Oura is giving its smart rings a big cardiovascular health upgrade

The Oura smart ring lineup can track your health in multiple ways, including sleep quality and a range of cardiovascular metrics. Oura is now expanding its long list of health-related tools by adding Cardio Effort and automatic VO2 Max.

Oura defines Cardio Effort as a “physiological load metric” designed to track cardiovascular strain, the company said in a blog post. At its core, it calculates cardiac stress by factoring in the intensity and duration of your workout.

The smart ring maker said Cardio Effort measures “the specific strain” of your movement whenever you start a workout, manually add one, or when the Oura Ring detects a workout.

Cardio Effort builds over time, starting at zero at the beginning of the week and tallying your daily workouts into a weekly total. However, unlocking your personalized baseline can take up to two weeks of wearing an Oura Ring.

When calibrated, Oura will go through your weekly effort and compare it with the baseline to categorize it under one of the five “bands,” namely Light, Fair, Maintaining, Building, and Reaching.

Light refers to significantly lower cardiovascular strain compared to your regular baseline, whereas Fair is classified as some additional strain, but still much lower than the regular baseline range.

While Maintaining corresponds to staying consistent with your baseline, Building is when you go beyond your typical baseline, but within a “manageable range,” Oura says. Lastly, Reaching means your cardiovascular strain is significantly higher than your baseline and may signal that recovery is the next step.

Oura clarifies that staying within the Maintaining range is perfectly acceptable, adding that users who repeatedly enter the Reaching range will get a “clear signal” not to push as hard and to focus more on recovery.

While Oura smart rings support VO2 Max readings, currently known as Cardio Capacity, the tracking is somewhat cumbersome because it requires a six-minute walking test.

Enter: automatic VO2 Max, which takes your oxygen uptake measurements without requiring a walking test. Instead, the manufacturer says your smart ring will passively capture VO2 Max after you complete five GPS-based workouts, which could include runs, walks, or hikes.

This feature will be available in Oura Labs for Ring Gen 3 and newer models, and Oura will also drop the Cardio Capacity label and call it VO2 Max. These are key upgrades to your Oura smart ring and should help it stand out in an increasingly competitive market.