I remember when Apple first introduced Activity rings on Apple Watch. Closing your rings became an obsession for a lot of us. Every day, you … The post With watchOS 11, pausing my Activity rings won’t make me feel bad about myself anymore appeared first on BGR.

Thankfully, the Apple Watch got a decent amount of lovin' at WWDC 2024. The watchOS 11 update arrives this fall with a mess of new features, including one that Activity Ring-addicted athletes are sure to love.

With watchOS 11, Apple is introducing a number of features that finally create space for rest and recovery. The two I’m most excited about are the ability to pause Activity Rings and the ability to adjust goals based on the day of the week.

The ability to pause your activity rings is a minor feature update for most, but for those of us who obsess about such things to an unhealthy degree, it’s the best Apple Watch update in years.

Apple Watch users have long asked for the ability to pause their activity rings without losing their hard-won streak, and Apple finally delivered.

Apple Watch will also reportedly offer insight into training loads, similar to WHOOP's strain measure. This will allow users to track their training intensity and measure workouts against baseline performances, which can be helpful for achieving new personal bests or preparing for an upcoming competition.

Apple Watch users can now rely on automatic sleep tracking thanks to watchOS 11. That means counting Zs even outside of Sleep Focus mode.

An end to inflexible Apple Watch rings is a broken streak we can all get behind . Well, unless you’re some kind of robot.