If you have an Apple Watch you know: If you didn’t track your swim, it feels like it doesn’t count!
When it comes to open water swimming, using a smartwatch with accurate time and distance tracking ensures you get the most out of your workout. Whether you are an avid open water swimmer or a newbie just starting out, make sure you’re logging all of your swims in the free MySwimPro app on your Apple Watch.
Why Use the MySwimPro App on Apple Watch?
You might be wondering: Why use a third party app when Apple Watch has its own open water swimming tracker? MySwimPro offers an improved experience compared to Apple Watch:
- Text on screen is bigger and easier to read while swimming
- Watch your heart rate in real time
- Keep a detailed log of your swims to track your progress
- Share a cool map graphic that shows your path
- Log workouts that count toward monthly challenge leaderboards
- Your workouts sync to Strava automatically
The MySwimPro app is free to download, and works with the Apple Watch Series 2, 3, 4, 5 and above.
Related: How to Sync Your MySwimPro Swims with Strava
Logging an Open Water Swim with MySwimPro
To start, head to the lake, river or ocean and suit up! Make sure Open Water Location Services are turned on for the MySwimPro app. Open the MySwimPro app on your Apple Watch. Scroll down and tap Open Water Swim.
Wait for the Location Accuracy to show Best, and tap Start Workout. Start swimming, and MySwimPro will track your distance, time, pace and heart rate.
When you’re finished swimming, turn your watch’s crown up to remove the water lock. Swipe to the right and tap End. Make sure you save your workout so it shows up on your feed in the app!
Related: 5 Tips for Beginner Open Water Swimmers
Review Your Analytics
After your swim, check out your analytics in the MySwimPro iPhone app. In your Profile tab, tap on your workout.
You’ll see a map of your route, and can swipe to the left to view a graph of your heart rate, including your minimum, maximum and average heart rate for your swim.
You’ll also see your total distance, duration and calories burned.
Share Your Swim on Social Media
Show off your hard work! Tap on your recently completed workout in your Profile feed. Tap the arrow in the top right corner of the screen to customize your shareable graphic!
Scroll to adjust the text color, background, size and more. When you’re done, tap Share.
Want more tips and workout ideas for open water? Download the MySwimPro app in the App Store and follow us on social media at @myswimpro.
9 Comments
For open water, is there anyway to run intervals (say 200m or 400m intervals for example as part of a pre set open water workout ?) I appreciate it is subject to gps accuracy etc but it would a nice add on…
You could use the pool swim instead and set the length of the ‘pool’ to be 200m or 400m which would work well… but only if you know your exact open water distance with a marker and you don’t vary between 200m and 400m laps.
Hello there. For tracking only in open water, do I need the ELITE version? Or jus the free app? (Android wear watch). Thanks
Hi there! The free version works great for open water tracking!
Thank you very much for your answer. Does it also sync for free into Strava? Does it have pace (min/100m?) for free? Thank you very much
Hi, I’m undecided between Apple Watch 6 and SE. For elite version and training in the pool with the myswimpro Programm, would it make a difference with the always on screen functionality? Or any other aspects to consider before buying the watch especially for using with myswimpro? Thanks a lot
We love the Apple Watch for swimming with MySwimPro! Either watch would work great, in our opinion. The always on functionality can be handy to make sure you can always see the screen, but if you have haptic vibrations turned on, the watch will vibrate on your wrist to signal when it’s time to start each rep in your swim set.
For a handy comparison between the two, check out this article! https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-watch-series-6-vs-se-main-differences-newest-smartwatches-2020/#:~:text=The%20Watch%20Series%206%20has,measure%20your%20blood%20oxygen%20levels.
Will MySwimPro (free version) log my split times for open water swims?
Also, how do I switch to meters?
Hi Pete, if you take breaks throughout your open water swims, MySwimPro will likely track that and you’ll see a breakdown of your “splits” for those distances, but MySwimPro does not automatically track 100yd/m split times for open water.
To swap your tracking settings to meters, head to your Profile and tap Swim Profile. Scroll down and update your default pool to any size meters pool, and your open water tracking and all analytics should update!