The word “calorie” may bring up thoughts of nutrition labels and treadmill readouts, but really calories are just units of energy. Your car runs on gas, your house runs on electricity, and your body runs on food energy. So how many calories do we burn each day, and how many should you burn? Let’s dig in.

You actually burn most of your calories at rest

Calories aren’t only burned during exercise. It takes energy to keep the lights on, so to speak—for your heart to beat, your brain to think, your cells to repair themselves, and more. 

In fact, most of our calories are burned doing these maintenance chores. Scientists call this baseline calorie burn our "basal metabolic rate," or BMR. There are several equations that will estimate your BMR; for a calculator, try the one at tdeecalculator.net. (It uses the Mifflin-St. Jeor formula if you don’t know your body fat percentage, and the Katch-McArdle formula if you do.)

To give you an example, I plugged in my stats—I’m 150 pounds and 5’6”—and the equation guesses that someone my size burns: 

• 1,352 calories for most of my basic bodily functions (not including digestion!)

• 1,623 calories, total, if I’m sedentary

• 2,096 calories, total, if I do moderate exercise three to five times a week

• 2,569 calories, total, if I’m a hardcore athlete or a person who exercises on top of having a physical job

Keep in mind these are just estimates; your actual calorie burn may be more or less. (From tracking my calories over the years, I know that I'm usually somewhere between those last two numbers, depending on how active I am.) The factors that affect your total calorie burn include: 

• Body size: The bigger you are, the more calories you burn at baseline and the more you burn during exercise.

• Muscle mass: Muscle burns more calories than other tissues, which is why you get a more accurate estimate if you know your body fat percentage; the lower your body fat, the more muscle you have by comparison.

• Age: These formulas assume that your metabolism slows down a bit as you age (although there is evidence that this may not make a big difference).

• Activity: The more you exercise, the more calories you burn.

• Genetics and other factors not accounted for in the formula: There’s actually a huge variety from person to person, even if you compare people of the same size, age, etc. We're all different.

To give you a sense of the range, the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans calculates calorie counts for two example people, who are both a bit smaller than average Americans, but let's take a look anyway. The document figures that a 5’10” man who weighs 154 pounds will burn, in total, between 2,000 and 3,000 calories each day, depending on his age and activity level. Their example woman is 5’4” and 126 pounds, and she will burn between 1,600 and 2,400 calories. 

So if you’re used to thinking of 2,000 calories as some kind of upper limit for how much to eat—or 1,200 calories as a calorie budget for dieting—you may be surprised to realize how many calories you probably already burn.

How (and why) to burn more calories

If you’re trying to lose weight, logic would say that you should focus more on diet than exercise. After all, if most of your calorie burn is your BMR, exercise is going to be a drop in the bucket by comparison. 

I don’t think that’s the only thing you should consider, though. If your BMR is 1,300 calories and your total burn is 1,600, then sure, you could eat 1,300 calories without exercising and probably lose weight. But it’s hard to be healthy while you’re eating so little. 

Burning more calories through exercise helps your body in two ways: 

1. Exercise is good for us, regardless of calorie burn; we should all be getting at least 150 minutes of cardio per week, plus some strength training to help build or retain muscle.

2. The more food you eat, the easier it is to fit in the good stuff: vitamins, minerals, fiber, good fats, and a variety of vegetables.

A person who burns 2,300 calories and eats 2,000 is in a much better position to benefit from exercise and good nutrition than a person who burns 1,600 and eats 1,300. 

So how do you burn more calories? You can’t get younger, and if you’re losing weight you won’t want to get bigger. The biggest levers you can pull are: 

• Exercise more

• Gain muscle mass (through strength training, and eating plenty of protein)

• Don’t diet all the time

I’ve written before about how I’ve noticed my total calorie burn increases when I’m eating more food; when you feed your body, it’s more willing to expend energy. This is one of the reasons it’s thought to be beneficial to take “diet breaks” if you plan to be in a weight-loss phase for a long time.

Why you shouldn’t rely on “calorie burn” numbers from wearables or exercise machines

You’re probably wondering how much exercise is “enough” to burn more calories. It’s a trick question, though: You want to change what kind of person you are—stop being sedentary and become a frequent exerciser—rather than nickel-and-dime yourself about exactly what numbers you burned in which workout.

This is because our bodies get more efficient with exercise over time. A half-hour jog might burn 300 calories in theory, but at the end of the day you may have only burned, say, 200 more than if you hadn’t jogged. You might end up feeling more tired later in the day, or you might just be getting better at running and burning fewer calories when you do it. (This is an ongoing area of scientific research.) 

There is evidence that exercise machines’ estimates of calorie burn are extremely inaccurate; wearables like Fitbits and Apple Watches are probably a bit better, being personalized to your exercise intensity, but they’re still ultimately relying on estimates that aren’t always accurate.

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

For the past year, I’ve had two salt shakers in my kitchen. One is regular table salt, which I use at the table. The other is filled with Morton Salt Substitute, which is potassium-based, and I use it for the first few shakes of salt when I’m cooking a dish.

The World Health Organization has recommended that more of us use salt substitutes, and not just in the name of lowering sodium: It turns out potassium is generally good for you, and potassium salt substitutes are an easy way to get more of it in your diet. 

Morton Salt Substitute, Sodium Free, Salt Substitutes with No Sodium, 3.125oz, 2 Pack

$14.99 at Amazon

Get Deal

Get Deal

$14.99 at Amazon

The benefits of potassium-based salt

If you’ve ever tried to lower your sodium intake, you’re probably familiar with low-sodium or no-sodium salt substitutes. One potential benefit is, of course, that they provide an easy way to lower your sodium intake if you do a lot of your own cooking. Sodium can contribute to high blood pressure and other health conditions, so the World Health Organization recommends that most of us keep our sodium intake under 2,000 milligrams per day. (The U.S. recommendation is a bit more generous, at 2,300 milligrams.) 

But this isn’t just about sodium. When it comes to heart health, most of us get more sodium than recommended and not enough potassium. Potassium is another mineral your body needs, and consuming more of it has been found to reduce the risks of cardiovascular disease. In one study, for example, people who switched to a potassium-based salt had fewer strokes, heart attacks, and deaths during the study than people who kept using a regular sodium salt.

We normally get potassium from fruits and vegetables. Potassium salt shouldn’t replace that, but it can be a good extra source of the mineral. According to the National Institutes of Health, adult women should get at least 2,600 milligrams of potassium per day, and adult men at least 3,400. 

The downsides of potassium-based salt

Importantly, potassium supplementation is not for everyone. If you have kidney disease or impaired kidney function, or if you’re taking a medication that changes how your body processes potassium, you may want to avoid these salts. (Your healthcare provider can tell you more.)

How potassium salt tastes (and how to work around it)

The people promoting salt substitutes for health tend to wave away concerns about flavor. Most people won’t notice the difference, they say. I don't quite buy that—while you may not notice the difference in every dish, potassium salts do have a subtly different flavor than regular sodium-based table salt. Sprinkle a little on your hand and lick it, and you’ll see what I mean.

Potassium salt is still salty, and it doesn’t taste bad or anything, but it doesn't have quite the same satisfying saltiness as a regular sodium-based table salt. In large amounts, potassium-based salt substitutes can taste slightly metallic or bitter. When companies make low-sodium versions of their products, they know to use a mix of potassium and sodium salts, so that’s what I do at home. 

I use my salt substitute at the beginning of a recipe, when I’m browning meat or sautéing onions. It contributes a general saltiness to the dish. The next time I add salt, it’s usually the sodium kind. I aim for roughly a 50/50 balance, and then the salt shaker I bring to the dinner table is regular old table salt. 

If that’s too complicated, you can just mix both types of salt in the same container. Or buy a salt substitute like Morton Lite, which is a mix of sodium and potassium salts. And if you need a long-term review to convince you it will actually be fine for daily use, one of the largest studies on salt substitutes found that, after five years, 90% of participants were still happily using their salt substitute.

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

The new Google Health app starts rolling out today, replacing the Fitbit app for data tracking on Fitbit and Pixel Watch devices. It’s what the Fitbit “Public Preview” previewed, and now, the finished app is live.

The final app is definitely better than the preview, but still has its problems—here’s what I’ve noticed so far. (By the way, to get the Google Health app, you don't have to do anything—just wait, and the upgrade will come to you sometime over the next week or so.)

Google Fitbit Air - Berry with Large Fog Active Band Bundle

$99.99 at Amazon

$134.98 Save $34.99

Get Deal

Get Deal

$99.99 at Amazon

$134.98 Save $34.99

How Google Health differs from the Fitbit app

The new Google Health app, with its watercolor rainbow heart, replaces the Fitbit app. Some Fitbit features will be lost forever (no more sleep animals!), social features are limited, and everything runs off your Google account, rather than a standalone Fitbit account. 

The best features are still paywalled

As with the Fitbit app, there’s still a divide between what you get on a free account versus what you can access if you’ve paid for the Premium tier:

• Everybody gets step tracking, exercise tracking, and sleep scores.

• As with Fitbit Premium, you’ll need Google Health Premium to see detailed sleep data and access the workout library and mindfulness session library.

• Google Health Premium is now required for some features that were free in the Public Preview, including the ability to chat with the AI coach and have it create personalized fitness plans. 

A Premium subscription is $9.99/month, or $99.99/year. When you pair a new Fitbit or Pixel device (including the new Fitbit Air), you’ll be offered a three-month free trial.

Yep, the AI still hallucinates

Google seems to have tamed the hallucinations that plagued the AI coach at launch (remember when it didn’t believe me when I told it the Pixel Watch 4 exists?)...but only somewhat. For example, today I see a message on my screen congratulating me on a sleep score of 99, but when I tap into my sleep stats, I see that my score was actually 85. 

In the Preview, the coach kept “notes” that you could individually delete if it seemed to be constantly harping on something that was no longer relevant. I eventually got so frustrated with it that I deleted everything. The new version of the app has a chat history instead of memories, and conversations now seem to be a little more relevant to what I’ve told the chatbot recently.

There’s still a lot that I find less than satisfying, though. The bot interprets everything I say to it as a request for a condescending lecture. Sometimes it links to what seems like a source, but the links are often irrelevant to the conversation. Once, it linked a Reddit thread asking a similar question I had just asked—but the only answer in that thread was somebody saying, “Here, I’ll paste the answer I got from ChatGPT.” It’s chatbots all the way down. 

Logging things with the Google Health Coach is pretty convenient

One nice feature of the Google Health Coach is that you can use it to log the food you've eaten, or exercise you've done, just by telling it—though as with any AI-based nutrition logging, the exact calories and macros it generates for you will be a guess. Still, for common food items, it should be close enough. For example, I told it I had a carne asada burrito from Trader Joe’s, and it logged it as 460 calories and 25 grams of protein. According to the label, the burrito has 490 calories and 22 grams of protein—not exact, but fairly close. 

You can also record exercise by uploading a screenshot from another app, with mixed results (it correctly counted my heart rate zone minutes from a workout I tested, but didn’t update my weekly cardio load). You can even use a photo of a written workout from, say, your gym’s whiteboard, and it should work.

The Coach will ask appropriate follow-up questions—how long did that whiteboard workout take? Do you want to adjust the serving size of the food?—though sometimes it misses details, like logging “1 rep” of a sled push instead of the listed 50 yards. But if you’re looking for convenience over accuracy, it’s good enough. 

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

I’m so much in the habit of recording and tracking my workouts that when I started training for Hyrox, my first question was, "how will I track them?" I want to keep an eye on my heart rate, so that narrowed it down to watches rather than smart bands or rings. But which is best? I tried four different watches and found two clear winners—depending on what you want to focus on. 

Hyrox is, of course, the hybrid fitness sport that blends running with strength-endurance activities. (I have an explainer on it here.) A typical Hyrox or hybrid fitness workout involves cardio and strength exercises, which you’ll usually switch between throughout. You’ll probably want to note when you switch exercises (by pressing a lap button on your tracker), and you may want to track rests. If running is involved, you might want to know your run distance. No matter what, you probably want to keep an eye on your heart rate.

You don’t actually need a dedicated Hyrox mode to track a workout with your watch. Plenty of folks get by with their standard watch’s “gym cardio” or “indoor run” modes (though some of the stations won’t rack up any actual run mileage). But some watches do have a Hyrox or hybrid mode, so here’s what you’ll see if you use those.

Best for runners: Coros Pace 4’s hybrid fitness mode

Credit: Beth Skwarecki

The Coros is my favorite for casual training. I can walk into the gym, start a workout on the watch, and know that everything important is getting logged. During each segment of the workout, I can see a timer tracking the length of my exercise, as well as my heart rate on a color-coded graph. 

Coros Pace 4

$249.00 at Amazon

Get Deal

Get Deal

$249.00 at Amazon

Coros automatically detects which segments were runs, and labels them as such when I view the workout on my phone later. The other segments are labeled as “functional training,” but I can edit the workout to properly label each one with the exercise I was doing. The best part is that Coros counts up your run mileage. As I’m leaving the gym, I’ll finish the workout on the watch, and get a little message that I racked up 2.73 miles in the process. I then use a voice note to jot down what the stations were, while they’re still fresh in my mind. 

How to use it: Go into the activities menu and select Hybrid Fitness. I use Training mode with Manual rest, but if I know I’ll be jumping straight from activity to activity, I’ll select Continuous instead. Coros also has a mode for racing that shows your running pace during the run segments, and has the stations correctly labeled in order. There's also a mode for a fitness test similar to the Hyrox PFT.

Best for following structured workouts: Roxfit with Apple Watch

Credit: Beth Skwarecki

I found Roxfit when I went looking for a way to track hybrid workouts with Garmin. While Roxfit does work on Garmin watches, I preferred using it with the Apple Watch. Roxfit is actually a standalone app; you don’t need a watch to use it. But if you create a workout in the Roxfit app, you can sync that workout to your watch, and your watch will guide you through the workout. Roxfit also has a ton of other Hyrox-focused features, letting you connect your past race times and upcoming events, and build a pacing plan for your next race. Today, I’m only concerned with guidance and tracking for ordinary workouts.

Apple Watch Series 11

$329.00 at Amazon

$399.00 Save $70.00

Shop Now

Shop Now

$329.00 at Amazon

$399.00 Save $70.00

There’s no way to track a freeform workout with Roxfit, but it’s easy to create a workout on the fly. Chat with “Hype” (the built-in chatbot) and ask it for whatever you need. You can also build a workout manually, but I found Hype tends to understand me pretty well. For example, I said, “Give me a workout with one minute of running and then 10 reps of lunges, repeated five times, no rest” and got exactly that.

The Roxfit app will tell you when you’re halfway through each segment, count down your last three seconds of timed segments, and helpfully read your next steps out loud: “Now: run one minute. Next up: sandbag lunges.” The data fields on the Apple Watch are easy to read and understand, but the Garmin version is okay, too. If you use Garmin, note that the “send to wearable” button in the Roxfit app sends the workout to your Garmin app, not to the watch itself. You’ll still need to go to the Garmin Connect app to send it to the watch. 

How to use it: On your phone, create a workout, and sync it to your Apple or Garmin watch. From your watch, select the workout and start it from there. There is no way to start a freeform workout where you choose what to do in real time.

Runner-up: Amazfit’s Hyrox mode

Hyrox mode on an Amazfit Active Max. Note that the fuzzy black bars are an artifact of taking the photo in sunny conditions; they aren't visible in real life. Credit: Beth Skwarecki

Of all the watches I’m discussing today, Amazfit is the only one that actually uses the word Hyrox. (Amazfit is an official partner of the Hyrox company.) Its Hyrox mode is similar to Coros’s, but doesn’t seem to count up running mileage or recognize running laps. Besides the “free” training mode, you can also use one of three timers: tabata (20 seconds work, 10 seconds rest, for four minutes), AMRAP (a set time cap for whatever you want to do), or EMOM (you’ll get an alert at the top of each minute to start your exercise, and then you rest for the remainder of the minute). 

How to use it: From the activity menu, select Hyrox training. Use the lap button to create new laps or segments, or follow one of the timer modes. Runs will not be recognized, and run distance will not be tracked. There is also a race mode that labels each segment with its correct event (giving you a view with running pace for the running ones) and a mode for the Hyrox PFT test.

Over the past few decades, “functional” fitness has been seen as everything from a niche practice, to a trend, to a joke. The styles of training that call themselves “functional” vary as well, from bodyweight exercises to Hyrox training. So what is functional fitness really?

Functional fitness is more a buzzword than a style of training

If you ask somebody who coaches functional fitness, they’ll probably tell you that it’s about doing exercises that will help you in everyday life. Maybe that means doing farmer’s walks with heavy dumbbells so that you’ll be strong enough to carry all the groceries in one trip. Maybe it’s doing hundreds of air squats so you can bend down to pick up your kids. Maybe it’s balancing on a Bosu so you’ll be less likely to slip and fall on an icy sidewalk.

Historian Conor Heffernan traces the roots of functional fitness to exercises that were prescribed for general health rather than specifically for strength or sports. Sometimes these would use unusual apparatus like pulleys and weighted balls or, today, battle ropes or suspension trainers.

Today’s trainers often define functional fitness in opposition to what they think “regular” fitness is. For some, regular training means a lot of single-joint exercises like bicep curls, so they’ll program compound movements that involve the whole body. For others, regular training means you’re using heavy weights, so they consider functional training to be workouts that use light weights or only bodyweight. And for still others, regular training means doing sets and resting in between them, while functional training keeps you moving the whole time. In other words, “functional” can mean any type of exercise that your trainer prefers.

Sometimes "functional fitness" is like a code word

Just when it looked like the functional fitness craze was dying down, it seems more and more gyms and trainers are picking the term back up. But this time, I think something specific is going on: “Functional” is code for “CrossFit-type exercise, but not the CrossFit brand.”

CrossFit is a mix of barbell training, gymnastics and calisthenics moves, and cardio. Workouts may involve skill practice, strength training, and most famously timed “WODs” (workouts of the day) that require cardio fitness to power through. But the name CrossFit is trademarked, and it’s tied to a specific company, and that company has some unpleasant things in its history. What do you do if you like the style of workout but you don’t want to do CrossFit CrossFit? You call it something else.

So when people do similar exercises as what you'd see in a CrossFit class, sometimes that gets called functional, whether it's being done for a real-life purpose or not. For example, Hyrox classes prepare you for a race, which isn't really functional; but you'll be doing wall balls and lunges and pushing a sled, which you could argue are functional exercises

No exercise is non-functional

The idea of training to be better at everyday life is not a bad one. We all need strength and mobility to exist as a human being without complaining about our knees and our backs all the time, and that goes double as we age.

But do you need a specific type of exercise to do that? Not really. Plain old boring barbell squats might not be “functional” in some people’s eyes, but they still build a ton of leg strength to help you pick up your kids. Anything that improves some aspect of your fitness is going to be helpful to you in everyday life.

If you want to take a lesson from the world of functional fitness, let it be that you’re not limited to any stereotype of fitness. Balance training can be fun and helpful; so can grip training, and core training, and interval cardio training, and all kinds of things you might not normally think to do in the gym. Learning new skills is an exercise for your brain, as well as your body, and it’s a worthwhile one, too—even if you’ll never find a “functional” use for something like handstand pushups.

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

I just got my review unit of the Fitbit Air, and while I can't give you a full review yet, I've now had the device in my hand and have tried out the new Google Health app that will soon replace the Fitbit app. I've already found a lot to like about it, which kind of surprised me. My hopes were high, but my expectations were not. Here's what I'm seeing so far.

Google Fitbit Air

$99.99 at Google Store

Pre-order Here

Pre-order Here

$99.99 at Google Store

The Fitbit Air is small and light

Credit: Beth Skwarecki

From photos, I could tell the Fitbit Air looked small and light, but I was mostly seeing it on a basketball player's arm. In person, it really does live up to the photos. The Fitbit Air has an 18-millimeter strap, which is much thinner than what you see on any other smart bands, and overall, it's the smallest fitness tracker I've used in recent years (and maybe ever). Here is a photo of the Air (far right, in the "fog" colorway) next to a current generation Whoop MG. Right to left, the other two devices are a Polar Loop (beige) and an Amazfit Helio (black).

Left to right: Amazfit Helio, Polar Loop, Whoop MG, Fitbit Air Credit: Beth Skwarecki

The Fitbit Air's coach was able to pull data from a screenshot

Credit: Beth Skwarecki

The Fitbit Air, like all smart bands, relies on its companion app for data analysis and display, so the app's performance is critical to how useful the band actually is as a tracker. I had already done my workout for the day when I first tried the new app, so I showed the coach a screenshot of my results from that workout. (I had tracked it on a Coros watch.) The coach detected the number of minutes I'd spent in each heart rate zone, then converted them to Fitbit zones and logged them appropriately.

Google Health's AI coach may be hallucinating less

I had a terrible time with an early version of the Google Health coach. The hallucinations were bad, and even as of last week, the memory problem was awful. It would insist on obeying something as a commandment that had just been a passing thought months ago ("I'd like heavy singles in my workout"), even if I went into my "coach notes" and deleted that memory. But since trying the new version of the app, I haven't seen any significant hallucinations, and there are no intrusive long-term memories—at least so far.

I also noticed the coach was able to do what it said. When I asked it to log my Hyrox workout, it logged it as starting at 8 p.m. (the current time). When I asked it to update that time to 6 p.m., I didn't see the update right away and figured it was another broken promise—but a minute later, I noticed that it had, in fact, updated. It will take more testing to see whether the coach always does the right thing, or if I just lucked out, but it certainly seems to be working better than what I saw in the Public Preview.

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

I flagged smart bands as one of the tech trends of 2026, based on what I was seeing, so it’s interesting to watch the rollout of the Fitbit Air and the buzz around the (still unconfirmed) Garmin Cirqa. Whoop, which has long been the undisputed leader in this area, now has a ton of competition. Here’s what I see going on, and what I think we should expect going forward. 

Google Fitbit Air - Berry with Large Fog Active Band Bundle

$99.99 at Amazon

$134.98 Save $34.99

Shop Now

Shop Now

$99.99 at Amazon

$134.98 Save $34.99

Fitness trackers have reached the end of their evolution, and their universe is rebooting

To explain how we got here, I’m going to take you through a little history lesson with the theme of: What do we expect a fitness tracker to be? Fitbit has been working on this question for over 15 years, beginning with simple digital pedometers that clipped to your pocket. As more advanced technology became more affordable, Fitbits gained lights and buttons and screens and heart rate sensors—the more you could pack into a device, the better. This evolution continued until some Fitbits were full-on smartwatches. To be honest, until about last year, I would have told you that there’s no longer any meaningful distinction between “smartwatches” and “fitness trackers”—they’ve merged into the same product category. 

In parallel with that evolution, smartwatches and fitness watches also gained features, and then stagnated while trackers caught up. Garmins started off as bulky GPS units you could strap to your wrist; the Apple Watch was an extension of your smartphone that happened to be able to measure heart rate. Over time these categories merged into a single watch-shaped format that had an AMOLED screen, a heart rate sensor, and as many software features as the companies could figure out how to stuff into them. “Do I want an Apple Watch or a Garmin?” is a reasonable question to ask, since the overlap between fitness watches and smartwatches is an almost-but-not-quite-circular Venn diagram. 

But smartwatches, fitness watches, and fitness trackers have all arrived at roughly the same place: They have as many features as people want. In fact, they have more features than people want. The fastest marathon runner in the world seems to be perfectly happy with an old Garmin that was the bottom of the line when it launched five years ago. 

Tech companies can no longer grow by reaching out to people who haven’t heard of smartwatches; most everybody who would want one already has one. Companies also have a hard time convincing people to upgrade the devices they already have, since newer models don’t have any killer features that older ones are missing. 

These days, upgrades mostly consist of putting higher-end features in lower-end watches, which isn’t a strategy that can work for long. That brings us nice perks like the flashlight in Garmin’s Forerunner 970, but the result is that hardware companies like Garmin are ratcheting their hardware prices up, and wondering how they can make their money on something more profitable and longer-lasting, like subscriptions. (Garmin seems to be grasping for straws on subscription features as well, but that’s another story.)

Everybody can load an app onto their phone these days, so devices no longer need to stand alone. As a tech company, if all your fitness tracker's features are in the app, and your customers aren't excited about new hardware, you might as well go back to basics and offer a simple sensor on a strap. That's what we're seeing now.

How smart bands found their new niche

“Smart band” hasn’t been a tech category for long. Until recently there was only one major product in this area: the Whoop band. Whoop’s hardware was never all that fancy—just a heart rate sensor on a strap. The clasp and the charger were (and are) both cleverly designed, and the focus is on everything but the electronic internals. You get device for “free”—it’s the app that keeps you engaged, and the app that makes you feel you’re getting $239/year of value out of it.

WHOOP 5.0 with Peak membership

$239.00 at Amazon

Shop Now

Shop Now

$239.00 at Amazon

My review of the Whoop 4.0 (no longer the current model) is worth a read if you want to see how this played out over time. In the two years I had that band in my possession, its app gained a ton of new features. Whoop markets itself to athletes who want to monitor their recovery and optimize their sleep schedules, and the app has always provided a treasure trove of data alongside tools to highlight what’s most important to focus on. 

But not everybody wants to pay that subscription fee, or think of themselves as athletes hyper-optimizing their routine. For years, people would pop up on tech forums asking if there was a way to get a similar device without paying Whoop for a subscription, but none materialized. 

But last year, that began to change. I’m not sure if there’s a reason for that timing, aside from companies previously preferring to focus on the escalation of features I discussed above. If it turns out there was a legal challenge or technological issue, I’d love to know. In any case, we got the Polar Loop ($199), and the Amazfit Helio Strap ($99), both very basic devices that feed data to humdrum apps. Garmin’s Index sleep band ($169) somehow managed to be even more basic than these, not even tracking exercise—despite apparently having the internals to do so.  

All three come from companies that already had their own apps that paired with smartwatches. Making a smart band requires no new features of the software, and the manufacturing side must be pretty easy for a company that’s used to making watches. Instead of building a watch with a sensor, you just stick the sensor directly onto a strap and send it out into the world. With that in mind, Polar’s and Garmin’s bands both felt overpriced. Amazfit’s price made a lot more sense, and from what I can tell the demand seems to have outpaced supply. Good luck finding an Amazfit Helio Strap anywhere. 

The Fitbit Air finally puts everything together, and Whoop is right to be scared

Google just announced their own smart band, the Fitbit Air, and I feel like we’re seeing a rare moment of Google reading the room and offering exactly what people need. I say this with great uncertainty, though—everything depends on whether the Health Coach is reliable enough to power the new app. My tests of an earlier version of the Coach were not promising.

But if the Fitbit Air and its new app live up to Google’s promises, then we have a smart band that's the same cost ($99) as the Amazfit Helio Strap, with a much larger customer base and better name recognition, and a full-featured app that provides analytics and coaching much like Whoop does. 

I’m not saying Google Health will be quite as good as the Whoop app, but if it’s almost as good, and you only have to pay $99 once, ever, rather than $239 every year, almost everyone except diehard athletes would probably prefer the Fitbit. 

And that’s where we get the next stage of evolution. Similar to the trend I observed in smart rings, smart band makers are realizing that hardware isn’t a cash cow, and people don’t want to pay for subscriptions. The money has to come from somewhere else. 

Whoop has already been in the process of shifting to thinking of itself as a health company. You can book blood tests through the Whoop app, and Whoop just announced (somewhat defensively, right after the Fitbit Air announcement) that it will offer video consults with healthcare professionals as a paid add-on service. Healthcare is a big market, since U.S. companies have basically infinite opportunities to take money to fill in the gaps in our crappy healthcare system. 

What I’d buy in 2026

So right now—or coming soon—we have a few viable options for smart bands. The ones I like best are: 

• The reigning champ, Whoop. It still does a lot of things that other bands don’t (like tracking recovery from strength training). If you want the best, I’d still go with Whoop. Get the Peak membership ($239/year) since the more expensive Life ($359/year) doesn't provide any extras that are worth the cost.

• The new Fitbit Air, with the enormous caveat that I haven’t tried it yet, and neither has almost anyone else. It’s the most affordable smart band (tied with the Amazfit Helio Strap at $99) and works with a full-featured app. It also works with Pixel watches, so you can have a smart band and a smartwatch that feed data to the same app to be analyzed together. 

• The Amazfit Helio Strap, if you can get it. It’s also $99, and can work alongside any of Amazfit’s watches. It’s not as full-featured as the two I named above, but it’s a good basic pick.

Amazfit Helio Strap

$99.99 at Amazfit

Shop Now

Shop Now

$99.99 at Amazfit

I would not recommend the Polar Loop. It’s overpriced for what you get, and any of the three above will give you a better experience. I wouldn’t recommend the Garmin Index sleep band either, unless you’re a Garmin user who really just wants something comfy to sleep in and doesn’t mind the extra cost. 

The Luna band announced at CES has not yet materialized, we don’t know the cost, and there aren’t any smartwatches on the U.S. market that work with the Luna app. [Update 5/13/2026: Luna's product head announced on Reddit that the new ship date is now in July.] Garmin’s Cirqa band—if it’s real, and if it is indeed a Whoop-style smart band—is unlikely to dethrone any of my top picks. But I suppose we’ll have to wait and see.

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

If you find a tick on yourself, it’s totally normal to want to climb out of your skin and burn it and live your life with your bones and muscles on display. Since I wasn't able to do that the last time I tried, I’m glad to report there is a safe, effective, hands-off way to remove the tick from your skin. More than one, in fact.

Put down the matches, though. And the soap, and the alcohol. Those can make a tick release itself, but they also make the tick vomit its stomach contents into your bloodstream. That’s gross and it increases your risk of catching tick-borne diseases like Lyme. Instead, you need specialized equipment. Get your hands on it now, before you need it. You have several options, and they’re all under $10 each.

Original Tick Key for Tick Removal 3 Pack (Multi Color)

$20.49 at Amazon

Get Deal

Get Deal

$20.49 at Amazon

I prefer the Tick Key. I have actually used this one in real life, while freaking out just a little (I respect arachnids and insects as important parts of the ecosystem but I really do not enjoy touching them) and it’s pretty easy. You put the large end of the keyhole over the tick, then just slide it over so the tick gets wedged into the small end. That’s it. Doing this removes the tick.

If you do it right, pressing down into the skin, you can remove the whole creature. If you’re a bit skittish, like me, you might end up leaving the mouthparts buried in the skin. But at that point they’re not attached to a living breathing monster, so it’s really no biggie. The mouthparts are very very tiny, and they’ll work their way out as the bite heals. Once the tick is off your skin, your job is done.

Tick Twister Tick Remover for Dogs and Humans

$7.99 at Amazon

Get Deal

Get Deal

$7.99 at Amazon

My vet prefers the Tick Twister, which is easier to use without fur getting in the way. You slide the forked part around the tick, then twist until it pops off.

There are other brands, like the Ticked Off, that work in similar ways. You can also, if you’re not too squeamish, grab the lil guy close to the skin with fine-tipped tweezers. (Either special tick tweezers or just a regular pair that’s pointy enough).

When you’ve got the tick, you can drop it into a jar of alcohol to make sure it’s good and dead. I usually put it in a baggie, so it can’t crawl away, and drop it in the trash; sandwiching it in masking tape is another reasonable approach.

Finally, try to stop this from happening ever again by checking yourself for ticks every day. A shower is pretty good at washing the little guys off before they get a chance to attach. If you’ve just finished a hike and worry that you’re crawling with the things, give yourself a few swipes with a lint roller to tide you over until shower time.

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

With Google’s announcement of the screenless Fitbit Air, the company is also preparing for a big shift in how the app works and what device features it supports. That means we’re losing sleep animals and a bunch of other features that you may miss. Here’s what’s on the chopping block. 

Google Fitbit Air - Berry with Large Fog Active Band Bundle

$99.99 at Amazon

$134.98 Save $34.99

Get Deal

Get Deal

$99.99 at Amazon

$134.98 Save $34.99

Fitbit accounts are going away (for real this time)

Fitbit used to be its own company, but after Google bought Fitbit, it started gently encouraging users to use Google accounts rather than using their old Fitbit accounts. The encouragement has gotten less gentle over time, with Google saying louder over the past year or so that you need to switch your old Fitbit account to a Google one, for real, we mean it. 

The deadline to switch kept getting pushed back, but it looks like Google really does mean it this time. Social features in the Fitbit app will be locked on May 12, 2026 for people who use a Fitbit account. After May 19, 2026, your Fitbit account will stop working. Google will begin deleting your Fitbit data on July 15, 2026. We have instructions here for migrating your Fitbit account to a Google account. 

The old Fitbit forums are going away (along with your post history and profile data)

If you use the Fitbit forums (which have been around since 2013), you’ll lose data there, too. Buried in a chipper announcement about a forum overhaul (“We can’t wait for you to see the updated community!”), Google says you’ll lose your post history and all profile data from the forum. Fitbit users often looked to these posts for information on older devices that aren’t currently supported. It’s not clear from the announcement whether past posts will still exist in an archive.

No more badges or sleep animals

You can no longer earn badges. No new badges will be created, and all old badges will be deleted. Google says “If you have Google Health Coach, your coach will help to celebrate your progress and accomplishments.” Sleep animals are going away, as well—more about that below. (For what it’s worth, Samsung still does sleep animals, as I noticed when I reviewed the Galaxy Ring.) 

Lots of social features are going away

Besides forums, there are also social features in the Fitbit app. These are changing, too: 

• Social profiles will include your name, email, and profile picture from your Google account. The first time you log in with the Google account, you’ll get a prompt asking you to approve sharing this information. You can’t have a custom name or picture except by changing it on your Google account.

• Privacy settings for social profiles aren't available anymore, since social profiles will no longer include your sex, height, weight, location, or friends list.

• Groups and Community feed are going away.

• Direct messages will no longer be available in the Fitbit app.

• Kid accounts cannot have friends.

These health features are disappearing or changing

When the old Fitbit app is replaced with Google Health, several of the old features won’t make the jump. If you’ve been using the Public Preview, you may have noticed these features aren’t there. While Google Health will add some missing features, here’s a list of the changes Google plans to make. I’ll include what, if anything, is meant to substitute for each missing or changed feature.

• Cardio fitness will no longer be estimated based on your height and weight. This feature is now called VO2max and requires GPS data from outdoor runs. (One nice perk: it can use data from other devices, not just Fitbits.)

• Sleep profiles are going away, including sleep animals. In its place, you can ask Google Health Coach what kind of sleeper you are.

• Estimated Oxygen Variation (EOV) is going away, but you can still check your blood oxygen (SpO2) in the Health tab.

• Snore detection is going away. This was a feature on the original Sense and on the Versa 3. 

• Graphs of stress checks will no longer be available. You can still do a scan on the Charge 5, Charge 6, and Sense to see the individual result.

• Minute-by-minute skin temperature is no longer available. You can still get daily and weekly skin temperature.

• Blood glucose tracking won’t allow you to add symptoms or get reminders to check your levels, but you can connect Apple Health (iOS) or Health Connect (Android) to get blood glucose data that way.

• Food plans are no longer supported with calorie targets, but you can still set calorie targets and macronutrient targets in the Nutrition section of the Health tab.

• Recipes are no longer available. This was a premium feature.

• Lifescan devices no longer have a supported connection to the Fitbit app. You can still log your blood glucose manually. 

In many cases, the missing features are being replaced by a suggestion that you can ask Google Health Coach about that area of your health. Since Google Health Coach is a premium feature, that means you’ll need to pay for that answer and you’ll get it in a less structured format that may be tainted with hallucinations. This doesn’t feel like an upgrade to me! But Google seems to hope that the added features of the new app will more than make up for what’s missing.

Remember that Hyrox fitness race trend I’ve written about? Welp, looks like I’m going to be doing a race. I’m teaming up with Meredith Dietz, our resident marathon runner, to tackle Hyrox NYC in the women’s doubles division. You can read here about how she’s training and what she sees as her strengths and weaknesses. As a weightlifter, I'll explain my approach.

I could honestly distill the question of “how should I train” down to one word: running. Everybody tells me that running is the most important skill of a Hyrox race, it’s the thing you’ll spend the most time doing on race day, and it should make up most of your training, especially if you’re someone like me who has a good strength base but lacks in endurance. 

What I need to be prepared for

As I’ve written, Hyrox is a structured fitness race. We’ll run eight kilometers (about five miles), one kilometer at a time. Meredith and I will have to do the runs together, but we can share the work when we get to the stations that fall in between the running segments: there’s a ski erg machine, a sled push, a sled pull, burpee broad jumps, a rowing machine, a farmer’s carry, lunges, and wall balls. 

My biggest disappointment, on researching the race format, is that none of this really plays to a weightlifter’s strengths. Being strong will certainly help, but it’s not like there’s a max deadlift in the mix. I need to get good at strength endurance—the 100 wall balls are essentially 100 very light squats.

My strengths

I’m examining the race rules for things I might be good at and I'm coming up short. I know from strongman competitions that I’m really good at seated sled pulls, but the sled pull in the Hyrox race is done while standing, and I don’t feel particularly confident about it. Still, it’s possible that I’ll find some of the heavier stations a bit easier than Meredith does. 

There are a few small things that work in my favor. I can easily squat “ass to grass,” meaning I won’t be one of the people who gets no-reps on the wall balls (your hips have to sink below your knees every time). I’ve got reasonably good grip strength, so the farmer’s carry doesn’t scare me. I have better upper body strength than the average woman, so anywhere I can use it, that’s a little bonus.

Aside from physical strengths, I do have a mental strength. I love taking on competitions where I get to perfect my technique and my strategy. I’ve beaten people who are stronger than me in strongman and odd-lift competitions by simply knowing the exercises better and making better decisions on race day. I also get a nerdy thrill by carefully studying things that other people will meathead their way through. How much will this actually help me on race day? Maybe not at all, but it’s the only source of hope I’ve got.

My weaknesses

As we’ve already discussed, my weakness is: running. I’m not starting from scratch, fortunately. I already own running shoes and I know the principles of training for running. But I didn’t run at all this past winter, so I need to build up my mileage from nearly zero at the same time I need to be building cardio fitness. If I'm not careful, that's a recipe for disaster, so I need to make sure I don't increase my mileage too much too soon. We don’t have a lot of time to train, so this is a bit of a balancing act. 

How I’m training for the Hyrox

I identified three priorities at the start of training, and now that I’ve been trying different workouts and learning more about the sport, I’m all the more committed to these. In order:

1. Get used to running. 

2. Build my endurance so I can keep working for the 90+ minutes the race will take.

3. Learn the movements and techniques I’ll need for the stations. 

Note that there’s nothing about strength in my priorities. I figure that’s the least of my worries. That said, my training always includes strength work, so it’s staying in the rotation. As I explained in this Instagram video, I’m paying attention to my heart rate to pace myself in workouts. One or two workouts each week might be a hard one, like a Hyrox class or a tempo run. The rest of my work consists of easier cardio, like zone 2 and 3 runs. 

To avoid overuse injuries, I’m making sure not to run too much. Hiking and indoor cycling are both in the mix so that I can keep working on my endurance even when I feel I’ve done as much running mileage as I safely can in a given week. 

The bottom line

Meredith put it best: on paper, a runner and a weightlifter seem like they should combine to make one complete Hyrox athlete. In reality, the race format favors endurance athletes. I expect Meredith will be jogging the runs at an easy pace while I struggle to keep up. When we get to the strength stations, I might be able to pick up some slack, but honestly that will depend on how tired I am from the run. 

One wild card is learning to work together as a team. Meredith and I live in different cities and we won’t get to meet in person until I arrive in New York for the race. If we want to practice skills like handing off sandbags, we’ll have to do those independently with whatever gym buddies we happen to meet at our home gyms. On race day, everything will need to come together—or maybe fall apart. I have a feeling that it’s going to be a learning experience for both of us, no matter the result.

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

The rumors are true: Google has announced a $99.99 smart band called the Fitbit Air, and is relaunching the Fitbit app as Google Health. There's a lot here I'm excited about: an affordable smart band without a mandatory subscription, with a full-featured app that may, if Google's promises check out, offer a meaningful alternative to Whoop's app. Here's what we know about the band, and how it's going to fit into the ecosystem if you already have a Fitbit or a Pixel Watch.

Google Fitbit Air - Berry with Large Fog Active Band Bundle

$99.99 at Amazon

$134.98 Save $34.99

Get Deal

Get Deal

$99.99 at Amazon

$134.98 Save $34.99

The band is impressively lightweight and comfortable-looking

Left: the Fitbit Air from the underside, showing how the device fits into the strap. Right: what the device looks like when removed. Credit: Fitbit

I haven't yet seen the Fitbit Air in person (although I expect to give you a hands-on review soon), but from the pictures, I'm impressed with the design. Remember when I was trying to figure out from photos whether the device is attached to the strap, since I couldn't see a connecting piece? Well, it turns out that the Fitbit Air device (the "pebble") pops into the underside of the strap, like the old Fitbit Flex. That means you can swap out the strap for a different color or material, without any hardware showing.

The device is 1.4 inches by 0.7 inches by 0.3 inches. It weighs 5.2 grams, and 12 grams with the band. The color offerings include black, light gray, a bluish color that Fitbit calls Lavender, and a pinkish red it calls Berry. (Lavender is shown in the image at the top of this page.) So what happened to the gray-and-orange band Stephen Curry has been wearing? That's a special edition, complete with his jersey number worked into the stitching. It will retail for $129.99. With a regular band, the price is $99.99. Replacement bands (without the device) will retail for $34.99. The Fitbit Air is available to pre-order now, and will ship later this month.

What the Fitbit Air actually does

The Fitbit Air, like the Whoop and other smart bands before it, is mainly a heart rate sensor that can pair to your phone. There is no display; if you want to see your heart rate during a workout, you'll need to check that from your phone. Unlike the old Fitbit Flex, which had some indicator lights, the Fitbit Air doesn't have any kind of display.

The Fitbit Air also includes accelerometers to detect motion, a blood oxygen sensor, and a vibration motor. There is a temperature sensor so the device can report skin temperature variations, but Google said in a briefing that it's not sensitive enough for menstrual cycle tracking. The device also has enough storage to hang onto your workout data for a day before needing to sync to your phone, so you don't need to have your phone with you for every workout.

You can now pair a Fitbit and a Pixel Watch to the same phone

I have good news and bad news on multi-device support. Fitbit users have long complained that the Fitbit app only allows you to pair one device. Pixel watches use this same app, so when I reviewed the Pixel Watch 4 I had to unpair the Fitbit Charge 6 that I had previously paired. That is changing! You will now be able to pair a Pixel Watch and a Fitbit.

But that is specifically the only combination you'll be able to do, Google says: one Pixel and one Fitbit. So you can wear a Pixel Watch and swap it for a Fitbit Air for workouts or sleep or any time you don't want a watch on your wrist. But you can't swap between a Fitbit Charge 6 and a Fitbit Air, or between any other two Fitbits. That's a shame for people who already own a Fitbit device that tells the time.

The Fitbit Public Preview will become the new Google Health app

The Fitbit app is getting an overhaul and a new name, and it sounds like it's going to be great. That said, my initial experiments with the Public Preview did not inspire confidence. I found that the AI coach hallucinated freely, kept forgetting my goals, and generally made a terrible coach.

Google says it's been listening to feedback, and that fixes are either in the works or have already been applied. The Public Preview was missing key features while it was in development, like nutrition tracking, but those will be available at the relaunch. Google says the developers have made information easier to find, the coach less verbose, and the coach now tracks your progress toward weekly goals.

I'm looking forward to trying the app, and I won't pull any punches if the coach still has serious flaws. It doesn't exactly inspire confidence that I saw this on Reddit yesterday: A Public Preview user said that the coach keeps insisting they need to wake up at 5:30 a.m. and recently went through a big move, neither of which were true. Another redditor replied to say they were a product manager at Google and said "sorry to hear about these hallucinations. we've seen a number of these and have made some progress getting rid of them, so it's helpful to dig into the ones that are still happening."

If Google can successfully address the coach's issues, I'm going to be really impressed with the app. I've been saying for years that you don't make a Whoop killer by sticking a heart rate monitor on a wrist band—Whoop's strength is its incredibly full-featured app that integrates all your data into actionable advice. I love Whoop's app for its weekly plans and I've joked that the Whoop Coach is "the only AI I'm on speaking terms with." Fitbit's new app will have weekly plans, and its coach is programmed to take input from conversations and to access data from throughout the app. It sounds a lot more useful than a lot of fitness app chatbots.

How the Fitbit Air compares to other smart bands

I'm honestly excited for this. There are now multiple smart bands on the market, but the Fitbit Air seems to be hitting a sweet spot that none of the others have gotten quite right. Whoop is undeniably the leader, but its $239/year subscription is a lot for most of us to swallow. Polar's no-subscription Loop band sounded promising, but ultimately doesn't do very much, and it's $200. Amazfit's Helio strap was my favorite of the bunch, with a $99.99 price tag, no subscription, and the ability to trade off with other Amazfit devices (like the company's sports watches) in a no-frills app.

The Fitbit Air combines the low price tag, no subscription, and (possibly) a full-featured, easy-to-use app. It can feed data to the same app as a watch you might already be wearing—at least if you're a Pixel watch user. I'm looking forward to trying it out and seeing whether the app keeps its promises well enough to give it the edge over other smart bands.

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

This weekend’s London Marathon was a phenomenal event, with not one but two men (Sabastian Sawe and Yomif Kejelcha) breaking the sub-two-hour barrier that people used to say would never be broken. The women’s winner, Tigst Assefa, also smashed her own world record. So what kind of running watches do these elite marathoners wear? Mostly cheap ones, including older Garmins. 

Garmin Forerunner 255 GPS Running Smartwatch (Gray)

$244.99 at Walmart

$349.99 Save $105.00

Get Deal

Get Deal

$244.99 at Walmart

$349.99 Save $105.00

I was able to confirm some of these runners’ specific watch models with Garmin and Coros. Since fans seem to be wondering whether the runners are sponsored by their respective watch companies, I also asked Garmin and Coros about sponsorships. Only two of the six appear to be sponsored. Here are the top three men and women:

• Sabastian Sawe, with a world record time of 1:59:30: Garmin Forerunner 55 ($167). I confirmed this with Garmin. He is not sponsored by Garmin, though.

• Yomif Kejelcha, the second person ever to run sub-2 with a time of 1:59:41: Coros Pace 3 ($199). He is not sponsored by Coros.

• Jacob Kiplimo, 2:00:28: Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 ($349-$429 - unclear exactly which model, but not the Classic). He seems to be a sponsored athlete—here’s a Samsung article about how he uses the watch in his training. 

• Tigst Assefa, with a new women’s world record at 2:15:41: Garmin Forerunner 255 ($243). I also confirmed this with Garmin, and they do not sponsor her either.

• Hellen Obiri, 2:15:5: Coros Pace 4 ($249). I confirmed this with Coros; she is a sponsored athlete, newly signed just before the race.

• Joyciline Jepkosgei, 2:15:55: another older Garmin, which Ivan Jovin at Gadgets and Wearables identified as possibly the Forerunner 955 ($449). She is not sponsored by Garmin.

Of the six, four are wearing older models (released 2021-2023) with reflective MIP screens. The Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 and the Coros Pace 4 are the only watches in this group that were released in the past year (and they are the only two with the more modern style AMOLED screen). Most of these watches cost less than $250. 

That may be surprising if you think of running watches as a cutting-edge tool where newest is always best. But even though watch manufacturers keep coming out with new features, that doesn’t mean those features are necessary to support training and racing, even for elite runners. Ever since I started reviewing and writing about fitness watches, I’ve been asking every runner I meet what kind of watch they have. Most of the time, it’s an older Garmin. Sometimes they don’t even know what model. Basic watches make perfectly good workhorses, even for elite runners.

Why elite runners don’t wear top-tier watches

These mostly budget picks don't surprise me, because elites need to focus on what their body is doing, not what’s going on inside their watch. The most important job of a running watch on race day is letting you know what pace you’re running—especially if you’re betting everything on being able to break a certain world record. Even the most basic digital watches can tell you how long it’s been since the starting gun went off, but a modern GPS-enabled watch can also give you a reasonably accurate sense of how many miles you’ve gone and how far it is until the next mile marker. (That said, it’s the official race timing and distance that counts; your watch just gives an estimate.) 

I haven’t spoken to these athletes myself, so what follows are my opinions based on knowing what running watches offer to the people who wear them. In short: Everything besides your time and pace is icing on the cake. 

Elites don’t need the training scores and statuses that some watches offer; they have coaches handling that stuff. They don’t decide the day’s training based on how many steps they’re getting; again, they and their coaches, not tech, are in control. It doesn’t matter if the watch has 150+ activity modes if your only job is to run. 

So why do newer watches have those features in the first place? A lot of the features are there to help you feel a little more elite. For example, you may not have a coach, but your watch can coach you by suggesting a workout. Watch features also aim to keep you interacting with the watch—checking your scores, tracking other activities besides running—which helps the watch company’s bottom line by getting more engagement from you and keeping you excited about the brand.

As I’ve mentioned before, companies keep adding features to justify new models and higher prices—just look at Garmin’s Forerunner 570, which has one athletically meaningful upgrade from the 265 (a more accurate heart rate sensor) and otherwise tacked on a lot of bells and whistles to justify what was, at the time, a $200 price hike. Meanwhile, I've loudly proclaimed that the Forerunner 255, which you can still buy new, is probably the best value Garmin out there.

None of the top-tier features actually help you run faster, unless it’s by keeping you more interested in the hobby of running. So it should be no surprise that professional runners don’t prioritize extra features. And I may be a mere recreational runner, but I’m quite happy to run with a basic watch, as well. How excited I get about fancy features really depends on how much I’m relying on the watch to structure the way I train. If you aren’t looking to the watch to make decisions for you, a basic watch is just fine. 

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

Spotify noticed how many of us use its popular music app for fitness—workout mixes are one of the top uses of its playlist creation tools—and now it’s adding fitness content directly. Some workout videos are available to everyone, and premium users can take Peloton classes as well. 

Peloton App

$12.99 at Peloton

Learn More

Learn More

$12.99 at Peloton

Indoor Exercise Bike for Cardio and Strength Training

Peloton Cross Training Bike

$1,695.00 at Amazon

Shop Now

Shop Now

$1,695.00 at Amazon

SEE -1 MORE

How to find workout videos on Spotify

To find the fitness content, search or browse for “fitness,” and workout videos will pop up. They will be mixed in with workout-focused playlists, which feels like an odd choice,  but the feature is brand new. Perhaps a better organization is coming in the future. 

If you have a Spotify Premium subscription, you’ll see that Peloton workouts make up the most visible offerings. Spotify describes these as “a continually growing catalog of more than 1,400” workout videos. Cycling classes aren’t included, but strength, cardio, and meditation classes are.

There’s also a quiz to match you with the perfect workout. It will ask whether you want cardio, strength, or recovery; long or short workouts; and your experience level. I asked for a short beginner cardio workout, and a “HIIT Starter Pack” of 10-minute workouts was automatically saved to my library. 

How Peloton workouts on Spotify compare to the Peloton app

Spotify’s Peloton class offerings seem to be similar to what you get on Peloton’s App One tier. This tier is $12.99/month, the same cost as a Spotify Premium subscription. These videos include pretty much anything you can do in your living room, like yoga and strength workouts with dumbbells. They don’t include classes you can do on an actual Peloton Bike (you need the $49/month All Access subscription for those) or on a non-Peloton bike at the gym (that requires Peloton App+ at $28.99/month). 

I did one of those 10-minute HIIT classes, and can report it was easy to follow, and the individual exercises were shown in the app as “chapters” that I could preview to see the class structure. Unfortunately there’s no connection to the Peloton app itself, so the class I took did not show up in my Peloton workout history, and there was no built-in way to track my metrics like heart rate or reps. One nice plus: there’s a button to switch to an audio-only player, which is nice if you’re following along by ear and don’t need to see the screen.

The workouts appear as a video podcast, with “episodes” that are presented in a list. When I finished that one HIIT video, the next one automatically started playing. I don’t think this is a great interface for presenting workout videos, but it’s certainly not bad. And if you want both Spotify and Peloton content, getting it all for one $12.99 subscription is certainly a bargain compared to paying double. 

Non-Peloton classes are available to all

Scroll down past the Peloton classes, and you’ll see there are more creators that each have their own podcast-style series of video classes. I found them under “Browse Fitness Creators” and “Explore Creator Workouts.” 

I tried a five-minute run warmup from Nourish Move Love, and it was much the same experience as the Peloton workout. The chapters on this one were auto-generated, but it was clear to follow and I appreciated the progress bar overlaid over the video, which seemed to be part of the video content, this creator’s addition, and separate from the Spotify interface. I also really happened to like the warmup since it was one that I could do entirely on my feet—great for an actual pre-run scenario no matter the weather. 

Still have a bottle of sunscreen in your bathroom closet from last year? While you might assume you need toss is out and buy a new one, sunscreen actually lasts longer than you think. Check the expiration date (if there is one)—but you’ve got three years from the date of purchase to use it up.

How to know if your sunscreen has expired

This advice comes straight from the FDA, which asks sunscreen makers to put an expiration date on their product showing when it will stop providing the level of protection shown on the label. If there’s no date, that means testing showed it should be good for a full three years after purchase. (This is a longstanding rule that is not related to the current administration—it's been in place for years.)

Sunscreen that is older than that may have lost its potency, but then again, maybe not. Because it’s a bit of a gamble, the FDA recommends tossing sunscreen that is past the three-year mark or past its expiration date. If there’s no expiration date, but you can remember buying it last year, or even two years ago, it’s still likely to be as good as new. If you find a bottle in your closet and you have no idea when you bought it, they recommend tossing it to be safe.

How to make your sunscreen last the full three years

Expired sunscreen may not look or feel any different from fresh, but if it does look different, that may mean it's gone bad prematurely. Sunscreen needs to stay in its original formulation to remain effective. For example, if it initially had the protective chemicals evenly suspended in the lotion but has since separated, it's not going to be as effective anymore. If you squeeze the bottle and what you get is a separated goo and liquid, it's probably not good anymore.

The way you store sunscreen can affect how long it lasts. The FDA recommends, ironically, that we keep sunscreen bottles out of the sun. Extreme heat could cause the product to deteriorate early, so they suggest you leave your sunscreen in the shade or wrap it in towels when you’re at the beach. You can also put it in a cooler to be extra safe.

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

“Zone 2” is the term the fitness world has (mostly) agreed upon to describe the low-intensity cardio most of us should be doing regularly. When you’re in zone 2, you’re working hard enough that you start breathing more heavily, but easy enough that you could hold a conversation while doing it. You stop a zone 2 session because your workout time is up, not because you’re too exhausted to continue. Zone 2 is defined in terms of heart rate, so what heart rate should you expect to see on your watch when you’re in zone 2? That’s where people disagree.

What is zone 2 training?

As I’ve explained before, the name “zone 2” comes from heart rate training. To train by heart rate, you use either a wristwatch with an optical heart rate sensor (that green light on the back) or a chest strap paired to your watch or just to a phone (chest straps are more accurate, and even a $30 one can do an excellent job).

Coospo Heart Rate Monitor Chest Strap, Bluetooth/ANT+

$26.39 at Amazon

$32.99 Save $6.60

Shop Now

Shop Now

$26.39 at Amazon

$32.99 Save $6.60

To train by heart rate, you aim to keep your heart rate in the "zone" that gives you your desired workout. In most of the popular systems, there are five zones. Zone 1 is your resting or recovery zone; zone 2 is low intensity cardio; zone 3 is more or less medium; and zones 4 and 5 are for harder efforts, usually done for only a few minutes with recoveries in zone 1 or 2 in between. (I have a more detailed guide to the zone system here.) While zone 2 is the trendiest at the moment, the other zones still have uses. Personally, I think zone 3 is underrated, and probably most of us would be better off getting a mix of zones 2 and 3 for our steady cardio rather than pure zone 2. But that's a story for another time.

Heart rate zones are usually defined as percentages of your maximum heart rate. So when I set my Apple Watch to keep me in zone 2 during my runs, it wants my heart rate to be between 60% and 70% of maximum. Even at an easy effort, I found I was commonly exceeding that limit. On the other hand, when I hop on a Peloton bike, my heart rate is often still in zone 1 when I could swear I’m riding at a zone 2 effort. It turns out Peloton defines zone 2 as 65% to 75% of my max.

Who is right? Well, everybody. “Zone 2” isn’t a term with scientifically designed boundaries. Anybody can split up heart rate zones any way they like. (Stay tuned for my patented eight-zone system, coming as soon as I can find a way to monetize it!) If you train with more than one gadget, or if you find yourself discussing heart rate training with a friend who uses a different system than you do, it’s worth knowing the differences.

What heart rate percentage counts as zone 2?

Let’s take a tour of some of the more popular wearables and fitness systems that measure heart rate in a five-zone system, or something like it.

First, it’s important to know that most (not all) of these percentages are based on your max heart rate. To know your max heart rate, you need real-world numbers, and you shouldn't trust the default your app gives you. That default number is derived from a formula, and no formula will be accurate for everybody; max heart rate varies from person to person and can't be accurately predicted for individuals. You can do a field test, like getting your heart rate up by running more and more intense hill repeats. Or if you have plenty of experience with intense exercise, just take note of the highest heart rate number you've seen on your device; it will likely be close to your max.

Most zone systems just use a percentage of your max (however that max is calculated). There are other systems to consider, too. “Heart rate reserve” (HRR) means that you take the difference between your max and your resting heart rate (instead of between your max and zero) and calculate from there. Some devices will estimate a different benchmark, like your lactate threshold, and use that as a basis for the zones.

So, here are the zone 2 percentages from a variety of popular wearables, along with what they are percentages of:

• Apple Watch: Zone 2 is 60-70% of your heart rate reserve, with your “resting” heart rate set to either 72 or a number the watch has picked up automatically, and your maximum calculated with the 220-age formula. (You can choose to set the zones manually, instead.)

• Fitbit and Pixel: instead of “zone 2,” Fitbit devices have a "moderate" zone (formerly called “fat burn”) set at 40% to 59% of your heart rate reserve. To find your heart rate reserve, your max is calculated according to the 220-age formula, and your resting heart rate is measured by the device. You can set your max and your zones manually if you prefer.

• Garmin: Depends on your device and on how you've chosen to set up your zones. As a percentage of max heart rate, zone 2 is 73-81%. As a percentage of heart rate reserve, it's 65-75%. And as a percentage of your lactate threshold heart rate (which the watch can automatically detect for you, and which normally falls between zones 4 and 5), it's 79-88% of that heart rate. Note that these numbers won't necessarily line up with each other. A heart rate that is in zone 2 on one of these systems may be in zone 3 on another. And, of course, you can set your max and/or your zones manually.

Some other fitness platforms have defined heart rate zones to be used with your training. To name a few:

• Orangetheory gets its name from the “orange” zone it wants you to be in during workouts. Its equivalent of zone 2 would be the “blue” zone, at 61% to 70% of max heart rate. It uses an “industry standard formula” to determine your max, which Self reports is 208 minus 0.7 times your age. After you’ve taken 20 classes, an algorithm will pick out a new max heart rate for you.

• Peloton defines heart rate zone 2 (no relation to Power Zone 2) as 65% to 75% of your max heart rate. Max heart rate is 220 minus your age, unless you adjust it manually in your settings.

• The American College of Sports Medicine defines “light” training, arguably its version of zone 2, as 57% to 63% of maximum heart rate. “Moderate” is 64% to 76%.

How do you know which benchmark to use?

Rather than obsessing over numbers, think about the big picture and decide what training effect you are trying to achieve with your workouts. If you want to build your endurance with low-intensity cardio, or if you want to rack up minutes in zone 2 to help with weight loss, it doesn’t matter exactly what your heart rate works out to be. What matters is that you can do the exercise for a long time without fatiguing, but that you’re also not slacking off and barely doing any work at all.

In other words, you can use your gadget’s heart rate numbers as a guide, but keep them honest with a reality check based on what fitness professionals call “perceived exertion.” If you want a number to focus on, you can rate your exertion on a scale of 1 to 10—called RPE for “rating of perceived exertion”—and aim for an RPE of about 3 to 4.

Over time, you’ll start to notice what heart rate tends to show on your watch when you’re at that level. I know that if my heart rate is below 150, I’m doing a good job of keeping my jogging to a “zone 2" sort of effort. If it pokes up into the 160s at the beginning of a run, that’s probably harder than I’m going for—but if it hits 160 at the end of a long run on a hot day, that’s fine. (Heart rate changes with the temperature and the length of your workout, a phenomenon called cardiac drift.) These numbers are just examples, and my max is pretty high for my age, close to 200. Yours will be different.

Ultimately, this is probably the most accurate way of using heart rate to determine exercise intensity: Figure out the intensity you want first, and use heart rate as a guide to be able to hit that same intensity on a consistent basis. After all, if there were one correct number that was easy to determine, the different gadgets and platforms would have all gotten on board with it by now. So trust your body more than your watch.

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

Every wearable these days will tell you how you slept and how well recovered you seem to be for the day’s activities. But it’s rare to get clear guidance or ideas on what you should do based on those scores. Ultrahuman, which makes smart rings, is trying a new approach: serving you different workout videos based on what it thinks you’re up for. 

Ring Charger: Power up Your Ultrahuman Ring | Convenient and Easy Charging Solution

$45.00 at Amazon

Get Deal

Get Deal

$45.00 at Amazon

I can appreciate this approach, but I’m also a bit skeptical about letting an app choose a workout for me—what if I feel ready for something else? But I’ve used Garmin’s suggested workouts before, and I find the idea works well as long as you take the recommended workouts as suggestions, not limitations. 

What’s in the Les Mills PowerPlug?

This new feature in the Ultrahuman app is available as a PowerPlug. If you use an Ultrahuman ring, you probably know there’s a selection of PowerPlugs available from a store within the app. Some are free, and some have a subscription charge. The Les Mills PowerPlug costs $11.99 per month, $99 per year, or $249 for a lifetime subscription. 

Les Mills is a franchise of gym-based fitness classes, which are faithfully replicated in a Les Mills+ app that my colleague Lindsey Ellefson reviewed in detail here. She says the classes have clear instruction with no chit-chat, have original music, and stick to predictable, familiar patterns for each class type. 

Each day you’ll get two to three recommended classes, but you can also browse a full catalog if you’d like to do a different workout. For some examples of what may be on offer, Ultrahuman says: “A well-recovered user with elevated heart rate variability and low resting heart rate might see BODYPUMP™ or BODYCOMBAT™ at the top of their feed. On the other hand, a user with accumulated sleep debt, elevated body temperature, increased resting heart rate, or low heart rate variability would be guided toward yoga, BODYBALANCE™, or a gentle mobility session instead.” 

If you track your menstrual cycle through the Ultrahuman app, recommendations will take that into account as well. That’s where I have another surge of skepticism—Ultrahuman says “luteal and menstrual phases automatically shift toward recovery-friendly content.” That means you could spend half your month being steered away from hard training, which sounds like it’s at odds with most people’s fitness goals. 

After you finish a Les Mills workout through the Ultrahuman app, you’ll find that your workout data, including heart rate, was logged through the ring, the muscles you used were logged, and you’ll get post-workout data like a prediction of your readiness for the next day. 

It’s frustrating to follow fitness content online as a woman when so much of it feels like it is written for men. Likewise, it’s frustrating to work hard at a seemingly simple exercise like pushups and feel like you’re not getting anywhere. Some influencers have proposed a solution to both problems: a change in hand placement for pushups that is supposed to better complement women’s anatomy. I’m not buying it. 

See, I’ve been around fitness spaces (male-dominated and otherwise) long enough to have built a healthy skepticism around advice and products aimed solely at women. There’s a huge variation in strengths, weaknesses, and body proportions from one person to another, and many of the supposed differences between men's and women's fitness have nothing to do with gender. Rather, they can be chalked up to factors like body size, muscle mass, and training age. In short, I have more in common with other people—male or female—who share my body proportions, my strength background, or my training goals, than I do with a generalized "womankind."

Given that, I had doubts about this particular pushup hack for women, but I figured I needed to give it a chance before passing judgment. Certainly it's fair to play around with different hand placements and decide which one works for you. But is there really an anatomical difference that means women need a different hand placement in order to do their best pushups? 

Why women are being told to change their hand placement when doing pushups

I’ve been seeing this hack all over fitness social media. It suggests that, while doing pushups, women should turn their hands slightly outward (some say 45 degrees). This is usually explained in terms of the “carrying angle"—an angle of the elbow that tends to differ between men and women. (More about what that means below.)

For an example, check out this video from Kayla Lee, who describes herself as a women’s anatomy and biomechanics instructor. You’ll notice there isn’t a strong connection presented between anatomy and the pushup hack; she even points out that the carrying angle isn’t a factor in the hand position we use for pushups, and the hand position she recommends has more to do with shoulder rotation. There’s no gender-related reason given that has anything to do with shoulder rotation. 

The video makes strong claims, but doesn’t connect them logically. In the caption, Lee mentions the carrying angle, then says “now look at how pushups are typically coached,” and gives two standard pushup cues that don’t relate to hand placement at all. Then, the caption continues, when we “force women into that same template,” we injure their bodies and reduce training morale. 

None of those points seem connected to me, and the more examples I found of this hack being explained online, the less any of it made sense. Why would the carrying angle affect your shoulder position or hand placement? Why is the carrying angle the most important thing to consider when choosing a hand placement? Is the carrying angle even that different between men and women? I needed to dig deeper.

What "carrying angle" actually means

All this Internet talk of the “carrying angle” reminded me uncomfortably of the kinds of criteria looksmaxxers use to study each other’s faces. I suspect the focus on the term stems from a similar urge: the idea that there’s something measurable that explains the difference between groups of people, and that it can offer a definitive answer as to why you're having a harder time in life than others seem to be experiencing.

But if you read anatomy papers that discuss carrying angle, you'll see it's not exactly revelatory. When you stand with your arms at your sides and your palms facing forward, your forearm and upper arm don’t form a straight line; your forearm is angled slightly away from your body, and this is your carrying angle. And it is slightly greater in women than in men, on average. It’s called the carrying angle because, at one point, it was hypothesized that it helps women’s forearms to avoid touching their hips as they carry things. That idea didn’t pan out—it turns out the reason our arms don’t touch our hips while carrying groceries is that we deliberately hold our arms away from our bodies. 

In fact, when discussing the carrying angle, Kayla Lee inserts a flash of this paper to support her claims. And it's in this paper where I learned that last fact: “It is abduction [moving the arm away from the body] at the shoulder and not the carrying angle which keeps the swinging upper limbs away from the side of the pelvis during walking.” That paper also disagrees that carrying angle is determined by gender: “the carrying angle is more in shorter persons as compared to taller persons. ... Carrying angle is not a secondary sex character.” 

Remember when I said that many supposed differences between men and women come down to factors like body size rather than sex or gender itself? The carrying angle seems to be a lot like the famous Q angle of the thighbone: different on average between men and women, but having more to do with height than gender. Here’s the conclusion from one of several papers that have studied the question: “The slight difference in Q angles between men and women can be explained by the fact that men tend to be taller.”

Why you don't actually need a “women’s” pushup hack

Two more things make me doubt this hack even more. One is that the carrying angle is only really noticeable when your hands are supinated (palms up), and that’s not the hand position you use when doing pushups. When you flip your hand palm-down—as you would in order to do a pushup—the carrying angle greatly decreases, and often disappears. 

The other significant problem is that even if women’s carrying angle is generally greater, there’s a lot of overlap between men’s and women’s carrying angles. Here’s a graph from a 2005 paper that measured the right and left arms of 1,275 people: 

The left two columns are carrying angles of men (right and left hand), and the other two are of women. Credit: Beth Skwarecki

As you can see, the average carrying angle for women is slightly higher than for men, but it’s not like all men have low angles and all women have high angles. Rather, the male and female populations both have a range that includes similarly high and low carrying angles. If "standard" pushup advice only applied to the average man, there would be plenty of men and women who wouldn't fit into it. 

This raises the question of what “standard” pushup advice is, anyway. The way I’ve been taught to do pushups, and the way I advise others to do them, is to find a hand position that feels comfortable and strong. That will be different for everyone, and I think most trainers already know that.

What women really need to do for better pushups

To distill what I’d learned into actual advice, I reached out to Diana Jordan, a physical therapist and weightlifting coach at Pittsburgh Fitness Project. She confirmed that carrying angle is a real thing, and that the average carrying angle differs between men and women. Then she said this: 

“There are so many other possible anatomical variations that could play a role in choosing a comfortable pushup position such as chest and shoulder width, the ratio of your humerus [upper arm bone] to your forearm, strength of pecs vs triceps, and shoulder mobility vs stability. In my opinion, choosing a specific pushup based on one typical variant that occurs between sexes (and notice, there’s also overlap in the amount of carrying angle between men and women around 10 degrees) seems silly.”

So perhaps you’d do better pushups with a slight angle to your hands, but maybe not! Social media is full of women trying the women’s pushup hack and finding it doesn’t help—but occasionally, it does. I've tried the hack, and there's a simple reason I won't be using it for my own pushups: it's not particularly comfortable for me. I'm stronger with my fingers pointed a little more forward.

In short, rather than looking for answers in gendered advice, we all need to find body positions that work for us. Jordan recommends choosing your exercise positioning or variations based on factors like what feels most comfortable, what lets you access your full range of motion, what makes you feel more stable, and, most importantly, what you happen to prefer. 

The problem with women’s exercise hacks

I keep seeing this sort of gendered exercise advice all over social media, and often it boils down all the complexity Jordan talked about to an assumption that one particular hack will meet every woman’s needs. As a trainer myself, I’ve talked people through finding, say, the right foot position for squats—I have them try wider, narrower, feet straight, feet angled, and figure out what works for them. Personally, I do best with a narrow stance and a slight angle to my feet, but there are people online who will tell you that women “should” squat with a wide, toes-out stance. That’s just not true.

There are so many different exercises in the world, and so many ways to do each of them, that we can all find several variations that work for us. To bring it back to pushups, let’s not forget that there are all kinds of hand placement variations: diamond pushups, wide-grip pushups, tricep pushups, planche pushups. Locking yourself into just one position means ignoring all the variety out there. Variety benefits you!

When I see an influencer argue that I need to use a “women’s” technique, I feel as if I’ve walked into a store filled with clothes in every shape and size and style, only to be taken aside by someone who tells me that none of those options are for me, and that I can only wear a specific, one-size-fits-all women’s outfit. I feel that way even though I know that a majority of strength training content is made with men in mind, and that less research has been done on women than on men—that fact doesn’t mean that we need to dismiss everything we know about training, especially if we’re throwing out scientific understanding and replacing it with pseudoscience or just vibes. 

“This is tough,” Jordan says, “because railing against the lack of research that involves women and railing against institutions made for men is so hot right now (and I get it!) ... [But] there has been copious research showing that females and males respond similarly to resistance and aerobic training.” 

If we really want to make sure more women can benefit from strength training, the answer doesn’t lie in small tweaks to exercise technique, but in recognizing the much larger social and societal barriers. Jordan says: “Messages like ‘you should only do pushups this way’ or ‘you should rest specific weeks in your menstrual cycle’ perpetuate the idea of female fragility and increase the barriers" to even starting to exercise.

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

Let's talk about one of the most confusing terms you’ll see on your fitness tracker—specifically your Apple Watch. Next to REM sleep, which you’ve probably heard of, and “deep” sleep, which feels self explanatory, there’s “core” sleep. And if you search or ask AI what core sleep means, you’ll often get a definition that is completely different from how Apple uses the term. So let’s break it down.

Apple Watch Series 11 46mm GPS Smartwatch (Space Gray, Black Sports Band)

$329.00 at Amazon

$429.00 Save $100.00

Get Deal

Get Deal

$329.00 at Amazon

$429.00 Save $100.00

On an Apple Watch, "core sleep" is another name for light sleep, which scientists also call stages N1-N2. It is not a type of deep sleep, and has no relation to REM. But in the scientific literature, "core sleep" is not a sleep stage at all. It can refer to a portion of the night that includes both deep and light sleep stages, and in other cases can be used to mean your longest or most important stretch of time in bed. There are a few other definitions, which I'll go into below. But first, since you're probably here because you saw that term in Apple Health, let's talk about how Apple uses it.

"Core sleep" in the Apple Watch is the same as light sleep

Let me give you a straightforward explanation of what you’re seeing when you look at your Apple sleep data. Your Apple Watch tries to guess, mainly through your movements, when you’re in each stage of sleep. (To truly know your sleep stages would require a sleep study with more sophisticated equipment, like an electroencephalogram. The watch is just doing its best with the data it has.) 

Apple says its watch can tell the difference between four different states: 

• Awake

• Light (“core”) sleep

• Deep sleep

• REM sleep

These categories roughly correspond to the sleep stages that neuroscientists can observe with polysomnography, which involves hooking you up to an electroencephalogram, or EEG. (That’s the thing where they attach wires to your head.) Scientists recognize three stages of non-REM sleep, with the third being described as deep sleep. That means stages 1 and 2, which are sometimes called “light” sleep, are being labeled as “core” sleep by your wearable.  

In other words: Apple's definition of "core sleep" is identical to scientists' definition of "light sleep." It is otherwise known as N2 sleep. (More on that in a minute.) So why didn’t Apple use the same wording as everyone else? The company says in a document on its sleep stage algorithm that it was worried people would misunderstand the term "light sleep" if it called it that.

It writes: "The label Core was chosen to avoid possible unintended implications of the term light, because the N2 stage is predominant (often making up more than 50 percent of a night’s sleep), normal, and an important aspect of sleep physiology, containing sleep spindles and K-complexes." In other words, Apple thought we might assume that "light" sleep is less important than "deep" sleep, so it chose a new, important-sounding name to use in place of "light."

A chart on the same page lays it out: non-REM stages 1 and 2 fall under the Apple category of “core” sleep, while stage 3 is “deep” sleep. That’s how Apple defined it in testing: If an EEG said a person was in stage 2 when the watch said they were in “core,” that was counted as a success for the algorithm.

What are the known sleep stages, and where does core sleep fit in?

Let’s back up to consider what was known about sleep stages before Apple started renaming them. The current scientific understanding, which is based on brain wave patterns that can be read with an EEG, includes these stages: 

Non-REM stage 1 (N1) 

N1 only lasts a few minutes. You’re breathing normally. Your body is beginning to relax, and your brain waves start to look different than they do when you’re awake. This would be considered part of your “light” sleep. The Apple Watch considers this to be part of your core sleep stage.

Non-REM stage 2 (N2)

Also usually considered “light” sleep, N2 makes up about half of your sleep time. This stage includes spikes of brain activity called sleep spindles, and distinctive brainwave patterns called K complexes. (These are what the Apple document mentioned above.) This stage of sleep is thought to be when we consolidate our memories. Fun fact: if you grind your teeth in your sleep, it will mostly be in this stage. This stage makes up most of what Apple reports as your core sleep.

Non-REM stage 3 (N3) 

N3 is often called “deep” sleep, and this stage accounts for about a quarter of your night. It has the slowest brain waves, so it’s sometimes called “slow wave sleep.” It’s hard to wake someone up from this stage, and if you succeed, they’ll be groggy for a little while afterward. This is the stage where the most body repair tends to happen, including muscle recovery, bone growth in children, and immune system strengthening. As we age, we spend less time in N3 and more time in N2.

(There was an older classification that split off the deepest sleep into its own stage, calling it non-REM stage 4, but currently that deepest portion is just considered part of stage 3.) 

REM sleep

REM sleep is so named because this is where we have Rapid Eye Movement. Your body is temporarily paralyzed, except for the eyes and your breathing muscles. This is the stage best known for dreaming (although dreams can occur in other stages as well).

The brain waves of a person in REM sleep look very similar to those of a person who is awake, which is why some sleep-tracking apps show blocks of REM as occurring near the top of the graph, near wakefulness. We don’t usually enter REM sleep until we’ve been through the other stages, and we cycle through these stages all night. Usually REM sleep is fairly short during the beginning of the night, and gets longer with each cycle. 

How much core sleep do I need?

Using Apple's definition, in which core sleep is the same as light sleep, it's normal for almost half of your sleep to be core sleep. Sleep scientists give an approximate breakdown (although the exact numbers may vary from person to person, and your needs aren't always the same every night):

• N1 (very light sleep): About 5% of the total (just a few minutes)

• N2 (light or "core" sleep): About 45%, so just under four hours if you normally sleep for eight hours

• N3 (deep sleep): About 25%, so about two hours if you normally sleep for eight hours

• REM: About 25%, so also about two hours.

How to get more core sleep

If your Apple watch says you're getting less core sleep than what I mentioned above, you might wonder how you can get more core (or light) sleep. Before you take any action, though, you should know that wearables aren't very good at knowing exactly what stage of sleep you are in. They're usually (but not always!) pretty good at telling when you are asleep versus awake, so they can be useful for knowing whether you slept six hours or eight. But I wouldn't make any changes to my routine based on the specific sleep stage numbers. The algorithm can easily miscategorize some of your light sleep as deep sleep, or vice versa.

That said, the best way to get more core sleep is to get more and better sleep in general. Start with this basic sleep hygiene checklist. Among the most important items:

• Give yourself a bedtime routine with at least 30 minutes of wind-down time where you try to do something relaxing.

• Have a consistent wake-up time.

• Don't look at screens right before bed.

• Keep your bedroom dark and cool.

• Don't have alcohol or caffeine in the evenings.

Improving your sleep overall will improve all your sleep stages, whether your Apple Watch can tell them apart or not.

Other ways people use the term “core sleep”

I really wish Apple had chosen another term, because the phrase “core sleep” has been used in other ways. It either doesn’t refer to a sleep stage at all, or if it is associated with sleep stages, it’s used to refer to deep sleep stages. 

In the 1980s, sleep scientist James Horne proposed that your first few sleep cycles (taking up maybe the first five hours of the night) constitute the “core” sleep we all need to function. The rest of the night is “optional” sleep, which ideally we’d still get every night, but it’s not a big deal to miss out from time to time. He described this idea in a 1988 book called Why We Sleep (no relation to the 2017 book by another author) but you can see his earlier paper on the topic here. He uses the terms “obligatory” and “facultative” sleep in that paper, and switched to the core/optional terminology later. 

You’ll also find people using the phrase “core sleep” to refer to everything but light sleep. For example, this paper on how sleep changes as we age compares their findings in terms of sleep stages with Horne’s definition of core sleep. In doing so, they describe core sleep as mainly consisting of deep sleep stages N3-N4 (in other words, N3 as described above).

From there, somehow the internet has gotten the idea that N3 and REM are considered “core” sleep. I don’t know how that happened, and I don’t see it when I search the scientific literature. I have seen it on “what is core sleep?” junk articles on the websites of companies selling weighted blankets and melatonin gummies. Google's AI overview, for its part, mishmashes all these definitions to come up with something that is, currently, completely nonsensical. But who knows, that may have changed by the time you read this article.

For one final, contradictory definition, the phrase “core sleep” is also used by people who are into polyphasic sleep. This is the idea that you can replace a full night’s sleep with several naps during the day, something that biohacker types keep trying to make happen, even though it never pans out. They use the term pretty straightforwardly: If you have a nighttime nap that is longer than your other naps, that’s your “core sleep.” Honestly, that’s a fair use of the word. I'll allow it.

So, to wrap up: Core sleep, if you’re a napper, is the longest block of sleep you get during a day. Core sleep, to scientists who study sleep deprivation, is a hypothesis about which part of a night’s sleep is the most important. But if you’re just here because you were wondering what Apple Health or your Apple Watch's sleep app means by "core sleep," it means stages N1-N2, or light sleep.

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

One million years ago (sometime before 2020), Peloton had a series of Bike classes designed around heart rate zone training. Christine D’Ercole would tell you what zone your heart rate should've been in for each part of the workout, and you’d adjust your effort accordingly. Those classes are long gone, but Peloton is dipping a toe back into the world of heart rate training with its new “Zone 2” collection. 

Peloton Exercise Cross Training Bike, Indoor Stationary Spin Bike for Home Workouts, Space-Friendly Exercise Equipment for Cardio and strength Workout & Indoor Cycling

$1,695.00 at Amazon

Shop Now

Shop Now

$1,695.00 at Amazon

Peloton's collections are just groupings of existing classes, so there aren't (yet?) any classes that are designed around heart rate zones. Instead, if you tap the “Zone 2” collection on your Bike, Tread, or Row, or in the phone app, you’ll see 16 Zone 2-ish classes, including: 

• Four cycling classes, including two 60-minute Power Zone Endurance rides and two shorter Power Zone Recovery rides. 

• Eight “Tread + Outdoor” classes, about half of which are walks and half are runs. You can do these either on a treadmill, or outdoors with your phone in your pocket. 

• Four Row classes, all labeled as Endurance Row and ranging from 20 to 45 minutes. 

What it’s like to take one of Peloton's Zone 2 classes

Credit: Beth Skwarecki

I tested out one of the cycling classes—the 45-minute Power Zone Recovery Ride with pro cyclist Christian Vande Velde. Power Zone training is no relation to heart rate zones. Instead of watching your heart rate, the instructor cues you to pedal hard enough to match one of seven power zones that are based on how much mechanical power you are putting into the pedals. 

Normally, Power Zone workouts range from zone 1 to 5, with Power Zone Max classes peaking in the higher zones. Power Zone Endurance rides (PZE) are at the other end of the spectrum, with most of the class spent in zones 2 and 3. 

The two Power Zone Endurance rides in the Zone 2 collection are notable for being lower intensity than most other PZEs. Instead of bouncing between power zones 2 and 3, you’re in power zone 2 the whole time. The Power Zone Recovery rides are even easier: you bounce between power zones 1 and 2. 

I hooked up my trusty heart rate chest strap to both my Peloton Bike and to my Coros watch, and took the class. We spent the first 15 minutes in zone 1, then a few short segments in zone 2 (while standing up out of the saddle!) with long zone 1 sections between. If this doesn’t sound like much of a workout, you’re right—Christian emphasized that “this is not training. This is recovery from your training.” 

What is the purpose of Zone 2 classes on Peloton? 

Christian’s statements during the class made me wonder if people might find this type of workout to be a bait-and-switch. If you listen to the fitness influencers, we should all be doing more—maybe all—of our cardio in heart rate zone 2. So what do you mean these classes aren’t training? 

Truthfully, I get it: Heart rate zone 2 is a pretty low intensity of exercise. It’s a great low-stress addition to your training routine, especially if you’re trying to increase the number of miles you run or hours you train. But if you’re training to get fitter, you need intensity! Heart rate zone 3 has plenty of benefits, and the VO2max-boosting Norwegian 4x4 workout does its magic in heart rate zone 4. 

I could definitely see myself reaching for the Zone 2 collection when I want a recovery day or an easier version of an endurance day. But I’d still stick with the regular PZE classes for a more standard endurance workout.

Do Peloton’s Zone 2 classes actually put you in zone 2? 

Left to right: Peloton, Coros, Garmin. All are using data from the same ride. (Coros recorded a little bit of my stretching session afterward, which is why the average HR is different on that one.) Credit: Beth Skwarecki

Besides checking out the class design and intensity level, my other reason for trying one of these classes was to see whether my heart rate actually reached, and stayed in, zone 2 while taking it. 

Coospo H6M Bluetooth/ANT+ Heart Rate Monitor

Whether it succeeded depends on whose definition of zone 2 you’re using—because apps disagree. If you connect a heart rate monitor to your Peloton equipment or app, you’ll get Peloton’s five heart rate zones, which define zone 2 as being 65% to 75% of your maximum heart rate. On the other hand, my Coros watch has six zones, with zone 2 being 50% to 60% of my max heart rate. 

For what it’s worth, my average heart rate was 122, which is around 60% of my max.

• Coros tells me I spent 39% of my time in the “warm up” zone (zone 2) and 43% in the “fat burn” zone (zone 3). 

• Peloton says I spent 65% of my time in zone 1, and 31% in zone 2. 

• If I were using a device like a Fitbit or Pixel Watch, I would have been split pretty evenly between “moderate” and “vigorous” (low and medium, in a three-zone scale). 

• If I were using an Apple Watch, I would have been split between zone 1 and zone 2. 

• Garmin is the “winner” here, in a sense—it’s the only system that has me in zone 2 for the majority (57%) of the ride, with 23% in zone 1 and 15% in zone 3. (To get those numbers, I used the Peloton-to-Garmin sync.)

Watching my heart rate on the Peloton screen (with a paired chest strap), I noticed that most of the time when I was told to pedal in power zone 1, my heart rate was near the top end of heart rate zone 1. On the intervals, I found that standing up spiked my heart rate into zone 3 pretty quickly, but that if I did the intervals while seated, my heart rate didn’t go above zone 2. In part that’s because standing up is less efficient (so you work harder for the same output), but I don’t think that’s the only reason. 

Heart rate reflects more than just your effort during an exercise; it can also change with body position (standing versus sitting) and other factors, like how warmed-up you are, the temperature of your room you’re in, and more. Which is why cyclists prefer power zones to heart rate zones, in general—power is a more direct measurement of what you’re doing on the bike.