Oura learns to count effort - and to guess VO2 max passively

Oura via TechCrunch · Announcement

Oura is rolling out two activity features for Gen3 and newer rings. Cardio Effort scores each workout and a weekly total - Light, Fair, Maintaining, Building or Reaching - from how long heart rate stays elevated relative to the wearer’s long-term resting heart rate, shifting the question from minutes moved to whether fitness is being maintained, built or overdone. Its VO2 max estimate, previously a six-minute walking test, is now calculated passively from GPS workouts after five qualifying activities - but only inside Oura Labs, the company’s hub for experimental features.

Key takeaways:

• VO2 max is among the strongest single predictors of long-term health in this library’s evidence base, and passive estimation removes the test friction that kept most wearers from ever measuring it
• The placement is the tell: Cardio Effort ships as a full feature, while passive VO2 max sits in Labs - Oura’s own signal that the estimate is not yet settled
• No peer-reviewed validation of Oura’s specific scores accompanies the launch; a ring estimate is a trend to track in yourself, not a laboratory measurement

Hype check: Proven - VO2 max as a health predictor and training-load scoring as established frameworks. Promising - passive, GPS-based VO2 max estimation from a ring. Marketing - any reading of the Labs estimate as equivalent to a laboratory VO2 max test; Oura has published no validation for it.