Tips for using Oura with F6

JackStanley said:

Thinking about getting an Oura for rest days where I can do sleep/calorie tracking.

Oura is not going to be effective for occasional use. It needs to establish a baseline of YOUR data norms and can then identify deviations from those norms as time goes on. At the very least you should wear it every night, but preferably 24x7 for the best holistic view. For odd days/nights here and there it would be worthless, IMHO.

As for integration with other systems, only Google Fit on Android, and I assume Apple Health or whatever it's called on the dark side. Maybe data can interface via those systems, but there are no other direct connections that I'm aware of.

In my opinion you should stick with the F6 and forget the Oura.

P.s. - and while you're wearing the Oura Ring instead of the F6 you're also starving the F6 of stress/recovery/sleep/body battery data that it needs in order to do the best job that it can. It's really a lose-lose option.

Hi, I am already syncing this way, but the activity data from Garmin doesn't make it to Oura. Any idea why? Do you have a paid Strava account? Thanks!

I do have Strava premium, but I don't think that matters. However, there are some strange hoops to jump through in order to have the data sync across.

Once your activity is in Strava you need to edit and save it in the mobile app. You don't need to make changes, just open it to edit and save with or without changes. 

Then you need to open the Strava feed in the app for YOUR activities only and swipe down to refresh the list. 

Then open the Google Fit app and switch between Home /Journal /Home screens to make sure the activity is in Google Fit. If not then try edit, save and refresh again in Strava. 

Once the activity is in Google Fit you can then check in the Oura app to make sure it is there. Oura needs to sync with the ring in order to pull in the data, even though the ring itself really should have nothing to do with importing activities. If the ring isn't syncing you need to retry until it does. 

I don't know if it is all necessary nowadays, but it certainly used to be and it's what I continue to do

Haha, that sounds totally straight forward! Thanks a lot! It worked for fit at least. I guess it doesn't work days later for Oura. So a new activity is needed!

I think Oura will only sync the current day, no historic stuff.

I have been using the Oura + my Fenix 6 Pro Solar for 6 months now in parallel.

The main advantages of the Oura are:

(1) that it gives me a better view over time of my nightly average HRV. You can view your trends online and set custom intervals etc at https://cloud.ouraring.com/trends

I feel that the "Body Battery" on my Fenix is good to get a quick "did I sleep enough tonight" status, where the Oura is great for progress over a longer period. Also, the Body Battery can only be shown as daily, calendar weeks or month progress, and I find it is very hard to actually get some over time value from Body Battery. The Oura average nightly HRV is so much better.

(2) It allows my app HRV4Training to read HRV from Oura

If you have ever tried taking your morning HRV values go get a "readyness" HRV score, try this experiment: Do at least 2 takes after each other every morning. You will see that these three scores differ with at least 50% (I have tried this even using my Garmin HR-Pro). The reason is that you have more stress when you have just woken up, and in some people it also differs if you lie down, sit up or stand up. The only way to get a reasonably stable HRV is to measure an average every morning, and that is where the Oura shines.

The app HRV4Training reads the average nightly HRV directly from the Oura cloud, and also reads your workout intensity from Strava, then builds a base line profile for you based on your training and recovery.

In my experience, HRV4Training + Oura is fantastic for measuring recovery over time, where the Fenix 6 Pro is a good measure if I got enough sleep. They complement each other very well.

I don't wear my Oura daily, only while sleeping. I use my readyness score from HRV4Training instead which is much more accurate since it is workout and pulse based.

Oura Ring 3 was announced yesterday, adding full 24 hour monitoring, including activities, and SPO2. Pulse and HRV accuracy is claimed to be very high, with new and additional sensors.

There is also now a monthly subscription plan for new customers. However, existing customers can be grandfathered in to a subscription free service for life when updating to the new ring.

Anyone purchasing an Oura Ring 2 within 60 days (I think) of the announcement can exchange their ring for the new model at no cost. For long term owners like me there is a $50 discount, but you still have to buy the new ring.

Despite my comments at the beginning of this topic that I would not replace my ring when it dies I have decided to go ahead and purchase the new ring. The additional features appeal to me - accurate all day heart rate and HRV have a lot of appeal - and I would far rather enjoy subscription free "for life" (or until the Ring 3 dies).

My Ring 2 is still going well so far, so I'm confident in the product and willing to keep going with the Oura platform features. I maintain that I would not bother to buy a second Ring 2 if this one had died , but the new Ring 3 and subscription avoidance have drawn me in.

Agree, with this 100%.  My Gen 3 order is in!

I agree with Nick's approach. I want to wear a ring to sleep at night, bc my big Epix watch is big and the light off the watch can be annoying at night. So I want a small ring to track sleep patterns. AND I want that data to feed into Garmin for body battery and trianing readiness. 

I don't know that Oura data is better than Garmin. I actually think the other way around. But it's a device form factor issue...the ring is so much easier and nice at night. 

So, I wish that I could import Oura data into Garmin OR that Garmin would come out with a ring. (ps. No, the Vivosmart is not an acceptable answer. It, too, is annoying and distracting to wear at night.)