How to segment your Apple Watch workout mid session

In this tutorial, we will show you how to use the Segments feature of the Apple Watch Workout app to divide your active session into multiple splits.

A person in running motion exercising with Apple Watch

If you’re fastidious about tracking your workouts, be it running, cycling, or hitting the weights, you might have been irritated by the apparent lack of options to divide your active session into multiple splits. Granted the swimming workout automatically breaks the distance down into laps, and running stats are dealt with in a similar fashion, but what about the freedom of choosing those markers by yourself? Say you fancy a treadmill warm-up followed by some beefy strength training, ultimately to be capped off by a session on the yoga mat.

Thankfully, a lesser-known tip lets you document distinct activities, which yet all count towards one comprehensive, long workout, and it’s called Segments. Segments can be prompted at the hands of one simple gesture and quickly split your workout as you go, which allows for more insightful post-workout information including calories burnt for each individual split.

Here’s how you can take advantage of Segments on your Apple Watch.

How to complete a segment and start the next one on Apple Watch

  1. Open the Workout app on your Apple Watch.
  2. Select any workout you are about to embark on and commence the training!
  3. Once the time has come for a shift in intensity, pace, or you simply want to drop a marker in order to be able to review calories burnt up to this point later, just double-tap anywhere on the workout screen. You can also swipe right and tap the Segment option to add one. As a result, Segment 1 will be concluded, as confirmed on the training screen.
  4. Meanwhile, the workout keeps recording and it’ll be business as usual after the brief Segment information screen. Continue your toils and double-tap the screen again whenever needed to define the perimeters for Segments 2, 3, 4, and so on. You can effectively split your workout into as many segments as you like.
Segment workout on Apple Watch

After completion, return to your iPhone’s Fitness app and tap the workout in the Summary section. You will find the Segments tab here. You can tap Show More to see it all on the full screen.

View Segments in iPhone Fitness app

There you go! Fitness gurus might appreciate the additional information relating to which part of the workout took the most out of your body, something the overall summary does not provide. It should also be underscored one more time that the double tap feature applies to literally all workouts available on Apple Watch, making this feature an absolute doozie for runners.

Other tips for your Workouts: