Can you track a rowing machine with an Apple Watch?
Yes, with caveats. Apple Watch records the time, your heart rate and the calories you burn on any rowing machine, and with the right app it can count your strokes and stroke rate from the movement of your wrist. What it can't do is measure how far or how fast you rowed. Only the machine knows that.
This guide is for anyone with a rower that has no smart monitor (a budget magnetic or air rower, a water rower without a Bluetooth module, an older gym machine), or who just wants to know what the watch records on its own.
What does Apple Watch record on its own?
The built-in Workout app records your time, heart rate and calories. Choose the Indoor Rowing workout before you start, so the watch knows what you're doing and measures your heart rate throughout. The finished workout is saved to Apple Health and counts towards your Activity rings.
It doesn't count strokes or show a stroke rate, and it has no distance or 500 m pace for rowing, because it has no way to measure them.
Some gym machines can pair with Apple Watch directly through Apple's gym equipment feature (look for "Connects to Apple Watch" on the machine). When they do, the machine sends its own figures to the watch. Most home rowers don't have it.
Why can't a watch measure distance and pace?
Because on a rowing machine you don't go anywhere. Distance and pace on a rower aren't measured, they're calculated from how fast you spin the flywheel. A monitor like Concept2's PM5 has a sensor on the flywheel, so it knows exactly how much work each stroke did and turns that into distance, pace and power.
Your wrist only feels the handle coming and going. It can tell when you take a stroke, and roughly how hard you pulled, but not how much the flywheel sped up. A big, slow stroke and a short, quick one can feel much the same to the watch. Any app that shows distance or pace from a watch alone is estimating it.
We tested this. When we worked out distance from wrist motion and compared it with the machine's own figure, our estimate came out at roughly twice the real distance. So in Streaks Strokes we leave distance and pace out of watch-tracked rows rather than show a number we can't stand behind.
How does Streaks Strokes track strokes with Apple Watch?
It reads the watch's motion sensors while you row and counts each stroke from the movement of your wrist. The drive and the recovery move your arm in opposite directions, so each pair of movements is one stroke. Stroke rate is worked out from the last several seconds of rowing, so it stays steady rather than jumping around.
Detection tunes itself as you row. It follows you as you ease off or push harder, and ignores a still wrist, so there's nothing to set up. You can calibrate it to your own stroke on the watch (Settings → Diagnostics → Calibrate Rowing Motion, about 20 seconds of rowing), but you don't need to.
A watch-tracked row gives you:
- Stroke count and stroke rate, from the watch's motion sensors.
- Heart rate, from the watch, with your heart-rate zone.
- Calories, as measured by the watch's workout.
- Time, with the same streak calendar and trophies as any other row.
Distance, pace and power are left out. The finished row is saved to Apple Health as an indoor rowing workout, with your heart rate and calories, and counts towards your rings.
How to start a watch-tracked row
- Install Streaks Strokes on your iPhone and its app on your Apple Watch.
- Open a workout on your iPhone. With no rowing machine connected, the app uses your watch, and the Start button says Apple Watch Tracking.
- Tap Start. The watch app opens on its own and counts your strokes. It keeps recording if your phone locks.
Workouts that only need time, strokes or heart rate work with the watch: Just Row, a timed row, and the Time in Zone and Maintain Stroke Rate workouts. Workouts that need distance, pace or power, such as a 2,000 m piece, need a connected rower. Rows start from the iPhone; the watch app follows.
No smart monitor? Apple Watch counts your strokes and stroke rate, and every row still goes on your streak and into Apple Health.
How do you get the best tracking from your watch?
Wear it snugly and keep a steady rhythm. Most problems on the rower come from the watch moving around on your wrist, which affects heart rate more than stroke counting:
- Tighten the band for the row. Apple's accuracy tips say the watch should fit snugly on top of your wrist during a workout, with the sensor close to your skin. Loosen it afterwards.
- Wear it a little higher. A finger-width above the wrist bone keeps the sensor in contact when your wrist bends at the catch.
- Keep your wrists flat on the handle and don't grip harder than you need to. A tight grip and a bent wrist are the usual reasons heart rate drops out.
- Either wrist is fine. Stroke counting doesn't depend on which wrist or which way round you wear it.
- Row steadily. Regular strokes are easiest to count. A few short, choppy strokes at the start may not register until you settle into a rhythm.
Apple also notes that cold skin and some tattoos can make heart-rate readings harder. If you need exact heart rate, a chest strap is the most accurate option, though Streaks Strokes reads a strap only through a PM5 monitor, not on its own.
Have a Concept2 PM5? Connect it instead
If your rower has a PM5 monitor, use it. Everything the watch can't measure (distance, pace, power and an exact stroke rate) comes straight from the machine, and the watch adds your heart rate. In Streaks Strokes the watch then stops counting strokes and leaves that to the monitor. Our PM5 connection guide walks through it.
Questions
Does Apple Watch count rowing strokes?
Not in the built-in Workout app. Some third-party rowing apps, including Streaks Strokes, count strokes and stroke rate from the watch's motion sensors.
Is Apple Watch accurate for rowing?
For heart rate and time, it's good when worn snugly. Stroke rate from wrist motion is close but not exact. Distance and pace from a watch alone are estimates, and can be far off, because a wrist can't measure the flywheel.
Does a rowing machine workout close my Apple Watch rings?
Yes. A row recorded as a workout on the watch counts towards Move and Exercise. Our rings guide explains how.
Do I need my iPhone nearby?
For Streaks Strokes, yes: you start each row on your iPhone and the watch follows. The built-in Workout app runs on the watch alone.
More guides
- How to connect a Concept2 PM5 to your iPhone and Apple Health
- Zone 2 rowing: how to find your zone and stay in it
- Does rowing close your Apple Watch rings?
- How to pace a 2k rowing test (and what a good 500 m split is)
Questions about the app? See the Streaks Strokes FAQ.
A rowing app for iPhone and Apple Watch that connects to your Concept2 PM5. Free to download, no subscription.