your body. Knowing your blood-oxygen levels can help you understand your overall health and wellness.
- Sleep-tracking
Create bedtime schedules to help you meet your sleep goals. If you wear your watch to bed, Apple Watch can track your sleep, show you your sleep trends and even automatically measure and record the number of times you breathe in a minute.
- Mindfulness
The mindfulness app encourages you set aside a few 'mindful minutes' with its 'reflect' or 'breathe' functions. ‘Reflect’ supplies a prompt for you to think on, while ‘breathe’ guides you through a gentle session of breathwork.
- Electrocardiogram (ECG)
The ECG app records an electrocardiogram, which represents the electrical pulses that make your heartbeat. The ECG app checks these pulses to measure your heart rate and see if the upper and lower chambers of your heart are in rhythm.
- Activity reminders
Regardless of the result, if you aren't feeling well or are experiencing any symptoms, you should talk to your doctor.
- Activity reminders
You can choose your notifications and reminders. For example, Stand Reminders if you've been sitting too long and Daily Coaching notifications, based on your previous progress.
- Workout tracking with the Workout app
Track dozens of different kinds of workouts and get progress updates while you work out.
3. Staying motivated with apple fitness+
You can share your fitness activity with your friends and family through Apple Watch. Encourage each other to close all three Activity rings or start a little friendly competition to see who's the most active throughout the week.
With AIA Vitality, you can earn up to 100 Points towards your Active Benefits targets each week, too: for 30 minutes at a 60 per cent heart rate, you'll earn 50 points. Or go hard for 60 minutes at 60 per cent and earn 100 points!
And if you're craving classes without leaving home, Apple Fitness+ brings the gym to you.
A new subscription service powered by your Apple Watch and displayed on your iPhone, iPad or Apple TV, Apple Fitness+ includes guided workouts on HIIT, strength, yoga, Pilates, dance, mindfulness and more. Over 30 new workouts and meditations are added each week, so you'll always have something new to add to your routine.
Subscribing to Apple Fitness+ also gives you access to guided meditations to listen to as part of your running, walking or mindfulness sessions. All new Watch users will receive a three-month free trial offer
4. Claim your apple watch benefit with aia vitality
Activating your Apple Watch benefit is simple. As an iOS user, simply tap the Apple Watch Benefit tile on the dashboard of the AIA Vitality app and you're on your way!
You just need to complete a credit check and delivery details to receive an Apple Watch Series 7 (GPS & Cellular) with no upfront costs. An Optus data plan is also included. Make sure you've linked the Apple Health app to your AIA Vitality app.
Then link up the Apple Health and AIA Vitality apps on your iPhone, and you can reduce your monthly repayments by achieving your weekly Active Benefit targets. By hitting four or five Active Benefit targets a week each calendar month, your repayment for that month will be covered by AIA Vitality, which means it's a win-win situation for both your health and your wallet.
Staff Writer
Staff writers come from a range of backgrounds including health, wellbeing, music, tech, culture and the arts. They spend their time researching the latest data and trends in the health market to deliver up-to-date information, helping everyday Australians live healthier lives. This is general information only and is not intended as medical, health, nutritional or other advice. You should obtain professional advice from a medical or health practitioner in relation to your own personal circumstances. The information in this article is general information only and is not intended as medical, health, nutritional or other advice. You should obtain professional advice from a medical or health practitioner in relation to your own personal circumstance
Disclaimer:
This is general information only and is not intended as financial, medical, health, nutritional or other advice. You should obtain professional advice from a financial adviser, or medical or health practitioner in relation to your own personal circumstances.
This is general information only and is not intended as financial, medical, health, nutritional or other advice. You should obtain professional advice from a financial adviser, or medical or health practitioner in relation to your own personal circumstances.
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This inspirational content is brought to you by AIA Vitality
AIA Vitality is a science-backed program that helps you learn more about your health,
offers ways to improve it and motivates you with rewards along the way.
offers ways to improve it and motivates you with rewards along the way.
