{"id":940164,"date":"2026-10-20T14:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T14:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/940164\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T14:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T14:52:10","slug":"oura-adds-new-fitness-metrics-to-show-how-workouts-impact-your-body","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/940164\/","title":{"rendered":"Oura adds new fitness metrics to show how workouts impact your body"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"speakable-summary\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As competition in the smart ring market <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/09\/05\/oura-is-going-public-but-these-smart-ring-companies-are-coming-for-its-crown\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">escalates<\/a>, Oura is introducing two new features to give people more insight into their workouts and how they impact their bodies. The company announced on Tuesday it\u2019s rolling out Cardio Effort and VO\u2082 max metrics to expand workout tracking beyond exercise duration and heart rate zones.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While Oura has largely dominated the smart ring market for years, rivals like RingConn and Ultrahuman are emerging to dethrone it, putting pressure on the company to keep innovating. By launching more advanced workout metrics, Oura is looking to differentiate itself from competitors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With Cardio Effort, users will be able to see how much a workout taxes their cardiovascular system. This measurement is aggregated over the week relative to each user\u2019s individual baseline to provide more insights. Oura explained that this metric shifts users\u2019 focus from \u201cHow many minutes did I move?\u201d to \u201cAm I maintaining my fitness, building it, or overdoing it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since Cardio Effort accounts for both intensity and duration, a shorter, more intense workout can yield a similar score to a longer, less intense one, the company says. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"680\" width=\"544\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/H6CTtIaw.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3179151\"  \/>Image Credits:Oura \/<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Oura notes that the metric has two components: Workout Cardio Effort and Weekly Cardio Effort. The first metric evaluates the impact of an individual workout, while the latter aggregates effort into a weekly total, categorized as \u201cLight,\u201d \u201cFair,\u201d \u201cMaintaining,\u201d \u201cBuilding,\u201d or \u201cReaching.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Oura measures elevated heart rate relative to each member\u2019s long-term resting heart rate, avoiding the variability associated with maximum-heart-rate estimates. Weekly effort levels are then determined using personalized ranges based on recent activity patterns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cardio Effort is rolling out to Oura Ring Gen3 and later models.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As for VO\u2082 max, the metric shows how workouts contribute to long-term fitness. It measures how effectively the heart, lungs, and muscles work together to deliver and use oxygen during exercise. Previously, measuring VO\u2082 max typically required a lab test or a six-minute walking test. Oura can now estimate it passively using GPS-enabled workouts.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"680\" width=\"544\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Automatic-VO\u2082-Max_Cover.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3179154\"  \/>Image Credits:Oura \/<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After completing five qualifying activities, users receive an initial VO2 Max estimate. Within the My Health Heart Hub, they can view their current VO2 Max estimate in ml\/kg\/min, their fitness category (Low, Fair, High, or Peak), how their estimate has changed over time, and when it was last updated. Users also receive insights highlighting meaningful changes in their VO2 Max or indicating when their estimate remains consistent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">VO\u2082 Max is launching in Oura Labs, the company\u2019s hub for experimental features, for members with Gen3 and newer Oura Ring devices. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Oura says these two new features are designed to work together to show users how hard they\u2019re working and how that effort is adding up over time. <\/p>\n<p>When you purchase through links in our articles, <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/techcrunch-affiliate-monetization-standards\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As competition in the smart ring market escalates, Oura is introducing two new features to give people more&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":940165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[49,48,407,84,72412],"class_list":["post-940164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fitness","tag-health","tag-oura"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=940164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/940165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=940164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=940164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=940164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}