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Every wearable these days will tell you how you slept and how healthy you’re looking for the day’s activities. But it’s rare to get clear guidance or ideas on what you should do. to do Based on those marks. UltraHuman, which makes smart rings, is trying a new approach: It’s providing you with different workout videos based on what it thinks you’re doing.
I can appreciate this approach, but I’m also a little skeptical about allowing an app to choose a workout for me—what if I feel ready for something else? but i have Used Garmin’s recommended workouts First, and I think this idea works well as long as you take the recommended workouts as suggestions, not limitations.
What’s in the Les Mills Powerplug?
This new feature in the Ultrahuman app is available in the form of PowerPlug. If you use Ultrahuman Ring, you probably know that a selection of PowerPlugs is available from the Store within the app. Some are free, and some charge a subscription fee. Les Mills PowerPlug costs $11.99 per month, $99 per year, or $249 for a lifetime subscription.
Les Mills is a franchise of gym-based fitness classes, faithfully replicated in the Les Mills+ app by my colleague Lindsay Ellefson. Reviewed in detail here. She says the classes have clear instructions without clutter, original music, and predictable, familiar patterns for each class type.
Each day you’ll find two to three recommended classes, but you can also browse a full catalog if you want to try a different workout. For some examples of what might be on offer, Ultrahuman says: “A well-recovered user with elevated heart rate variability and a 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 will be directed toward yoga, BODYBALANCE™, or a gentle mobility session.”
What do you think 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 have another spike of doubt – Ultrahuman says that “the luteal and menstrual phases automatically shift toward recovery-friendly content.” This means you could spend half your month avoiding hard training, which seems like the opposite of most people’s fitness goals.
After finishing a Les Mills workout through the Ultrahuman app, you’ll find that your workout data, including heart rate, was logged through the ring, the muscles you used were logged, and you’ll get post-workout data like a prediction of your readiness for the next day.
