Move over Fitbits and Apple Watches: there’s a smaller, newer model in town.
Meet the health tracker ring - everything you know and love about health tracking watches but in smaller, succinct packages that slide seamlessly onto your wrist and keep a handy eye on your health.
Perfect for anyone who hates the feeling of watches but still wants to keep an eye on their health metrics, the health tracker ring comes with all of the perks but takes up less of the space. While there may be far fewer of them around than their watch counterparts, those that do exist are certainly rising up the popularity ranks.
Performance Physique Head Coach Arj Thiruchelvam shared his thoughts on fitness rings: "Devices such as the Oura have taken off because they are less intrusive and more aesthetically-pleasing than health tracker watches and their strengths lie in different areas. When the Appleton Institute Sleep Laboratory conducted a validation study, they found both Oura Ring G2 and Whoop 3.0 (which attaches around the wrist) out-performed Apple and Garmin for sleep accuracy, although the difference was minimal.
“A major claim right now is the ability to say how recovered you are (and therefore how hard you should train) and this is known as heart rate variability (HRV). Many fitness rings offer this feature but it’s important not to rely solely on one measure in Sports Science, but rather triangulate all of your information before making a conclusion. Too much data or reliance is dangerous when it’s either potentially inaccurate or poorly interpreted information.
“Some fitness rings, like the Oura Ring G2, have been validated against an ECG for its HRV measurements. I’ve witnessed great variation in methods to collect data and an inconsistent message from different technologies as to how this data should be interpreted. In order for this technology to be accurate, it really needs to be taking data for seven days while wearing up to 24 hours a day to form a reasonably reliable recommendation to training. Some fitness trackers use this data but in different ways and to varying degrees to estimate your level of recovery.
“I would consider buying one because they offer interesting insights into your fitness and health. Be aware the data may not be entirely accurate but it may support some of your decision making. Just don’t let it make all of your decisions for you and where possible, look at several points of data to make that decision.”
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Oura Ring Gen3
The Oura Ring Gen3 was arguably the fitness tracker ring to put fitness tracker rings on the map. The most stylish wearable on the market, it comes jam-packed with features, accuracy, and innovation to help you streamline your health directly from your fingertips.
Monitoring your sleep, activity, recovery, temperature, heart rate, stress, and more, the Oura ring has a seven day battery life and is water-resistant, lightweight and durable. It scores your sleep, can tell if you’re experiencing any breathing disturbances and gives personalized recommendations for when to start winding down, so that you can maximize each night’s sleep.
Buy now £12.00, Oura
Go2Sleep Ring
The Go2Sleep Ring is a health tracker ring for those looking to zoom in on the quality of their sleep specifically. While it tracks general health data, it shines when it comes to tracking your overnight progress. This budget friendly tracker keeps note of Heart Rate, HRV & Blood Oxygen with minute by minute reports that allow you to keep a keen eye on your body’s going-ons. Each morning, check the ring’s app to see up to date information on exactly how you slept.
Buy now £72.85, Go2Sleep
Circular Ring
The Circular Ring is one of the newest additions to the health tracking industry and comes filled to the brim with a whole number of impressive tracking elements. Designed to help you understand and improve your sleep with simple and impactful insights, the Circular Ring analyses your body signals during your sleep to help you keep track of its efficiency while helping you to improve its quality.
As well as offering a sleep score and sleep metrics, it tracks your daily activities and fitness goals at any time as well as your overall wellness and energy with day and night advanced cross analyses.
Buy now £235.00, Circular
Motiv Ring Fitness, Sleep and Heart Rate Tracker
With its subtle design, comprehensive fitness tracking and app integration features, the Motiv Ring might just be the sleekest addition to the health tech world. A subtle design delivering smart functionality, this ring delivers tons of features in a small form with elegant, simple design.
A quick glance in the morning tells you your sleep patterns and your resting heart rate while its cardio tracker identifies when you’re benefiting your heart health. It’s also waterproof and durable, meaning you’ll never need to take it off throughout the day or night.
Buy now £85.98, Virgin Mega Store
BodiMetrics CIRCUL Sleep & Fitness Ring
The CIRCUL continuously tracks and records your blood oxygen and HR levels; records your exercise heart rate, steps and calories burned; and keeps an eye on your sleep SpO2, heart rate and sleep stages. It’s basically a Fitbit - or other wrist-based tracker - in ring form.
It can even alert you via your CIRCUL mobile app to your SpO2 levels, if you set them as part of your personal tracking. With its sleek lightweight but durable design and adjustable sizing, this is a health tracking watch that promises to keep a continually watchful eye over your health.
Buy now £163.25, Amazon
JAKCOM R5 Smart Ring
The JAKCOM R5 Smart Ring doesn’t just track your health but also works well as a tech-based sharing ring. A great choice for multi-taskers who want to track health metrics while also sharing documents and storing important things, the JAKCOM R5 Smart Ring really does do it all.
The health elements of this ring come in the form of its microcrystal zirconium fine ceramic coating, which forms an electromagnetic field around the whole body which, in short terms, aims to reduce things like disease, stress and fatigue from attacking the body.
Buy now £71.00, Jakcom
Verdict
There may be an ever-growing list of competitors but the Oura Ring is still our favourite health tracker ring so far.
