I understand that I can prevent my Apple Fitness streaks from being lost if I take a day off from exercise. But how?

Nichole Webb

It can be demoralising when you need to take a day off from exercise because, until recently, your fitness streaks have been wiped out as a result through no fault of your own. However, this has now changed and your goals can be maintained, even during the first day of sickness. And there is an extra trick that you can implement to ensure that you get your exercise stats.

The key here is to make sure that you only use these tricks when genuinely sick and not make them an excuse for doing less in the future. Used correctly, they can represent the perfect way to keep your trends intact while maintaining your fitness in the future, which is a handy thing to know.

1 Change your goals

On your Apple Watch, go to the Activity app. Tap ‘Change Goals’ and you will be taken through a series of steps to adjust each goal downwards.

2 Breathing equals calories

If you are bed-bound you can adjust the Move Goal so that being awake during the day will allow you to complete the goal. This will align with the new exercise trick.

3 The hard part

The minimum stand hours you can select is six, which can be tricky when you are very sick. But for many illnesses, this should still be achievable.

4 The ultimate cheat

If you select the ‘Other’ (Open Goal) workout, you can simply sit down and your exercise minutes will complete naturally. Make sure you don’t overuse this one.

5 Two goals

When the Other workout type is running it will also help to complete your Move Goal alongside your exercise minutes. It’s a two-inone solution to keep your trends intact.

6 Forget the badges

The tricks we have detailed will keep you trends alive, but you are unlikely to be given monthly challenges. It will not count exercise minutes for Other workouts.