OURA RING REVIEW: USEFUL HEALTH INSIGHTS
The Oura ring is a sleek wearable fitness tracker that to the untrained eye looks like a normal ring. Upon closer inspection, it is anything but normal.
This titanium smart ring is built with a host of sensors, giving the wearer real-time insight into what’s happening within their body. This blog will cover the basics of the Oura ring, our personal experiences with it, and some of its potential uses.
What is the Oura Ring?
The Oura ring is a wearable fitness tracker that provides users with personalized health metrics (Learn more about wearable fitness trackers here). This device’s goal is to give the user useful insight into the current state of their body.
To do this, Oura tracks readiness, activity, and sleep throughout the day to create personalized health metrics. Users access these metrics through the Oura app that connects wirelessly to their smartphone. Oura does not display any data on the ring and the only way to view its health metrics is through the free Oura app.
The Oura Ring Reviewed
Oura’s Three Health Metrics:
The Oura ring uses three metrics—readiness, sleep, and activity level—to give users insight into their health.
The readiness metric looks at how well the user is balancing stress and rest. It tracks sleep, activity, and recovery. It then calculates a daily score out of 100 representing how prepared the body is to tackle the day. Like a throwback to school, Oura rates a score of 80+ as good, 70-80 as ok, and 60 and below as “take it easy”.
Oura also gathers data on sleep. It measures the amount of time spent in each cycle of sleep: deep, REM, and light. It tracks time to fall asleep and heart rate during the night. Each morning, users are presented with a score out of 100 representing their sleep. This score includes the hours of sleep they got, when they fell asleep and woke up, along with their average resting heart rate.
During the day Oura tracks activity. It looks at steps, calorie burn, and the rate of exertion throughout the day. Like the other two scores, Oura gives a daily activity score out of 100. Oura also encourages movement with subtle reminders to walk around.
How the Oura Ring Works
The Oura ring measures the body’s signal with red infrared sensors, gyroscopes, and accelerometers. These sensors are located on the bottom of the ring. They measure the blood flow through the arteries of the finger and the movement of the ring. Oura claims their data is much more accurate than other fitness wearables because of its location on the finger arteries.
These sensors are used to track heart rate, body temperature, and movement. This data is then used to calculate resting heart rate, heart rate variability, and activity levels. Oura runs this collected data through its own set of formulas to create a readiness, sleep, and activity score.
Our Experience with The Oura Ring:
The OPEX Fitness team has first-hand experience with the Oura ring and believes it is a standout sleep tracker. We like that the ring is extremely comfortable and that we can wear it during training.
We have found that the sleep and readiness trends are quite accurate and usually are quite close to our self-assessments. The activity tracker could use some improvements, but it is a good way to track basic movement like steps.
Overall we view the Oura ring as the best sleep wearable on the market, we love the data it provides, and appreciate its minimalist design.
The Best Uses for Oura:
The Oura ring is a great product for those who want to take a closer look at their health. The numbers might not always be exact, but it is a great tool to notice health trends over time.
Those who are in-tune with their body could find this product very helpful to validate their subjective experiences. Fitness coaches could also use this as a tool to create awareness and accountability with their clients.
There is no shortage of products targeted at consumers looking to achieve their fitness goals. The irony is that most of these goals can be met through an exercise and nutrition routine. The majority of consumers just don’t understand how to put this into practice.
This creates a demand for fitness coaches. Educated individuals who can lead by example and help the general population reach their goals. Not only is this career fun, but with the right business model, it can be profitable and sustainable. Sound intriguing? Sign up for our free coaching course today and see for yourself what a career as a fitness coach would be like.
