Oura has enhanced the capabilities of its smart rings by introducing two new sports features aimed at providing deeper insights into the impact of workouts on the user's body, amidst intensifying competition in the smart ring market from competitors such as RingConn and Ultrahuman.
The two new features are Cardio Effort and VO₂ max, which expand the scope of workout tracking beyond traditional measurements of exercise duration and heart rate.
Cardio Effort Feature Details
The Cardio Effort feature allows users to understand the amount of stress a workout places on the cardiovascular system. These measurements are aggregated weekly relative to each user's individual baseline, shifting the focus from merely counting active minutes to assessing whether the user is maintaining their fitness, building it, or overexerting their body.
The feature takes into account both intensity and duration, and is divided into two main parts:
- Workout Cardio Effort: To evaluate the impact of an individual workout.
- Weekly Cardio Effort: To aggregate total effort and classify it into levels including Light, Moderate, Maintaining, Building, and Peak.
Oura measures elevated heart rate based on each member's long-term resting heart rate, avoiding the variations associated with maximum heart rate estimates. This feature is available for Oura Ring Gen3 and newer devices.
VO₂ Max Feature
On the other hand, the VO₂ max metric illustrates how exercise contributes to long-term physical fitness by measuring how efficiently the heart, lungs, and muscles work together to deliver and use oxygen during exercise. Instead of requiring complex lab tests or a six-minute walk test, Oura can now passively estimate this rate using GPS-enabled workouts.
After completing five qualifying activities, users receive an initial estimate and can track changes via the My Heart Health Hub in mL/kg/min, alongside fitness categories and alerts for notable changes. The VO₂ max feature is initially being rolled out via Oura Labs for experimental features to Gen3 users and newer versions.