“So I Bought an Apple Watch… Now What?”

Look, I get it. You dropped a few hundred bucks on that shiny Apple Watch, wore it proudly for a week, showed off a few features to your friends, and now… well, maybe you’re mostly using it to check texts and the occasional weather forecast?

Trust me, you’re not alone. I’ve been covering Apple products for years, and I can’t tell you how many people I know who are using about 10% of what their Apple Watch can actually do—especially when it comes to health features.

I was guilty of this myself. For the first six months of owning my Apple Watch Series 5 (yeah, I’m a few generations behind, don’t judge), I basically used it as a notification screen and step counter. Then my doctor asked if I’d been monitoring my heart rate variability and I just stared at her blankly. “My watch can do what now?”

Turns out, that little computer on your wrist is a pretty serious health tool if you actually take the time to set it up right. So let’s fix that, shall we? Here’s your no-nonsense guide to the Apple Watch health features you should actually be using.

The Basics: Heart Rate Monitoring (That You’re Probably Ignoring)

Yeah, yeah, you know your watch tracks your heart rate. But are you actually doing anything with that information?

The heart rate sensor on your Apple Watch is constantly working, checking your pulse every few minutes throughout the day. But the real magic happens when you dig into this data:

Resting Heart Rate Trends

Your resting heart rate is basically your “engine idle” – how fast your heart beats when you’re doing absolutely nothing. A lower resting heart rate generally indicates better cardiovascular fitness, and significant changes can signal anything from improved fitness to illness.

To check your trends:

1. Open the Health app on your iPhone
2. Tap “Browse” then “Heart”
3. Select “Resting Heart Rate”

What shocked me was seeing how my resting heart rate drops by about 5 BPM when I’m consistently exercising and spikes by 7-10 BPM a day or two before I get sick. It’s like an early warning system I never knew I had!

Heart Rate Variability (HRV) – The Metric You’ve Never Heard Of

This one’s a bit weird but super useful. HRV measures the variation in time between each heartbeat. Higher variability is actually good – it means your body is adaptable and recovering well. Lower HRV can indicate stress, poor recovery, or oncoming illness.

To find it:

1. Health app → Browse → Heart
2. Tap “Heart Rate Variability”

I now check this every morning. If I see my HRV plummet, I know I need to take it easy that day – maybe skip the intense workout or get to bed earlier. It’s like having a built-in overtraining detector!

Heart Rate Notifications That Could Save Your Life

This one requires a quick setup, but it’s worth it:

1. Open the Watch app on your iPhone
2. Tap “Heart”
3. Enable “High Heart Rate” and “Low Heart Rate” notifications
4. Set thresholds that make sense for you (if unsure, the defaults are fine)

Last year, my friend got an alert that his heart rate was staying above 120 BPM while he was just sitting at his desk. Turned out he had an underlying infection that required antibiotics. The watch caught it before he felt seriously ill. Not saying it’ll save your life, but… it might?

ECG: That Feature You Set Up Once Then Forgot About

If you have an Apple Watch Series 4 or later, you’ve got a legit electrocardiogram on your wrist. This feature can detect atrial fibrillation (AFib), a serious heart condition that increases stroke risk.

I know you probably ran the ECG once when you first got your watch (ooh, look at my heartbeat!), but there’s actually good reason to use this semi-regularly, especially if you:

• Are over 40
• Have a family history of heart issues
• Feel heart palpitations occasionally
• Have high blood pressure

To run an ECG:

1. Open the ECG app on your watch
2. Rest your arm on a table or your leg
3. Hold your finger on the Digital Crown for 30 seconds

Pro tip: If you’re experiencing what feels like an irregular heartbeat, run the ECG right then and save the reading to show your doctor later. It’s not a replacement for medical care, but it gives your doctor more data to work with.

Blood Oxygen: More Than Just a Number

For Series 6 and newer owners, you’ve got a blood oxygen sensor. While it’s not medical-grade, it can still provide useful information.

The watch measures oxygen saturation (SpO2) – how much oxygen your red blood cells are carrying. Normal readings are typically between 95-100%. Consistently lower readings might warrant a conversation with your doctor.

To take a reading:

1. Open the Blood Oxygen app on your watch
2. Rest your arm on a table or in your lap
3. Tap Start and hold still for 15 seconds

What’s not obvious is that your watch also takes background readings throughout the day (and night if you wear it to sleep). Check these out in the Health app under Browse → Respiratory → Blood Oxygen.

I actually discovered that my oxygen levels were dipping a bit during sleep. Mentioned it to my doctor who suggested I get checked for sleep apnea – turns out I had a mild case. Would never have known without the watch!

Sleep Tracking: It’s Finally Decent!

Apple was late to the sleep tracking game, but with the latest watchOS updates, it’s actually pretty good now.

Setting up Sleep Tracking:

1. Open the Health app → Browse → Sleep
2. Tap “Set Up Sleep” or “Full Schedule & Options”
3. Follow the prompts to set your schedule
4. Make sure “Track Sleep with Apple Watch” is enabled

The best part is the new Sleep Stages feature, which breaks down your night into Core, Deep, and REM sleep. It’s not perfect (no wrist-based sleep tracker is), but it gives you a decent overview of your sleep patterns.

What I personally find useful is looking at the consistency of my sleep schedule. The data showed me that my sleep duration varies by over 2 hours between weekdays and weekends – apparently that’s not great for your body’s rhythms. I’ve been trying to smooth that out, and honestly, my energy levels feel more consistent.

Quick tip: Turn on Sleep Focus mode when sleeping to reduce distractions. Your watch face will simplify to just show the time when you’re supposed to be sleeping.

Cycle Tracking: Not Just for Period Predictions

For those who menstruate, the Cycle Tracking feature is more useful than you might think. Beyond just predicting your next period, it can help identify irregular cycles that might need medical attention and assist with family planning.

To set it up:

1. Open the Health app → Browse → Cycle Tracking
2. Tap “Get Started” and follow the setup

The power comes from consistent logging. You can log:

• Period days
• Symptoms
• Spotting
• Basal body temperature (great for fertility awareness)
• Results from ovulation tests

A friend of mine used this data to show her doctor that her cycles had become highly irregular. It helped lead to a PCOS diagnosis that might have taken much longer to identify otherwise.

Even if you think you’ve got your cycle figured out, the Health app can spot subtle changes and patterns you might miss.

Medication Tracking: The Feature No One Talks About

This newer feature is seriously underrated. If you take any medications regularly (or even occasionally), the Medication tracking feature can be a game-changer.

Setting it up:

1. Health app → Browse → Medications
2. Tap “Add a Medication”
3. Follow the prompts to add your meds, dosages, and schedules

The watch will send you reminders when it’s time to take your medication, and you can log whether you’ve taken it right from your wrist.

What’s really cool is the interaction checker. If you add all your medications, the Health app will warn you about potential interactions. It’s obviously not a replacement for pharmacist advice, but it’s a helpful safety net.

I set this up for my dad, who takes several medications daily. He went from missing doses a couple times a week to maybe once a month. Simple but effective!

Fall Detection & Emergency SOS: Set It and Forget It (But Don’t Forget It Exists)

These features aren’t sexy, but they’re potentially the most important ones on your watch.

Fall Detection

If you’re under 55, this isn’t on by default, but consider enabling it:

1. Watch app → Emergency SOS
2. Turn on “Fall Detection”

The watch uses its accelerometer and gyroscope to detect if you take a hard fall. If you don’t respond to the alert within a minute, it can automatically call emergency services and notify your emergency contacts.

I turned this on after a hiking buddy took a bad fall on a trail when out alone. He was fine, but it was a wake-up call. The feature is sophisticated enough to minimize false alarms – I’ve taken some epic tumbles on the ski slopes and it correctly identified them as “controlled” falls (aka wipeouts).

Emergency SOS

Make sure your emergency contacts are set up:

1. Health app → your profile (icon in top right) → Medical ID
2. Add emergency contacts

To use in an emergency:

• Press and hold the side button until the Emergency SOS slider appears
• Either drag the slider or keep holding the button for an automatic countdown and call

I hope you never need this, but it’s good to know it’s there. And maybe practice finding it with the screen off, just in case.

Fitness Metrics That Actually Matter

The Activity rings are Apple’s most visible fitness feature, but there’s more depth here than those three colorful circles.

Cardio Fitness (VO2 Max)

This is one of the most meaningful fitness metrics your watch tracks:

1. Health app → Browse → Heart → Cardio Fitness
2. You’ll see your estimated VO2 max (labeled as “Cardio Fitness”)

This measure of how efficiently your body uses oxygen during exercise is a powerful predictor of long-term health. What’s cool is seeing how it changes over time as you get more or less fit.

When I started running again after a lazy winter, I watched my cardio fitness level climb from “below average” to “above average” over about three months. Way more motivating than just looking at weight or even the activity rings!

Workout Recovery Time

This is more subtle, but your Apple Watch is actually calculating how much recovery time you need after workouts:

After completing a workout, check the Summary screen. You might see “Recovery: 24 hours” or similar. This is your watch suggesting how long you should wait before another intense session.

I used to ignore this completely and wonder why I felt burned out. Now I take it seriously, especially when it suggests longer recovery periods than I expected.

Trends in the Fitness App

Open the Fitness app on your iPhone and tap the Summary tab, then scroll down to “Trends.” This shows whether your key metrics are improving or declining over time.

It’s a reality check I didn’t know I needed. Despite hitting my move goal almost every day, my trends showed my overall cardio fitness and walking pace were actually declining. Turned out I was doing shorter, easier workouts just to close my rings – not actually improving my fitness!

Mindfulness: Not Just For Yoga Types

The Mindfulness app (formerly Breathe) is easy to dismiss if you’re not into meditation, but hear me out – it’s worth exploring.

The breathing exercises take just one minute and can help break the stress cycle when you’re feeling overwhelmed. The watch guides you with gentle taps and easy-to-follow visualizations.

But the newer Reflect feature is what surprised me. It gives you a thoughtful prompt and a minute to just… well, reflect. Examples include “Think about something you love to do and why it brings you joy” or “Consider one thing you’re grateful for.”

Sounds cheesy? Maybe. But when I actually gave it a shot during a stressful workday, that tiny one-minute break and mental reset was surprisingly effective. It’s like a little pattern interrupt for your brain.

To set it up:

1. Watch app → Mindfulness
2. Configure your settings and reminders

The Health App: Tying It All Together

All these watch features feed into the Health app on your iPhone, which is where the real insights happen.

Take some time to explore the Health app’s Summary view. You can customize this to show the metrics that matter most to you:

1. Scroll to the bottom of the Summary tab
2. Tap “Edit”
3. Add or remove the health categories you care about

What’s cool is how it can show correlations between different metrics. For example, I noticed that on days when my HRV is high, my workouts are usually more productive. And when my sleep consistency is high, my resting heart rate tends to be lower.

Don’t miss the “Highlights” at the top of the Summary, which point out trends and changes the app has detected. Sometimes these catch things you’d never notice on your own!

Setting Up Health Sharing (For Those Who Need It)

This feature is particularly useful for families caring for elderly parents or those with chronic health conditions.

Health Sharing lets you securely share select health data with family members or caregivers:

1. Health app → Sharing tab
2. Tap “Share with Someone” or “Ask Someone to Share”
3. Select which metrics to share

My friend set this up after her dad had a heart scare. She can see if his heart rate spikes or if his activity level suddenly drops, giving her peace of mind without having to call him three times a day to check in.

What’s great is that you control exactly what information is shared. You might want to share heart and activity data but keep sleep or mindfulness data private.

Calibrating Your Watch for Better Accuracy

Few people realize that taking your Apple Watch for a proper “calibration walk” can significantly improve its accuracy for things like calorie counting and distance measurement.

Here’s how:

1. Wear your watch to an open area with good GPS reception
2. Open the Workout app and start an Outdoor Walk or Run
3. Exercise for about 20 minutes
4. Repeat this a few times in different locations

I did this after moving to a new city and noticed my calorie estimates seemed off. After proper calibration, the readings matched much better with what I expected based on my effort level.

When to Trust Your Watch (And When Not To)

With all these health features, it’s important to remember what your Apple Watch is and isn’t.

It IS:

• A powerful tool for tracking trends over time
• Good at detecting significant changes that might warrant attention
• Excellent for developing consistent health habits
• Useful for gathering data to share with healthcare providers

It is NOT:

• A medical device (despite having FDA-cleared features)
• A replacement for regular check-ups
• Always 100% accurate
• Capable of diagnosing any condition

I’ve found it most useful as a conversation starter with my doctor. Instead of saying “I feel tired sometimes,” I can show specific patterns of disturbed sleep, elevated heart rate, and lower activity levels.

Putting It All Together: My Two-Minute Daily Health Routine

If all this seems overwhelming, here’s the simplified routine I follow:

Morning (30 seconds):

1. Check my sleep data
2. Glance at HRV and resting heart rate
3. If anything looks off, I note it and consider adjusting my day accordingly

Throughout the day:

• Respond to stand reminders when possible
• Take a minute for a breathing session if stressed

Evening (90 seconds):

1. Review activity for the day
2. Check any workout data if I exercised
3. Briefly look at the Health app Summary for any insights
4. Make sure my watch is charging to get through the night if I sleep track

That’s it! Two minutes to get about 90% of the benefit from all these features.

The Bottom Line: Your Watch, Your Health

The thing about these Apple Watch health features is that they’re only valuable if you actually use them in a way that makes sense for your life.

For me, sleep and HRV tracking have been game-changers. For you, it might be the ECG function or workout recovery metrics. The key is experimenting to find which data points actually lead to positive changes in your habits.

And remember – the goal isn’t perfect health stats or closing your rings every single day. It’s using these tools to better understand your body and make improvements where it matters to you.

So maybe charge up that watch, dive into a feature you haven’t tried yet, and see what you discover. Your wrist has been collecting all this valuable data – might as well put it to good use, right?