5 Ways To “Close Your Rings”
By Henrick Norremark
Closing Your Rings Means More Time on Your Feet — Here's Why That Matters
If you wear an Apple Watch, you already know the three rings: Move, Exercise, and Stand. Closing them means burning your daily calorie goal, getting at least 30 minutes of exercise, and standing up for a stretch during at least 12 hours of your day. It's a good, simple framework for building a more active life.
Here's the part that doesn't get mentioned: closing those rings means spending more time walking, standing, and moving — almost all of it on the same flat, hard, modern surfaces you're already on the rest of the day. More activity is a genuinely good goal. It also means more steps on ground that doesn't do your feet any favors, which is worth knowing as you build the habit, not a reason to avoid it.
Simple Ways to Close All Three Rings
Prioritize walking. It's the easiest of the three rings to close, and it doesn't require a dedicated 30-minute block — three 10-minute walks (morning, lunch, evening) count just as much as one long one. Park farther away, take a walking lunch break, or walk while you catch up with a friend instead of sitting.
Take the stairs. Skipping the elevator or escalator is one of the simplest ways to add both Exercise minutes and Stand time without changing your schedule at all.
Build movement into things you're already doing. Squats while brushing your teeth, a standing desk instead of a chair, a few minutes of stretching during TV time — small, repeated movement adds up over a full day.
Pick activity you actually enjoy. Whatever closes your rings consistently is better than whatever's "optimal" on paper but that you'll quit in two weeks — a HIIT class, weight training, swimming, hiking, or a yoga studio all count.
Don't discount chores. Cleaning briskly, yard work, or washing your car by hand are legitimate activity, and they double as things you needed to do anyway.
The Ground Under All That Extra Movement
All of this is genuinely good advice, and none of it should change because of what's underneath your feet. But it's worth knowing: every one of these activities happens on the same rigid, flat surfaces most modern life is built on — sidewalks, gym floors, office tile, stairs. Your subtalar joint (the hinge just below your ankle) is built to rotate on a diagonal path with every step, adapting to whatever terrain it lands on. Flat ground gives it nothing to adapt to, so more steps on it means more repetitions of that same unresolved mechanical pattern — not a reason to move less, just something worth having the right footwear for as you move more.
Landing Gear's heel cup is shaped to match that diagonal rotation directly, so the extra walking, stair-climbing, and standing that comes with closing your rings works with your foot's mechanics instead of just piling up more unaddressed repetitions. In independent 3D motion capture testing (BioMechanica LLC, Dr. Martyn Shorten, 2019, n=31), 28 of 31 people landed with their heel rotating correctly in the M-100, compared to just 3 of 31 in standard foam.
Close your rings. Just give your feet something better to close them on.