Can You Wear Oura Ring While Lifting Weights?
Oura Rings provides you with crucial insights into the fitness-related activities you do. However, most people who hit the gym have one common concern regarding the compatibility of Oura Rings. Recently, one of our readers inboxed us this question; can you wear Oura Ring while lifting weights? If you are one of those, this article is a must-read. Let’s start without further ado!
Can You Wear Oura Ring While Lifting Weights?
Well, wearing an Oura Ring while lifting weights is possible, but there are certain factors you should know to be on the safe side of things. Let us explain them in detail.
Risk of Damage
Oura Rings are durable and made using robust materials. That said, using an Oura Ring while lifting weights at the gym is a different kettle of fish altogether as weight lifting often involves heavy-duty tasks and equipment like dumbbells and kettlebells.
These gym items have the potential to cause damage to your precious Oura Ring. In addition, they can cause wear and tear that could wipe away the aesthetic value of your ring.
Additionally, the metal components of the weights can create friction and pressure against the ring. This can hamper your movement and eventually damage your fingers.
Accuracy of Readings
You wear Oura Ring while weight-lifting for one primary objective which is to get accurate readings while you are at it. However, there is a common misunderstanding most people have. The Oura Ring doesn’t necessarily track weight lifting activities such as load or pace.
Instead, it tracks health metrics such as heart rate, activity level, and temperature. So, wearing an Oura Ring during weight-lifting might not be as necessary and important one would think especially if your objective is to calculate metrics such as load or pace.
Moreover, due to high-intensity activities, there is a possibility of the accuracy of the readings getting compromised as well. All in all, although it is feasible to wear an Oura Ring for weight lifting, it is something that we don’t recommend for obvious reasons.
Safety Concerns
As we mentioned, wearing something on your fingers while lifting weights, always comes with the danger of injuries. One particular concern is ring avulsion, a severe injury where the ring gets caught between the finger and a heavy object. This can lead to finger injuries ranging from minor swelling to severe cases like degloving.
Related: How to Make Oura Ring Tighter?
How to Wear an Oura Ring Safely During Weight Lifting?
If you still want to have your Oura Ring on your fingers while weight lifting, we recommend following the below-mentioned safety tips.
Choose the Right Finger
Having the ring on the correct finger is always helpful. If possible, we recommend wearing it on a finger that has less possibility of getting contact with weights. Although this might not suit all our readers, it would be a good option to wear the ring on the pinky instead of the middle or index finger.
Use Gloves
Weight-lifting gloves are another simple yet effective method you can try to minimize the potential damage to the ring as well as your fingers. These gloves act as an additional layer of protection and provide a cushion between the ring and weights.
Removing scratches from an Oura Ring can be a painstaking task and you can minimize this risk by using a protective silicone cover for your ring. Other than the protective value, a silicone cover on an Oura Ring helps to maintain accurate readings as well, especially during weight lifting.
Change Your Grip
You can change the grip to avoid direct pressure on the ring for safety. Again, this is something you should do with care. For instance, you can grip the barbell or dumbbell with your fingers slightly spread to avoid compressing the ring against the weight.
Monitor Ring Condition
Regularly check your Oura Ring for signs of wear and tear. If you notice any damage, it is best to remove the ring during weightlifting sessions to prevent further harm.
After your workout, clean the Oura Ring to remove any sweat or debris. This helps maintain the ring’s sensors and overall hygiene.
What Types of Gym Activities Are Compatible With Oura Ring?
We think now you can understand that wearing an Oura Ring during weight-lifting might not be the wisest thing to do. Also, we can understand the next question that hits your mind as a gym enthusiast. Here are some gym activities that we label as safer options with an Oura ring on your finger.
Cardio Workouts
The Oura Ring tracks heart rate, steps, and calories burned, making it suitable for treadmill running and walking as such activities put literally no stress on the Oura Ring.
Cycling is something you can consider with an Oura Ring on. Although the ring doesn’t have a built-in GPS, it can monitor heart rate and overall activity level during indoor cycling sessions.
Low-Impact Exercises
Oura Ring can be an excellent choice for Yoga and pilates-related exercises as it has the ability to track heart rate, body temperature, and stress. In addition, you can use it for stretching and mobility-related gym activities without much of an issue.
Swimming
Although swimming is not a gym exercise, swimming is an activity that works well with Oura Rings. The Oura Ring is water-resistant, making it suitable for swimming workouts. However, note that it won’t track specific swimming metrics like stroke count or distance.
General Fitness Training
Activities such as push-ups, squats, and lunges can be tracked for heart rate and activity level, though the Oura Ring won’t provide detailed metrics like rep counting.
Conclusion
Finally, if you ask us whether it is a good idea to wear an Oura Ring while weight-lifting, our answer would be “We don’t recommend it.” Now you know why we say so and the activities that work best with an Oura Ring.
If you have further questions, please let us know about them in the comment section. Have a great day!
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