cardiovascular health

Oura's smart ring learns two new tricks for measuring how hard your heart works

Oura's smart ring just picked up two new cardiovascular tricks, and honestly, it's about time someone asked what your heart is *doing* during a workout, not just how fast you went. Cardio Effort measures how hard your cardiovascular system actually worked, which is a much more interesting number than calories burned or mile splits. The automatic VO2 Max tracking, previously called Cardio Capacity, returns as well, now baked into the Gen 3 and later rings for anyone with an active membership. This is the kind of granular data that makes you wonder why we spent so long staring at pace charts. If you're also curious about surfaces that measure you back, check out our coverage of Wyze's new scale, which uses conductive glass so your feet can land anywhere.