I’ve tested some of the best fitness rings on the market as I run and strength train. Here are my favorites.
Smartwatches may be all the rage, but there’s a sneaky wearable competitor that is making a splash in 2024: The fitness ring. It’s a part of the new wave of smart rings that can discreetly track your health data.
Fitness rings are a more subtle and lightweight form of wellness tracking. Thanks to built-in sensors that measure things like heart rate and blood oxygen levels, fitness rings enable users to track their health and improve their fitness without needing to open their phone or — in some cases — to wait solely on medical test results. Plus, instead of presenting a screen interface, fitness rings connect via a smartphone app, making for a more distraction-free approach to health and technology. So why should you trust me? I’ve been using three different fitness rings as I train for my first-ever half marathon, so the rings I list below have been tested on many runs, walks, and cross-training days.
Our pick for best fitness ring overall is the ever-popular Oura Ring Gen 3 Horizon, thanks to its comprehensive health suite, ease of wear, nice material, and battery life. With Samsung’s Galaxy Ring recently being revealed and many other companies throwing their hats in ring (pun intended) to ride the smart ring wave, we’ll continue to test out all of the new fitness rings on the market, and will update this list with buying advice. Read on to find out how all of the leading fitness ring options on the market compare to choose the best fitness ring for you.
Oura Ring Gen 3 Horizon Best fitness ring overall
Oura Ring Gen 3 Horizon specs: Sizing: 6-13 | Material: Durable titanium and PVD coating | Colors: Silver, black, stealth, gold, rose gold | Water resistance: Up to 328 feet | Sensors: Heart rate, blood oxygen, PPG, skin temperature, 3D accelerometer | Connectivity: Bluetooth Low-Energy, Airplane Mode | Battery: Up to seven days
The Oura Ring is one of the most popular fitness rings on the market, offering four different color options and various sizes to choose from. I’ve been wearing the Horizon Oura Ring for about a month as I train for a half marathon, and I’m more than happy with its fitness features. You can record your workout heart rate on the app, and view your activity score, your inactive time, and calories burned. And then the next day, you get a glance at your recovery scores to see how you bounced back from your intense workout. As it gets to know you, it can detect which activities you perform, whether that’s running, walking, pickleball or tennis playing.
The ring is known for its exceptional sleep tracking. It provides insightful data that surpasses what you would receive from a Fitbit or the best smart rings. For instance, it displays your HRV balance, temperature changes during sleep (which can be used to predict menstrual cycles), blood oxygen levels, and the duration of each sleep stage.
In addition to its impressive sleep tracking, the Oura Ring excels in activity tracking. It monitors your steps, calories burned (including active calories), heart rate during exercise, and training volume. One new feature that separates Oura from other fitness rings is its resilience feature, which measures how well you bounce back from stress. Another fun Oura feature that runners will love is the ability to sync your Strava data to Oura and vice versa. When you record a run on the running app, it will immediately import into the Oura app. This is a life saver for me, an avid runner, who sometimes forgets to start recording on one app before my run.
Review: Is the Oura Ring worth buying in 2024?
Ultrahuman Ring Air Best ring for fitness data fans
Ultrahuman Ring Air specs: Sizing: 5-14 | Material: Titanium coated with Tungsten Carbide Carbon | Colors: Matte grey, Aster black, space silver, bionic gold | Water resistance: Up to 330 feet | Sensors: Infrared Photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor, Non-contact medical-grade skin temperature sensor, 6-axis motion sensors, Red LEDs (heart rate monitoring and oxygen saturation) Green LEDs (heart rate monitoring) Infrared LEDs (heart rate monitoring) | Connectivity: Bluetooth Low-Energy | Battery: Up to six days
I can confirm that anybody who cares about their fitness routine and optimizing every aspect of their workout and recovery game will find the Ultrahuman Ring Air extremely helpful. The ring monitors all the good stuff: activity, sleep, and recovery. Plus, it prioritizes comfort and a sleek build that doesn’t tarnish easily or interfere with the rote tasks of your day, like carrying heavy bags, washing hands and dishes, and showering.
What’s cool about the Ultrahuman Ring Air is the notifications you get during or after your activity. For example, I went on a run with this ring one morning, and after my workout was complete it notified me to delay any caffeine for around an hour to allow the adenosine I built up from my run to flush out of my system. Later in the day, it reminded me to stretch my legs to recover from the morning’s run and relieve tension.
You can also document your diet, while the ring’s app offers you AI insights into the health information behind each food you’re eating. Some of the data becomes excessive, but I can imagine that anyone who is all-in on optimizing their lifestyle for marathon training or some other fitness goal will find the information Ultrahuman offers useful.
