With the arrival of iOS 26.1 and its list of new features, Apple has added a very interesting function for those of us who use the Apple Watch and the Fitness app every day. We can now manually log our workouts directly from the iPhone, which allows us to close our activity rings even on those days when we forget to start the session on the watch.
How to log workouts manually in the Fitness app
Until now, if we forgot to start a workout on the Apple Watch, there was no way for the Activity rings to reflect the measurements. With iOS 26.1, the iPhone’s Fitness app lets us manually record any workout, so we can easily fix any mistake. How? By following these steps:
- We open the Fitness app on our iPhone.
- We enter the Workouts tab.
- We tap the “+” button in the upper right corner to add a new workout.
- We choose the type of workout we completed, such as strength, yoga or cycling.
- We enter the start time, duration and effort level.
Once these steps are completed, the app will show us an automatic calculation of active calories based on our health data and fitness level. If we want, we can adjust this number to accurately reflect the session’s intensity. Once saved, the Move and Exercise rings will update automatically.
A way to recover workouts and maintain our streaks
Many workouts, like outdoor walks, automatically trigger an alert on the Apple Watch if we forget to start the session. When we do so, our watch also counts the session from the beginning. In certain activities, however, such as strength training, yoga or mixed gym sessions, they are not always detected.
With this new manual logging function, we prevent these moments from falling out of our history. And we keep our streaks of closed rings, avoiding a lapse that could break weeks or months of consistency. Beyond that, it allows activity data to reflect our dedication more accurately, which is very valuable for our calorie and exercise-minute goals.
We will not need to use this function every day, but knowing that we can always log a forgotten workout is useful. With this, the Fitness app becomes a more flexible system for collecting all our physical activity regardless of how we capture the data. Thus, in iOS 26.1 it is now easier to close the rings while keeping the motivation to do it day after day.
On Hanaringo | Staying active is good, pausing Apple Watch rings is too