Hi! I just started using the Oura ring and I have an above average cardiovascular age of 7 years. I believe I am overtraining (I recently started exercising again these past 3 months and lost 14 lbs). Also, my deep and rem sleep figures are both low. Im already getting 7 hours or more of sleep and in bed by 10:30 etc. I want to improve that as well but haven’t yet figured out how to do so. My VO2 max is high.
I’m having trouble finding advice on how to improve my deep and rem sleep time and also reduce my cardiovascular age. The advice I see all says to exercise more yet I feel I’m overtrained already. Please help! Thanks
Thanks for your response. I’m a 5’5” female and I’m already doing all you suggested.
I think I’m overtrained and need a full week of recovery. I have been exercising for 3 months now 10-15,000 steps or more a day, weights every other day and short bursts of running for 3 months. I lost 14 lbs and am near goal weigh. Please let me know if you have any additional suggestions. Thanks so much!
Sounds like you know what you need to do!
Taking some time will help reset your body. You will know when it’s okay to get back to training. Doing some active recovery like easy walking, yoga, meditation (breathing practice) will also help.
Was there something you were training for?
No. I’ve been a competitive athlete most of my life and had gained some weight (I lost most of it) so I was just looking to get back to training after a long hot Arizona summer off.
Also, I had extension travel this last month and have had some jet lag. That plus my new Oura ring not yet knowing my body probably factored in to the high cardiovascular age as well. Plus our AC was out here for 2 months-quite a stressor.
Yoga, meditation and walking should hopefully get my REM and deep sleep numbers up and CVA down. My REM and Deep sleep numbers are quite low.
It’s my second week of the Oura ring recording a high cardiovascular age. 7 years above. I have a high VO2 max and correct weight. I’m in great shape. Not sure what to do to lower it. I’m starting Norwegian 4X4 once or twice a week to see if that helps. My deep sleep is still poor but REM is improving slightly.
Just still trying to get cardiovascular age to come down. Oura ring only measures it every 7 days.
I had a stressful two weeks of travel and jet lag. Not sure if that played a part. Plus I’m over 60 in age.
Ah, I understand your concern. Please remember that these algorithms are all based on estimates. If you are training regularly, eating well, and living a healthy lifestyle, you’re doing well.
Hey @Patch
Please offer a little more context.
Gender, age, training history, how long you’ve been using Oura, what are your other health markers? What is your training distribution like? Are you following a certain nutritional strategy? How do you feel when you wake up? What do you do for work? Is your life stress high?
I’m hesitant to give advice based on single metric (high Cardiovascular age) only.
But if you have a feeling you are overtraining - you probably are. Our “gut feeling” is often right.
Happy to chat with you if you can provide a little more context. For now, I would reflect on your training and lower intensity if you feel like you are overtraining and under recovered.
Hi Mariana. Thanks for your response. I answered those questions before. I’ll respond again.
I’m 63, female, trained previously for Olympics. Workout doing 15,000 steps a day. Weight train 2-3 X a week, have excellent health. Excellent cardiovascular age and flexibility. Weight 135. Height 5’5”.
Am adding in Norwegian 5x5 recently but only doing 2 minutes on all out 2 off easy to start x4 - twice a week. My VO2 max is excellent. Resting heart rate is 48. I cycle and kayak as well. I try to eat Whole Foods and enough protein but could use more.
Oops I meant Marjaana. Spellcheck corrected it. I responded above about my trying to lower my high cardiovascular age of +7 years. See my last message.
Also I’m trying to improve my deep and REM sleep. It’s improving but slowly. I’ve only had the Oura ring for a month now.
Also, my stress level was high but is lowering now. I work from home and am less busy at the current time. My sleep is acceptable but not great REM, and deep sleep. I get 7 hours a night. I feel ok when I wake up but want better sleep.
Hey @Patch
Thank you for your reply. Sorry I didn’t see the whole thread before my comment.
Oura ring can be helpful over time as you become more aware of your sleep quality, heart rate and hrv. I’m by no means no expert on the Oura ring technology but I would be inclined to be a little bit cautious on their cardiovascular age feature, or its implications on anyone’s health.
Optical sensors are not as accurate as medical grade gold standard equipment like ECGs.
When we talk about the general population based algorithms- there are always going to be outliers. The cardiovascular age algorithms correlate hrv, sleep and hr with general population statistics. That’s at least my understanding. Imagine individual variability, genetics and many possible cardiovascular conditions on individual level. You being very fit, i’d imagine you’d be an outlier - but on a very positive direction.
Oura ring (or other devices) can’t replace a throughout medical checkup. It cannot detect indicators of cardiac health like blood pressure; lipid profile; family history; fitness level.
If you are worried about your cardiovascular health, I would definitely get yourself checked.
Working on your sleep quality and quantity, lowering your overall stress together with whole foods and exercise are best ways to stay healthy and fit. Sounds like you are already doing those things.
See how you get on with the 4x4 interval training (in any combination) and consider also short intervals, like 30s all out, 30s easy almost passive rest in between. This is potent hiit method without the larger overall stress longer intervals can induce.
If you feel like long intervals take a lot out of you, consider doing them once a week instead of twice.
I lead weekly hiit sessions on Wednesday mornings 8:30am CT and we do 30/30s. You’re welcome to join us!
Hope this helps. I know it is not a direct answer on what to do to get your “oura age” lowered…
Best,
MJ
Thanks so much for your thorough reply, I greatly appreciate it! I agree, it all makes sense to me. And no, I’m not worried about my health, I was just confused by that one Oura ring reading.
Great idea about my substituting a short 30’ HIT workout in place of one of my two long ones. And yes, I’d love to join your Wednesday 30’ HIT workouts. How do I do so? I used to do those regularly training in kayak. I enjoy that type of workout.
Thanks again for the excellent suggestions and insights! It’s really been helpful!
Glad I could be of help!
Here’s the link for instructions on how to join Wednesday hiit: Weekly Wednesday Indoor Group HIIT Session
Please let me know if you have any questions about joining the sessions!
MJ
I finally figured out what was wrong with my cardiovascular age being recorded as so high.
I read some research reports and noticed my PWV (pulse wave velocity) score was actually very low for my age so I checked my Oura ring app and noticed that my profile had my age recorded as decades off!
I now corrected that and my CVA is now way below my actual age. Oops on my part on recording my age incorrectly. Now it all makes sense and I can stay motivated. I was losing motivation lol!
before my comment. 
Trust that voice as you use all these devices…