This new Apple Watch feature has transformed my workouts, but not in the way I thought it would

Training load has me doing more, not less

News By Stephen Warwick published 22 September 2024

With the advent of the latest Apple Watch operating system, watchOS 11, there’s one new feature I’ve been eagerly anticipating, the new Training Load metric. 

For years, the best Apple Watches have been all about getting you on your feet, out of your house, into the gym, and really doing as much exercise as humanly possible. With watchOS 11, Apple has finally introduced some key metrics and features to help you do less, including incorporating rest days into your training goals and the aforementioned Training Load metric. 

Apple says Training Load can help users make informed decisions about their training, measuring the effort of their workouts and providing 28-day reports to help them understand the impact of exercise on their bodies. 

Training Load is a well-established metric used by performance athletes to help improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their training, especially in the run-up to events. Crucially, Training Load is vital in preventing injury. With that in mind, you’d expect the general impact of monitoring your own training load to result in doing less, not more. Your Training Load goes up, your Apple Watch tells you to back off in order to recover more effectively. Simple, right? 

However, after just a few days using the public version of watchOS 11, I’m happy to report Training Load has already transformed the way I work out, but not at all in the way I expected.

 You’re only cheating yourself 

I use my Apple Watch Ultra 2 predominantly to track strength training workouts, which I do roughly six times a week. If you use watchOS 11 to track a cardio-based workout like a run or a bike ride, it will automatically record the “effort” applied in your workout, giving you the readings needed to track your training load. 

However, Apple’s fancy algorithm doesn’t apply to strength training (yet), so when you do a strength workout, you have to enter your effort manually, rating your workout on a perceived effort scale, from 1 to 10. 

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