How to create custom Apple Watch interval workouts

By Victoria Song, a writer focusing on wearables, health tech, and more with 11 years of experience. Before coming to The Verge, she worked for Gizmodo and PC Magazine.

While you’ve always been able to customize Apple Watch workouts, the company finally added the ability to create custom interval workouts in watchOS 9. That's clutch for any athlete itching to set a PR at their next race or just looking to switch up their training routine.

Previously, the only workaround for interval training on the Apple Watch was the segments feature. At any time during an activity, you could double-tap the screen to make note of a significant section of your workout. While handy, it relied on users mentally keeping track of their own intervals. But in watchOS 9, you don't have to worry about that. The new custom workouts will keep track of all that for you, automatically switching from one interval to the next. You’ll also see your performance data broken down by intervals in your workout summary.

Several workout types will now come with a series of premade interval workouts. For example, the HIIT activity already has a custom 30-minute pyramid workout. But while premade intervals are handy in a pinch, they may not reflect where you are in your current regimen. No worries — here's how to create and customize your own interval workouts in watchOS 9.

While programming your custom interval workouts is easy, you’ll have to do it from the watch. Unfortunately, there's no way to do it on the iPhone at present. Another note: depending on the activity you’re programming for, some of your options will vary. For instance, you can set pace or cadence alerts for a work interval in an outdoor running workout but not for a high-intensity interval training workout.

That being said, here's how to create a custom workout:

Any athlete will tell you that, as you progress, you may need to tweak an interval workout even if the format itself doesn't change. Perhaps you need to add extra repeats or decide that you’d like to add or delete a cooldown. Maybe you’d rather use one of Apple's premade interval workouts. Whatever the reason, here's how to edit an existing custom workout.

Once you’ve created a custom interval workout, you can add alerts to specific intervals. For example, say you want your heart rate to be zone 2 or lower during a recovery interval — you can set an alert so that your watch notifies you if your heart rate reaches zone 3. That way, you’ll know to ease up. Alternatively, you could program the watch to alert you when you’re within zone 2 so you know what intensity to maintain.

To add alerts:

watchOS 9 also added the ability to see multiple workout views. That means you can customize screens to group specific metrics together and scroll through them during an activity using the Digital Crown. And if you have an Apple Watch Ultra, you can now add an extra metric to make use of that extra screen real estate.

Workout views are highly customizable. You can omit certain views or reorder how they appear based on the activity or a custom workout. This means you can have specific views enabled for outdoor running workouts in general and another personalized set of views for a custom outdoor running workout.

To edit workout views:

You can create as many custom interval workouts as you’d like. I recommend doing so when you sit down to plan your training schedule, well before it's time to lace up your sneakers. Once you’re all done, you can select a custom interval workout by hitting the three-dot button for a particular activity. It's a lot of prep work, but it definitely pays off if you interval train frequently.

Photography by Victoria Song / The Verge

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