pausing workouts on the watch

By Bingo Little, 20 March, 2019

Forum
watchOS and Apple Watch Apps

HI everyone,

Is there any simple way of pausing or ending a workout on the watch? I seem to remember that with a pool swim, pressing hte side button and digital crown simultaneously worked as a toggle on the old series 2, but I only ever saw that in a pool swim context. it didn't seem to work on my outdoor walk with the Series 3 I took the other day. At the moment the only way I appear to be able to pause or end a workout is via the touchscreen, and that takes a while which causes the timings to be slightly inaccurate. Plus I got held up for a very long time at a road crossing earlier, and I wished I knew of a simple way to pause progress. any thoughts, aside from 'don't do an outdoor workout that involves road crossings', would be very welcome.

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Comments

By Cliff on Thursday, March 21, 2019 - 23:24

And by pressing both sidebuttons I mean the actual sidebutton and the crown pressed together.
I do this all the time on my Apple Watch 4 in all sorts of workouts, so my guess is that this should work just fine on all apple watch models capable of running the latest watch OS. I get 2 fast beeps and haptic taps when pausing with both buttons, and 3 when resuming again, or is it the oposite..? I suddenly became a bit uncertain...:) Anyway, just make sure that the setting to take a screenshot when both buttons are pressed is turned off in the watch app on your phone, and you should be all good! :)

By Seanoevil on Thursday, March 21, 2019 - 23:24

Hi Bingo,
I don't use the outdoor walk workout, but pressing the crown and side button simultaneously does pause my Elliptical Workouts. A second press of both buttons will then restart the workout.
You might also consider switching to the Outdoor Run Workout. That workout has an Auto Pause feature you can enable to allow the Watch to automatically detect and pause when your workout has been interrupted e.g. by road crossings etc.
Whether switching to the Outdoor Run Workout suits you will depend, I expect, on what data you are seeking from your workout. It should track time, heart rate and distance with the same accuracy but calories/kj may be inflated to account for the fact the watch thinks you are running. Not walking.

HTH

@SeaNoEvil00

By Bingo Little on Thursday, March 21, 2019 - 23:24

Thank you very much for the replies. i will give this another go and see if it works this time.

By Jakob Rosin on Thursday, March 21, 2019 - 23:24

Just so you know, the walking workout does know when you are standing. It doesn't autopause, like the running one does, but it definitely does keep the distance and calories + pace accurate.

By Bingo Little on Thursday, March 21, 2019 - 23:24

That is good to know. I want it to pause so as to get more accurate timings. anyhow, I have tried the gesture and it does now seem to be working. i think the problem beforehand was my technique - I tried pressing both buttons with my thumb and sometimes didn't catch the side button sufficiently well for the press to register. I've now made an ajustment to reflect that on the series 3 the side button hugs the watch case.