An important part of training is rest and recovery, but even with a personalized, periodized plan, how can you tell if any one run, cross training or strength training day should be an effort session, an easy day or even a day off?
This was a question I started asking a couple of years ago as I increased my training volume and race goals (more than one marathon a year and move to ultra running). Burning the candle at both ends and training in some form every day, I felt tired, wasn’t sleeping well, and started not enjoying running.
I wanted to feel better and get more out of my training, so started looking for a way to quantify how ready I was for exercise. My research led me to the Oura ring, primarily a sleep tracker that also provided readiness and activity scores/recommendations.
I’ve had my Oura ring for over a year now. Has it been of benefit and would I recommend it?
What is an Oura ring?
The Oura ring is a sleep tracking device, that is a bit larger than a wedding ring
It contains red PPG sensors that measure respiratory rate, heart rate variability, and heart rate and an NTG sensor to measure body temperature. An accelerometer and gyroscope track activity.
But why track sleep? Sleep is important as it time when your body recovers and repairs itself. Sleep is crucial to health and productivity, increasing energy and reducing stress. 
Worn either at night or 24 hours a day the ring provides daily sleep, readiness, and activity scores. Sleep scores are based on ring data collected overnight, and readiness scores on daily readings, as well as recent activity and sleep patterns.
The activity score is based on movement detected by the accelerometer and gyroscope in the ring. It then uses your profile information to calculate Metabolic Equivalents, logging them if any activity exceeds 1.5 MET’s. Sounds good, however there are some caveats (see the cons below).
How accurate is the ring?
Obviously if you are concerned about your sleep you need a full evaluation at a sleep lab. If your interest is improving your sleep the Oura ring has been validated in studies including The Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine, The Finnish Occupational Health Institute, and The University of Oulu. It should be noted that there are a number of sleep trackers on the market, and they all vary in the amount and accuracy of data they provide.
How much does it cost? What’s the battery life?
Currently the ring costs $300, $1000 if you want a diamond version. Battery life is around five days and it takes a couple of hours to fully charge from 25%.
Pros
- It has increase my awareness of how my sleep is and has allowed me to take action to improve both my sleep and running performance.
- The readiness score gives a quick insight as to my current status and if I need to review my daily plan.
- All data points can be analyzed down to the day level either on the app, or through the Oura Cloud.
- It’s a ring and is comfortable to wear and goes a week between charges
- There’s no membership fee.
Cons
- As activity is tracked using an accelerometer and gyroscope you may not get appropriate credit for activities like yoga and strength training where there is little hand movement. Oura acknowledge this and advises users to either import activities from Apple Health or Google Fit, and to wear the ring on the dominant hand.
- During the day, activity and heart rate are recorded periodically not continuously, which can be an issue if you are doing an activity such as a HIIT workout, running intervals, or strength training as your effort may not be fully counted.
- Readiness information provided is not easily actionable.
- If you use a second tracking device (Apple Watch and Garmin in my case) you can end up having activities counted multiple times. Apple health syncs activities and each time it does so it sends a copy to the Oura ring. There’s no way to edit this data and delete duplicates.
- The ring is made of titanium and fairly robust, however it scuffs easily and can get in the way during activities like lifting or doing pull ups.
Do I recommend the Oura Ring?
Before getting any tracker you need to be very clear about your goals if your interest is just in tracking your workouts then you would be better off with an Apple Watch, Fitbit or Garmin. However, if you are looking to address your sleep and use findings to improve your training then the Oura might be for you.
I find the sleep score and information extremely valuable. While individual sleep stages might not be 100% accurate I have found trends over time. Caffeine in the afternoon or alcohol at night decreases my sleep efficiency (time asleep and restlessness) and increases latency (time to fall asleep). Turning off electronic devices a couple of hours prior to going to bed results in better deep sleep and feelIng more refreshed the next day.
Temperature data is also proving useful during the COVID pandemic. Multiple ring users have reported that they saw temperature increases a few days before they felt physically ill and tested positive for the virus.
In getting the Oura ring I was hoping that in addition to improving my sleep, the readiness score would provide me 
with data that would be actionable. This has turned out not to be the case. Wearers are provided with a daily readiness score but it’s not straightforward to determine what contributes to the score.
In the screenshot to the left I get a score of 74, reported as good, yet the contributing factors tell me to go easy as my resting heart rate is increased and heart rate variability is decreased.
As it’s also advising me to pay attention to my activity I have a hard time making that data gel with “good”. Activity balance and recovery time also do not provide sufficient information as to what resulted in a given low score (overall activity or one particular activity).
Finally, some days I feel great and get a low score, other days I feel tired you have a high score. Add to that when I’m training for a marathon or an ultra I need to do back to back long runs when my legs are fatigued. With accumulated fatigue I really need to be able to see how training is affecting me during the day, and if the timing, intensity and type of exercise can be adjusted to maximize performance.
Do I recommend the Oura… Yes for tracking sleep. For recording activities I’d recommend an activity tracker such as an Apple Watch or Garmin. As a runner there is always the risk of over training so readiness is something that’s very important to me. Devices like Garmin trackers provide a lot of information, however as with the Oura, they provide an overall daily picture. I’m looking for something more specific that will give me an idea of the stress I’m putting on my body as I move through the day. For this reason I’m just about to try a device that is very polarizing – the Whoop tracker, the main goal of which is to let wearers (primarily athletes) know if they should increase load (strain) or take it easier (recover).