Ultrahuman Will Now Suggest Workout Videos Based on Your Recovery Score and Menstrual Cycle
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These days, every wearable device will tell you how well you slept and how well you seem to recover for the day’s activities. But it’s rare to get advice or clear ideas about what you should do. TO DO based on these scores. Ultrahuman, which makes smart rings, is trying a new approach: giving you different workout videos based on what it thinks you’re ready for.
I can appreciate this approach, but I’m also a little skeptical about letting an app choose a workout for me: what if I feel ready for something else? But I have used workouts suggested by Garmin before, and I find the idea works well as long as you take the recommended workouts as suggestions and not limitations.
What does the Les Mills PowerPlug contain?
This new functionality of the Ultrahuman application is available as a PowerPlug. If you use an Ultrahuman ring, you probably know that there is a selection of PowerPlugs available in a store within the app. Some are free and others require payment. The Les Mills PowerPlug costs $11.99 per month, $99 per year, or $249 for a lifetime subscription.
Les Mills is a franchise of gym fitness classes, faithfully reproduced in a Les Mills+ app created by my colleague Lindsey Ellefson. reviewed in detail here. She says the classes have clear instructions, no chatter, have original music, and stick to predictable, familiar patterns for each type of class.
Each day you’ll receive two to three recommended classes, but you can also browse a full catalog if you want to do a different workout. For some examples of what can be offered, Ultrahuman says: “A well-recovered user with high heart rate variability and low resting heart rate might see BODYPUMP™ or BODYCOMBAT™ at the top of their feed. On the other hand, a user with accumulated sleep debt, elevated body temperature, increased resting heart rate, or low heart rate variability would instead be guided toward yoga, BODYBALANCE™, or a gentle mobility session.”
What do you think of it so far?
If you track your menstrual cycle through the Ultrahuman app, the recommendations will take this into account as well. This is where I feel another wave of skepticism: Ultrahuman says that “the luteal and menstrual phases automatically shift toward recovery-friendly content.” That means you might spend half your month shying away from intensive workouts, which seems to be at odds with most people’s fitness goals.
After completing a Les Mills workout through the Ultrahuman app, you’ll find that your workout data, including your heart rate, has been recorded through the ring, the muscles you used have been recorded, and you’ll get post-workout data as a prediction of your readiness for the next day.
