@PaleGail I see the Oura as more of a sleep tracker. It tracks temp, HR, HR variability, sleep cycles, and steps during the day, but no activity/exercise or HR during exercise. So I take the ring off when I workout and it could even be off during the day. You enter activities manually and it estimates calories burnt (I don’t use that feature). It also estimates your “readiness”. There are no membership costs.
@dfriestedt just got the Whoop and he likes it. It has same sleep data as the Oura, plus integrated activity- so you wear the band during exercise and it tracks your “strain” and recovery. Then, based on all your personal data, it makes recommendations for sleep and recovery. Although it tracks your HR all day, I don’t think it can be used as a HR monitor such as a Garmin or Wahoo chest strap. Whoop has a $30/mo membership cost.
None of these are meant to be like the fitness wearables such as the Garmin watch.
Thanks @Coach_Theia that’s helpful. I’m thinking of it to augment not replace anything I have now. I use the Tickr for on the bike and i have a Garmin Vivoactive watch - but neither gives me recovery information or HRV. I don’t think the garmin watch is as good iwth HR either - my avg for the Tues night race was 150 with a max of 160 and the garmin didn’t even register any intensity minutes or give me any training effect in the app for the activity
@Coach_Theia & @PaleGail - I’m only in my first week but there is a new integration with Strava where workouts will flow into Google Fit (I’m Android) which will update the Oura app with activity/calorie/HR data. I keep my ring on during workouts and don’t even notice it. I need to dive into the data more as to its impact on the overall Readiness. After the partial Uber ride, workouts, and Duathlon racing, I’m on my second day off, but I’m also relying on feel - HR and soreness - and I need a kick in the pants to get more sleep.
I’ve been trying to get better at ‘micro moving’ during the day, so I want it to track and prompt me. I hope I find a better use for my Garmin Fenix 5s, as the OHR is garbage and the GPS not suddenly is not accurate for hiking. At least it synchs messages with my phone.
@adm0629 this is helpful!!! I just want something to help keep track of my recovery, HRV, etc since my garmin watch is crap at it - which seems like your experience as well - i was originally leaning towards whoop but now I’m thinking oura - i don’t care about the online community with whoop which oura doesn’t have - unless @dfriestedt has some other feedback to sway me, i might go oura
@PaleGail - Yes! It’s not ideal but requires a manual step. If you set up Google Fit and connect both apps of Oura and Strava, it acts as a pass-through. For Zwift workouts, I have to refile each workout in Strava to kick off the transfer. I use the Edit function, then just Save. All other workouts, I always change the title so the Save I do after naming the workout initiates the transfer.
-Angie
OMG @adm0629 thank you! This totally fixed it! Why couldn’t the Strava explanation say it this way? I’ve just been refreshing my feed and obviously that doesn’t work. My Oura finally thinks I actually do something other than sit around on my a$$
Absolutely! I read that directive, too, and kept testing the Strava piece of it, little by little. Occasionally, scrolling through the You feed would work, or scrolling through the individual activity would work, but the refile option works every time, so far! Of course, I can’t get Oura to follow back to Fit reliably to update my sleep, but I never look at Fit, anyway - just looks like I go daaayyys without sleep, is all!
-Angie
@kellynoelharman I’m not @Coach_Theia but i really like mine so far!! I’m still working on getting it to talk to google fit - it looks like it finally caught up - i saw something while getting your ‘new’ phone set up that i have to open both apps everyday and i think leave them open (@adm0629 this might be the issue you were running into)
Like today it told me that yesterday’s activities were challenging my readiness (although it does boost future performance) and the skipping the gym today can make me stronger - so i am not feeling guilty about only doing one pure barre workout and no bike today
I like the Oura because it gives some insights of what is going on “under the hood” of the machine, if you will. Over time, the ring learns your patterns and you learn what has a positive/neutral/negative impact on how you feel, perform, and recover.
Now I want to learn how to sync the activities like @adm0629 and @PaleGail do. Right now I enter everything manually.
@kellynoelharman make sure to ‘open’ both the google fit and oura apps daily if you are trying to sync between the two - i have to ‘save’ my strava so it gets picked up by google fit and then goes into oura - while its a little tedious and can be annoying it also gives my slight OCD tendencies a chance to feel complete
My Oura is never happy with my “activity balance”. I don’t know what the software bases it on, because even when all other measurements show recovery, the Oura thinks I am doing too much and that is slightly irritating
@adm0629@kellynoelharman@Coach_Theia if you’re syncing your activities from strava to google fit, there’s a known issue since the 24th. No update on when strava will fix it though. It’s been making me crazy all week and I finally found the support notice last night so now crazy has gone to be just a little annoyed until it’s fixed
Absolutely! I read that directive, too, and kept testing the Strava piece of it, little by little. Occasionally, scrolling through the You feed would work, or scrolling through the individual activity would work, but the refile option works every time, so far! 
Of course, I can’t get Oura to follow back to Fit reliably to update my sleep, but I never look at Fit, anyway - just looks like I go daaayyys without sleep, is all! 
