The Apple Watch 6 could beat the Galaxy Watch 3 by becoming the ultimate yoga accessory and bringing advanced metrics to those who practice a program of poses.

According to PatentlyApple, Apple has won a patent application for Yoga metrics on a future Apple Watch to accompany its existing Yoga app. The metrics relate to the user's "energy expenditure," which can be collected through the Apple Watch by constantly monitoring heart rate and connecting the user's movements to pauses.

The patent shows how the Apple Watch's sensors can collect information such as heart rate and poses to determine the nature and vigor of the user's yoga workout, as visualized in this flowchart. In addition, they suggest reading skin temperature to determine if the user is in the middle of a hot yoga session.

Based on this data, the Apple Watch could accurately measure how much energy is required for a given yoga workout and factor that metric into the user's daily activity (soon to be fitness) goals.

Yoga is already one of the exercise presets available on the Apple Watch, and the onboard workout app is one of the best yoga apps available. The fusion of tech and mindful movement is not for everyone, but if the Watch is set to "do not disturb" during a class, it can be as useful an accessory as a yoga mat or block.

While the Apple Watch can detect essentially any exercise, refining the indicators for specific exercise styles is not easy; we learned this at WWDC 2020 when Apple demonstrated the "dance" preset that will be included in watchOS 7.

Converting ever-changing limb positions into precise kinematic data is quite sophisticated, but Apple seems to have a clue. So, if only it had the means to implement what the patent says, the company could make its smartwatch the first true yoga wearable.