Apple introduced a terrific element to your iPhone lock screen in iOS 16 with the advent of lock screen widgets. These little icons sit on your lock screen, making it easy to see key information from a wide variety of apps.
And, with more useful widgets being added all the time, it’s a great idea to set up a lock screen specifically for your fitness activities. But first, you’ll need to set up a focus mode for your exercise time. Here’s how you can set up the perfect fitness lock screen on iOS.
Configuring Apple’s Focus Mode Feature
Focus modes are Apple’s update to the Do Not Disturb function. This feature allows you to change your iPhone’s appearance based on the activity you’re currently undertaking, blocking out distractions from apps or people who might pull focus from what you’re trying to get done.
There are lots of different focus modes suggested by Apple, and you can customize your own as well. A Fitness focus mode is perfect for exercise; in fact, that’s one of Apple’s suggested modes.
How to Set Up Your Fitness Focus Mode
It’s straightforward to set up your Focus Mode for exercise. Simply go to the Control Center (swipe down from the upper right corner). You’ll see the Focus button with a moon icon next to it by default. Tap it, and you’ll see a range of profiles, including Fitness.
Select Fitness, and then tap Settings to make changes to the schedule for this focus mode and the people and apps you’ll allow notifications from, as well as the option to Customize Screens.
Tap the miniature iPhone display depicted there. This is where you’re going to construct your perfect fitness lock screen.
Choose your Lock Screen background first by setting your background image or pattern. This can be an image from Photos, or you can populate it with emoji, patterns, and colors that might motivate you and get you into the right mindset for working out.
Now you can go ahead and start adding widgets to your Lock Screen. You can customize three different areas: the space above the clock, the clock itself, and the area below it.
If you don’t need the current date displayed at the top of the screen, tap it to change it to a metric that suits better. For example, you can choose to have a summary of your day’s activity. The date is still there, it’s just abbreviated at the start of the panel. Or you can add a widget there.
Tap the Add Widgets button and you’ll get a display of suggested widgets to add. This will vary depending on what apps you have installed on your phone.
In the pictures below, the widgets added are:
- Gentler Streak app, an activity tracker.
- Waterllama app, which reminds you to drink water and stay hydrated during your workout.
- Fitness, which gives another shortcut to your Activity data.
- Overcast, a podcast player to give you easy access to entertainment.
You can add four small icons below the clock, two large ones, or a combination of sizes. When you’ve made your choices, just tap Done. Now, you’re ready to work out.
Because there are many possible combinations of Focus Modes and Lock Screens you can create, you can easily customize several different screens to suit the different types of exercise you might be doing. For example, if you’re venturing outdoors, you might want to add a weather widget.
Use Your Fitness Lock Screen to Help You Focus on Your Workout
Now, all you need to do is to schedule a time for your regular workout or just put your phone into Fitness mode via Control Center when it’s time to hit the gym.
Since the release of iOS 16, many app developers have already added lock screen functionality to their apps, to allow you to assemble a brilliant fitness lock screen. And as more apps join in, you’ll be able to adjust it and customize it further to suit your exercise needs.
