Oura Adds Cardio Effort, VO2 Max to Fend Off Ring Rivals

Oura announced two new fitness metrics on Tuesday, Cardio Effort and VO2 max, as competition from RingConn and Ultrahuman narrows the gap in the smart ring market, according to TechCrunch.

What do Cardio Effort and VO2 max actually measure?

Cardio Effort scores how much a single workout taxes the cardiovascular system, then aggregates those scores across a week relative to a member's individual baseline, per Oura's Tuesday announcement cited by TechCrunch. VO2 max estimates how efficiently the heart, lungs and muscles deliver and use oxygen during exercise, expressed in milliliters per kilogram per minute (ml/kg/min). Oura frames the shift in plain terms: the goal is to move users from asking "How many minutes did I move?" to "Am I maintaining my fitness, building it, or overdoing it?" the company told TechCrunch.

How does Weekly Cardio Effort get calculated?

The metric has two layers, according to Oura's rollout notes relayed by TechCrunch. Workout Cardio Effort scores a single session. Weekly Cardio Effort sums that effort into five bands — Light, Fair, Maintaining, Building or Reaching. Oura calculates elevated heart rate against each member's long-term resting heart rate rather than a maximum-heart-rate estimate, then sets personalized weekly ranges based on recent activity patterns, TechCrunch reported. The design choice matters statistically: because the score blends intensity and duration, a short, hard session can land in the same band as a longer, easier one.

How does VO2 max estimation skip the lab test?

VO2 max traditionally required a lab test or a six-minute walking test to measure, per TechCrunch. Oura says it can now produce a passive estimate using GPS-enabled workouts alone. After five qualifying activities, a member gets an initial VO2 Max reading inside the My Health Heart Hub, sorted into four fitness categories — Low, Fair, High or Peak — with a running history of how the number has shifted over time, TechCrunch reported.

The numbers, by the dataset

• Five qualifying GPS workouts trigger the first VO2 Max estimate (TechCrunch, Oct. 20, 2026, citing Oura).
• VO2 Max is sorted into four tiers: Low, Fair, High, Peak (same source).
• Weekly Cardio Effort uses five bands: Light, Fair, Maintaining, Building, Reaching (same source).
• Both features require Oura Ring Gen3 or newer hardware (same source).

Which Oura Ring models get the features, and when?

Cardio Effort is rolling out now to Gen3 and later Oura Ring models, TechCrunch reported. VO2 Max is launching inside Oura Labs — the company's testing ground for experimental features — also limited to Gen3-and-newer devices. Oura says the two metrics are meant to work together: one tracks near-term exertion, the other tracks whether that exertion compounds into long-term fitness gains.

Why is Oura adding these metrics now?

TechCrunch frames the launch against a crowding market: Oura has led smart ring sales for years, but RingConn and Ultrahuman are closing in, pressuring Oura to keep differentiating on software rather than hardware alone. Cardio Effort and VO2 Max add two data points — a weekly effort band and an oxygen-efficiency score — to a tracking stack that previously leaned on exercise minutes and heart rate zones, according to the company's Tuesday announcement.

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