“Health is like a vegetable garden; it has to be cultivated.”
Julien Allaire.
Hello, young Padawan
Health is one of those things we think we’ve acquired until we realize we no longer have it.
Those familiar with the movie reference in the title might have expected a discussion about “Lord of the Rings” today. I’d like to say “almost!” because today’s article is about my precious: a connected ring I acquired a few months ago.
So, while we won’t be discussing Gandalf, Arwen, or Boromir, but we might still channel a bit of Gollum!
So, what is this about? You know Apple Watches, right? Well, I got one back in 2015 but sold it a few months later. While I loved tracking my health data and sports stats, the idea of not wearing a “real” watch was more appealing to me.
Sure, tech companies like Apple and other smart watch manufacturers want to cling to our wrists, but someone should tell them that many of their gadgets are as appealing as lice.
They don’t match well with clothing styles—in short, they can be quite unattractive. By coincidence, while doing my Pilates after a boxing session, I noticed a connected ring that my instructor was wearing. It functions like a watch or bracelet but is much more discreet, and allowing me to keep my traditional watch! Eureka!
The Fellowship of the Ring in a wellness version, with the Oura Ring.
So it’s a waterproof ring, to be worn 7/7 days, 24/24 hours or almost since it needs to be recharged a bit from time to time, we’ll come back to that, and which records a whole bunch of data on your health and your movements. Sleep data, its specialty, but also heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV, and average HRV), respiratory rate, body temperature, stress level, and physical activity, which it detects on its own, such as household chores, dancing, walking, and therefore the number of steps taken …
It can be ordered on the Oura brand website. They first sent us a set of plastic rings of several diameters so that we could try them on and choose the right size. I insist on this point; I know an impatient guy who chose directly without trying and had to return it to change size. Indeed, at night, in particular, our fingers can sometimes swell a little. So, it is essential to go through this step and wear the plastic ring all day and all night. Then, just go back to the site to enter the number corresponding to our size, and we receive it quickly: 24 hours for the ring sizes and 48 hours for the Oura Ring, my experience. In short, it’s done in a week at the latest.
The ring notes all of our activities by itself, and when it is not sure, the device asks you to confirm, and you just have to click to approve or modify through the app. We can also add an activity (tag) if it has not been detected or if it has confused. For example, in the beginning, it confused reading with napping, as my reading sessions are so relaxing, obviously, lol. Since then, it knows that I am not a fan of napping and suggests the reading activity when my heart rate slows down over a certain period. If I don’t move for a while, it yells at me (joke!), no, it puts a little notification on my phone, suggesting that I go and stretch my legs, which is nice when you spend time behind a computer, for example. As for the pedometer, we can let the ring choose the optimal number of steps, or challenge itself by increasing the pace.
You also receive a little notification that it’s time to relax before going to bed, when it has calculated and understood your sleep cycles, biological clock and phototype. For example, I am a simple evening person, that is to say that I am more of an evening person, but not a night owl in the Michou cabaret owner mode who goes to bed at 6 a.m. So, I receive a notification about two hours before my optimal bedtime, inviting me to stay calm and relaxed to release my hormones, reduce my stress, and achieve an optimal night’s sleep.
It also gives us our cardiovascular age, which is an overall assessment of our heart rate variations between rest, during and after physical exertion, age, weight, height, etc. Thanks to the Oura monitoring, I gained a year of cardiovascular age in a few months! It also gives us our cardio capacity, corresponding to how our heart goes down after exercise.
It gives us our readiness rate, which is the analysis between the quality of our sleep, our activity, our stress and our lifestyle habits, but also our activity rate compared to what is expected for our personal data of age, weight, etc., and finally our information on our menstrual cycle, if applicable.
The ring also informs us about our level of resilience to stress. Being a (very) resilient person, I didn’t think I could improve on this point. In terms of resilience, I went from the middle of the “Strong” level, in the middle of overwork, to the beginning of the “exceptional” level. And I intend to rock this level, right at the top, in the coming months, lol.
A new feature we have only had since January: it detects, based on abnormal variations in temperature and our HRV, whether we are about to get sick with a cold or flu, for example.
Sleep, the specialty of the Oura Ring.
Every morning, after a night of recording body data, the ring gives us an accurate assessment of our night’s sleep: Total sleep, its efficiency, REM sleep time, deep sleep, latency, rhythm, regularity of our breathing, variation in our blood oxygen level, our lowest heart rate, etc.
The ring gives interpretation information on this sleep data for those unfamiliar with it but also advises us to put it in place if we want to improve it.
So, after a period of significant overwork and thanks to the data from the ring and the advice offered by the app, I went from satisfactory sleep + (which is just above “caution”, the lowest level, knowing that there are several levels in each level, editor’s note) to the lowest level of optimal, which is the highest level. Clearly, in addition to the data, I feel the effects on my body, I who have a great need for quality sleep since I was always a good sleeper before my period of overwork, and I have really gained in comfort of life, in resilience, and in energy. Obviously, I want to add!
Sustainability.
Of course, I’ve only been using it for a few months, but I haven’t spared it. It’s been skiing, swimming, boxing (sweating, hot gloves), pilates, it’s done all the household chores with me (I should point out that I wear gloves when I use household products to protect my hands, editor’s note), it’s been in my bathtub, in my shower, it’s done the dishes, and the only times I take it off is to charge it or when I handle food in the kitchen or when I apply my cosmetics, for hygiene reasons and to avoid greasing the ring. To date, it only has a few micro surface scratches, nothing visible when wearing it; you really have to have your nose on it and good eyesight.
It is noted that the battery lasts several days. Still, it is recommended to charge the ring once a day for a quarter of an hour to maintain the battery’s health, which I do while taking my morning shower. I wash it with soap and water every day on this occasion before charging it.
There is nothing more to say about the battery for these few months of testing. However, I searched through some articles and YouTube videos, and everyone says it holds the battery well over time. I forgot the charger on a weekend, and it worked the whole time without failing.
The negative points.
The application is under paid subscription, which can put some people off. That is to say that you buy your ring, and then you have to pay a few bucks per month to access the analyses of your application, which works on the Apple or Android ecosystem. You get a discount if you take it for the year, which is what I do.
So this is a negative point, yes and no. If there were no subscriptions, either the Oura ring would be more expensive, or there would be less progress and new features offered (like the sick warning information that appeared in January, ed), or your personal data would be resold because we must never, ever forget that if a service is free, YOU are the product. Paying the price of a coffee on a terrace per month so that my personal data remains strictly confidential, so that new updates are made, so that new features are offered, and so that future rings and analyses that are even more powerful, efficient, and precise are developed by Oura engineers, and that everyone is paid correctly and in Europe, my choice was obvious.
You must not forget your little charger when you go on a trip, otherwise, you’re stuck. No tech store sells this adapter. Whereas if you forget your Apple Watch or your Samsung whatch, you just have to go to a Target.
Conclusions.
You must have seen it throughout the proposed analyses, but we quickly get caught up in the game to reach our activity goals, and not only that. When I come home from my day and I receive a notification informing me that I only have a few small steps left to reach my goal, there I go for a mini walk outside, like going out by the other exit of my parking lot, which extends my time by five minutes, going to the mail, in short, taking steps that I would never have taken without my little toy. This is the key, we want to play, to reach our goals, to complete the loops.
Likewise, when she tells us to relax because we are entering the pre-sleep phase, I put down my computer and turn off my phone, sit down with my herbal tea, and take my book or start a quiet little chat.
With the new option since January that informs us if we are incubating a cold or flu, we receive a notification inviting us to take it easy, as well as a reduction in the number of steps to take per day. This way, the body can concentrate on fighting the nasty microbe without being overstimulated.
We can also see how our body reacts to alcohol. And it clearly makes us want to drink less. Increased heart rate, decreased quality of sleep, I don’t know about others, but for me, it’s not good!
No screen. Unlike an Apple or Samsung watch, if your phone is in another room, your ring remains inert and does not send you any sound or vibration. You can even choose not to have notifications from the application and go and consult your data, when and if you want. You can go for a walk with just your ring, it will record your data and synchronize with your smartphone when the two are close again.
So you are neither polluted by a thing that lights up permanently and will make you waste your precious time, nor by notifications from your smartphone on your connected object, like when your connected watch starts to beep or vibrate when you receive an email, text message, call, or any other notification from any other application that you have not turned off such as Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp, etc. Long live freedom with a ring that never bothers you, and does not add yet another screen.
This ring encourages us to take care of ourselves in this world of all productivity, but also of enjoyment and entertainment at all costs, to move when we are too sedentary, to take it easy in case of cold or fatigue, we can also pause it if we feel a need for rest without altering our statistics, it adapts to our life without it ever being the other way around, and makes us healthier. Do I recommend it? Of course, I do! For everyone, regardless of age, job, gender, physical abilities, or overall health, there is always room for improvement. Always.
In short, you will have understood that with or without a ring, with or without a watch or bracelet, the main thing is to learn to know and listen to yourself, but for real. Not to lie to yourself by telling yourself little stories to justify an ass sitting on a sofa and not to push yourself beyond your limits. The happy medium, the poison is the dose, all that.
All that remains for me is to wish you a great weekend, and I’ll see you next Friday!
XO 💍
