They’re attacking fitness from every ankle.
Huffing and puffing at the gym is a worthy commitment that most make towards health- and self-improvement, but when an Apple Watch fails to calculate the full extent of one’s physical activity, all of that working out can feel like an exercise in futility.
So, rather than rocking the smartwatch on their wrists, fit-influencers are wearing the gadgets a little lower for best results.
“Me putting my Apple Watch on my ankle while I workout,” wrote exercise enthusiast Ana Espinal, 23, from Manhattan, in the closed-caption of a TikTok testimonial.
“If you know you know,” she continued to her online audience of over 84,000 fans.
For those who don’t know, here’s the skinny.
Apple Watches, technologically advanced accessories — which can cost upwards of $1,000 — come complete with hardware and software that measures heart rate, estimate calories burned and serve as the basis for associated heart health and fitness features, per a November 2024 report from the multinational tech brand.
The wearable devices have, too, been hailed for measuring heart rate during exercise with “clinically acceptable accuracy” in recent studies. Researchers have found the fashionable trackers especially useful for patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases — and have saved more than a few lives
The lifesaving perks of the timepiece notwithstanding, a faction of folks online, including Espinal, claim that wearing it on the arm isn’t always the optimal spot for true workout readings.
“Every time I have my Apple Watch on my wrist it always pauses and never records my full workout,” the Big Apple brunette captioned her clip. “Found out about the ankle thing and never went back.”
And she’s far from the only health buff that’s giving the ankle trick a go.
Kristen Hollingshaus, a content creator from San Francisco, has been touting the benefits of wearing an Apple Watch around her ankles for years.
The Californian, who simultaneously works out on a walking pad while getting work done her laptop, said the device is better able to measure her activity when it’s strapped above one of her moving feet — rather than one of her more stationary wrists.
“It’s the best hack ever,” she raved in a post. “I basically do this basically every day.”
The highly-acclaimed hack also works wonders during those everyday, less intense moments of movement, such as taking a stroll through Target, according to amature TikTok investigator @MediocreMomAdventures.
She took two 10-minute walks around the superstore — once with an Apple Watch around the wrist of her hand that was pushing a shopping cart, and once with the watch stuffed in her sock — to determine the bauble’s best placement for precision.
“When the watch was on my wrist and I kept my hand on the cart, [it] ended up calculating 91 steps in 10 minutes,” said the working mom of two, who’s recently lost over 35 pounds.
“When the watch was on my ankle, it calculated 835 steps,” she continued, calling the outcome of her experiment “mind-blowing.”
“So the big lesson here is…put your watch on your ankle.”
