Exertion or Effort Too High or Too Low

Understanding How Exertion & Effort Are Calculated

Athlytic calculates Exertion and Effort based on your Max Heart Rate. By default, your Max HR is determined from the highest heart rate recorded in the last 30 days.

You can check the Max HR that Athlytic is using by:

1. Tapping on any workout in Athlytic.
2. Scrolling to the Heart Rate Training Zone card.
3. At the bottom, you will see:

• “Zones are based on your Max Heart Rate of X”, followed by either:
  • Your highest recorded HR from the last 30 days, OR
  • A custom Max HR if you set one manually in settings.

Why Is My Exertion or Effort Too High or Too Low?

Your Max Heart Rate May Be Inaccurate

Since Athlytic uses your highest HR in the past 30 days as the default Max HR, it’s possible that:

• Your Max HR is too high → If your Apple Watch recorded an anomalous HR reading (e.g., above 200 bpm when your real max is 185 bpm), your Exertion might appear too low.
• Your Max HR is too low → If you’ve recently started working out again after a break or haven’t reached your true Max HR in the last 30 days, your Exertion might appear too high.

Fix: Set a Custom Max Heart Rate

To prevent fluctuations in your Exertion and Effort calculations, Athlytic allows you to set a custom Max HR.

1. Open Athlytic.
2. Go to the More tab → Custom Max Heart Rate.
3. Set a Custom Max HR.

A good starting estimate is 220 - your age. Most users set a Custom Max HR so that it doesn’t change every 30 days.

Exertion Measures Cardiovascular Load, Not Just Movement

Even if you move throughout the day and burn calories, Exertion is not based on movement alone—it is a measure of cardiovascular load.

• If your heart rate does not spend much time above your heart rate reserve (Max HR - Resting HR), you may see 0 Exertion.
• This is normal—many athletes take rest days where they remain active (e.g., walking, doing chores) but don’t accumulate cardiovascular strain.
• If your Recovery is low, having a 0 Exertion day can be beneficial to help you recover for tomorrow.

Exertion is not a measure of total calories burned—it specifically tracks how much strain your cardiovascular system experiences.

Are You Using Only Apple Watch, a Third-Party Device, or Strava?

Athlytic calculates Exertion based on heart rate data recorded in Apple Health. If your Exertion is too low or stuck at 0, it’s important to check whether your heart rate data is being recorded properly—especially if you’re using a third-party heart rate monitor or an app like Strava.

Some third-party devices and apps do not write HR data to Apple Health correctly, which may prevent Athlytic from calculating Exertion properly.

How to Check If Your HR Data Is Being Saved Correctly:

1. Open Apple Health.
2. Tap Browse → Heart → Heart Rate.
3. Scroll to the bottom and tap Show All Data.
4. Look for heart rate entries recorded during your workout.

Some fitness apps and wearables, like Garmin or Strava, may have a delay before writing data to Apple Health.

If you just completed a workout but see 0 Exertion in Athlytic, follow these steps:

1. Wait at least an hour after finishing your workout.
2. Open Apple Health and check if the HR data has appeared (follow the steps above).
3. Open Athlytic → More tab → Clear/Resync Exertion Cache.
4. Force quit and reopen Athlytic.

If the HR data is now in Apple Health, it will sync with Athlytic and update your Exertion accordingly.

If none of these troubleshooting steps resolve the issue, consider reaching out to Athlytic support for further assistance.