The Apple Watch is a must-have gadget for any die-hard fitness fanatic.
So, it might come as a surprise to many gym goers that they could have been wearing theirs the wrong way.
In a viral TikTok post with over 20,000 likes, one fitness influencer has revealed that the correct way to wear the Apple Watch isn’t on your wrist.
Instead, fitness influencer @bodiedbyana says that you should always wear your Apple Watch around your ankle.
She claims that this surprising method makes your fitness tracker more accurate.
The TikToker explained: ‘I’m so tired of putting my watch on my wrist and halfway through my workout realizing that it was on pause the whole time.
‘When I put it on my ankle it never happens.’
However, not everyone is so convinced by this hack, with one commenter calling it a ‘gym ankle monitor’.
The Apple Watch is a must-have gadget for any fitness fanatic, but some gym influencers now claim you’ve been wearing it wrong (file photo)
Fitness influencer @bodiebyana says she wears her Apple Watch on her ankle so that it doesn’t pause her workouts during exercise
The Apple Watch is the tech giant’s flagship wearable device and was first launched in 2015.
Since then, the device has seen some major upgrades including a suite of fitness-tracking hardware.
The latest generation Apple Watch, the Series 10, is capable of tracking your heart rate, sleep quality, and even performing an electrocardiogram (ECG) – a test used by doctors to record signals in the heart.
Studies have even shown that the Apple Watch can measure your heart rate during exercise with ‘clinically acceptable accuracy’.
However, some users still complain that their devices don’t accurately measure their exercise.
On social media, many Apple fans report that they often find their workouts haven’t been recorded after the watch pauses unexpectedly.
On X, one Apple customer wrote: ‘My apple watch keeps f****** PAUSING like every 45 seconds while I workout and I have to keep restarting this is so annoying.
Another added: ‘My apple watch keeps pausing my workout I’ve never had this issue before and it’s actually so irritating.’
Faced with a frustrating pausing issue, attaching your watch to your ankle could be a solution since it avoids accidentally pressing or touching the watch
Many Apple users have complained that their Apple Watches keep pausing their workouts unexpectedly
The most likely reason that the Apple Watch pauses during a workout is that the user accidentally touches or bumps the screen while exercising.
Since the screen is very sensitive, even a drop of sweat landing on t can register as a touch and pause the workout.
Keeping your Apple Watch on your ankle rather than on the wrist might prevent this issue simply by keeping the device out of the way.
But not every commenter was convinced that this was a good way of solving the problem.
Several commenters jokingly compared the appearance to a police ankle monitor, used to monitor people with court-ordered curfews or parole requirements.
‘You’re on gym arrest,’ one commenter wrote.
While another joked: ‘Mine is always trying to call the police.’
Others pointed out that putting your Apple Watch over your socks, as shown in the video, likely meant the device was unable to accurately record your heart rate.
One influencer says they attach their Apple Watch around their ankle so that it accurately records their steps while using a walking desk
The Apple Watch uses an optical, or light-based, monitor which can struggle to pick up users’ heart rate even though a dark tattoo.
One commenter wrote: ‘And I’m sure it’s measuring the heart rate correctly through your socks.’
Another asked: ‘What’s the point if doesn’t take your heart rate this way?’
However, convenience is not the only reason that some users recommend putting your watch around your ankle.
Several TikTok influencers say that wearing their Apple Watch on their wrist means their steps aren’t accurately recorded while doing exercise that keeps their hands stationary.
For example, an influencer with the username hauskris wears the watch on her ankle while walking at a treadmill desk.
In a video shared with her 512,000 followers, hauskris says: ‘When I use my walking pad, if my Apple watch is on my wrist, you can see that my wrist is not moving while I’m working, it’s only my feet and ankles that are moving.
‘So, what I do is I unstrap the band of my Apple Watch and then re-strap it around my ankle. This way it will accurately track all my steps.
Another TikTok user said that attaching their Apple Watch to their ankle gave a more accurate recording of their steps when pushing a trolly around a supermarket
‘It’s amazing. It’s the best hack ever, I do this basically every day.’
Likewise, a TikToker with the username mediocremomadventures said their Apple Watch wasn’t tracking their steps as they pushed a trolly around the supermarket.
To test which was better, the fitness influencer and mother two took two 10-minute walks around the supermarket – once with the watch on her wrist and once with it stuffed into her sock.
In their video, they say: ‘When the watch was on my wrist and I kept my hand on the cart, we ended up calculating 91 steps in 10 minutes.
‘When the watch was on my ankle, it calculated 835 steps. So, the big lesson here is swing your arms, put your watch on your ankle, and don’t miss out on your steps.’
