Whether you are training for a half-marathon, tracking high-intensity interval training (HIIT), cycling outdoors, or monitoring a brisk recovery walk, glanceable feedback during exercise is critical. The native Workout app on Apple Watch displays telemetry such as elapsed duration, active calories, current heart rate, and distance. However, different fitness disciplines demand vastly different data points: runners often prioritise current pace, cadence, and split times, while cyclists need elevation gain, rolling power, and heart rate zones.
In watchOS 10 and watchOS 11, Apple gives you complete control over your workout dashboard through Customised Workout Views. You can choose exactly which metrics appear on the primary screen, create secondary metric pages, enable dedicated Heart Rate Zones screens, monitor elevation profiles, and eliminate clutter you do not need. In this guide, you will learn how to access workout configuration settings on Apple Watch, customise active metric pages, reorder data screens, and activate specialized views such as Power and Elevation.
What Are Workout Views on Apple Watch?
Workout Views allow you to segment your workout telemetry into dedicated, swipeable display pages:
- Metric 1 & Metric 2: Multi-metric layouts showing up to five custom telemetry fields per page (such as Distance, Pace, Heart Rate, and Active Kilocalories).
- Heart Rate Zones View: Visualises your current cardiovascular effort level across five calculated training zones (Warm Up to Maximum).
- Split / Interval View: Displays lap segments, rolling kilometre paces, and segment averages during interval training.
- Elevation View: Displays current elevation, cumulative elevation gain, and visual gradient slope charts for trail running and cycling.
- Power & Cadence: Monitors cycling or running power outputs measured in watts and steps/pedal revolutions per minute.
How to Customise Workout Views on Apple Watch
Customising your metric screens is performed directly on your wrist before initiating an exercise session:
- Open the Workout app on your Apple Watch.
- Locate the workout type you want to modify (e.g., Outdoor Run, Outdoor Cycle, or Pool Swim).
- Tap the More button (represented by three horizontal dots
...in the top-right corner of the workout card). - Tap the Pencil (Edit) icon next to your desired workout goal (such as Open or a custom workout profile).
- Tap Workout Views.
- Tap Edit Views to open the metric customization dashboard.
Editing and Rearranging Metrics on Screen
Inside the Edit Views menu, you can tailor each page:
1. Customising Individual Metric Fields
- Scroll to Metric 1 or Metric 2 and tap the pencil icon.
- Tap the specific metric slot you wish to change (e.g., tap Average Pace).
- Scroll through the extensive metric catalogue using the Digital Crown:
- Time: Elapsed time, current time of day.
- Heart Rate: Current BPM, average BPM, maximum BPM.
- Pace / Speed: Current pace, average pace, rolling pace, current speed.
- Distance & Cadence: Cumulative distance, stride length, ground contact time, vertical oscillation.
- Energy: Active calories, total calories.
- Select your preferred replacement metric.
- Repeat for any other fields on the display card.
2. Enabling Specialized Views (Zones, Elevation, Power)
Beneath the standard metric cards, you can toggle dedicated full-screen displays on or off:
- Heart Rate Zones: Toggle the switch to Include to enable real-time zone tracking during endurance sessions.
- Elevation: Toggle to Include to track climbing progress on hilly terrain.
- Running Power: Enable to monitor instant watt output for pacing consistency.
- Activity Rings: Displays your Move, Exercise, and Stand ring progress directly inside the workout loop.
3. Reordering the View Carousel
- While still in the Edit Views screen, touch and hold the reorder handle (three horizontal lines) next to any view card.
- Drag the card up or down to change its position in the rotation.
- Placing your primary metric screen at the top ensures it displays automatically when you raise your wrist.
- Tap Done at the bottom of the screen to save your custom layout.
Navigating Custom Workout Views During Exercise
Once you start your workout, switching between your customised displays is effortless:
- Turn the Digital Crown: Scroll the Digital Crown up or down to smoothly glide between Metric 1, Heart Rate Zones, Elevation, and Split screens.
- Swipe on Screen: Swipe vertically with your finger across the display to change views (note: touch navigation is automatically disabled in swimming workouts via Water Lock).
- Live iPhone Mirroring: If running iOS 17+, your customised workout metrics stream simultaneously to your paired iPhone Lock Screen or handlebar mount as a Live Activity.
Overview of Essential Running and Cycling Metrics
| Metric Field | Best Used For | Benefit |
|---|---|---|
| Rolling Pace | Marathon pacing | Calculates your pace over the preceding single kilometre rather than entire workout. |
| Heart Rate Zones | Aerobic base building | Ensures you maintain Zone 2 intensity without accidentally overtraining. |
| Ground Contact Time | Form efficiency | Measures how many milliseconds your foot stays in contact with the road. |
| Elevation Gain | Trail hiking / cycling | Monitors vertical metres climbed to gauge energy expenditure on slopes. |
Tips for Optimal Workout Tracking
To ensure your customised displays deliver maximum utility during tough sessions:
- High-Contrast Text Hierarchy: Place the metric you check most frequently in the prominent centre slot of Metric 1 so you can absorb it in a fraction of a second.
- Separate Indoor vs Outdoor Profiles: Configure different views for Indoor Run (where GPS pace and elevation are irrelevant) versus Outdoor Run to eliminate blank fields.
- Configure Audio Metric Alerts: In Workout > Preferences > Voice Feedback, enable spoken metric announcements through your AirPods whenever you complete splits or transition heart rate zones.