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Don't Stress About Activity Rings: Apple's WatchOS 11 Finally Supports Rest Days

Fitness enthusiasts know that rest days are vital to avoid injury, and with watchOS 11, your Apple Watch finally gets the memo, too.

 & Joe Hindy Contributor

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It's happened to the best of us. We're on a months-long streak of getting our daily activity and then something like illness or injury happens and we watch that streak end. It's demoralizing and frustrating, but with the upcoming watchOS 11, it's not going to happen anymore.

(Credit: Apple)

Tucked among the various new features coming to watchOS 11 is rest days. As per Apple, users will have the ability to "pause" their activity rings for a day, week, month, or more without losing their reward streaks. So, if get you sick, have an injury, or just need a day to chill, the Apple Watch will let you do that without losing your hard-earned rewards.

You can also customize Activity rings based on the day of the week; go hard during the week and schedule Sunday for some time off.

Studies show that rest is required to build muscle and remain healthy while training. But as The Verge notes, the gamification of fitness with things like "streaks" can make people feel guilty for taking a rest day that seemingly sends them back to square one. With watchOS 11, that should no longer be a problem. Just make sure you have an Apple Watch that supports it.

Apple is expected to roll out a public beta of watchOS 11 in July ahead of full rollout this fall.

About Our Expert

Joe Hindy

Joe Hindy

Contributor

Hello, my name is Joe and I am a tech blogger. My first real experience with tech came at the tender age of 6 when I started playing Final Fantasy IV (II on the SNES) on the family's living room console. As a teenager, I cobbled together my first PC build using old parts from several ancient PCs, and really started getting into things in my 20s. I served in the US Army as a broadcast journalist. Afterward, I served as a news writer for XDA-Developers before I spent 11 years as an Editor, and eventually Senior Editor, of Android Authority. I specialize in gaming, mobile tech, and PC hardware, but I enjoy pretty much anything that has electricity running through it.

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