Exercise on Ultrahuman Blog

How palm cooling improves physical performance

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 14:29:49 +0000

The human body performs best within a narrow temperature range. Even small deviations, especially increases in core temperature during exercise, can compromise performance by disrupting cellular energy production.

One emerging strategy to counteract this: palm cooling.

Why thermoregulation matters

During physical activity, your body temperature rises. Once muscle temperature crosses 40°C, enzyme function begins to shut down. One critical enzyme affected is Pyruvate Kinase (PK), which is essential for producing ATP, the energy source for muscle contraction. When PK is inhibited, muscles can no longer generate force efficiently.

Glucose and athletic performance: How blood sugar fuels your training

Thu, 10 Jul 2025 11:51:05 +0000

Beyond training plans and sophisticated gear, your fueling strategy can make or break performance. During exercise, your body operates like a high-performance race car, and glucose is the fuel. It powers your brain, muscles, and organs through every stage of exertion.

A balanced intake of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins supports stable glucose levels. But your blood sugar isn’t static, and fluctuations can either support or sabotage your athletic goals.

Let’s explore how glucose functions during exercise, why metabolic flexibility matters, and how to optimize fueling strategies for both performance and recovery.

6 HRV rules for smarter training

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 14:22:06 +0000

Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is more than just a trend on your tracker — it’s a direct window into your nervous system, recovery, and readiness to perform.

At Ultrahuman, we’ve crunched the numbers from thousands of Ring AIR users and paired that data with published science to bring you six practical, performance-driven ways to use HRV to train smarter, recover better, and become more adaptable.

Read more: The science of HRV explained

5 heart rate variability (HRV) mistakes to avoid

Mon, 19 May 2025 20:38:22 +0000

The tracking of heart rate variability (the time interval between consecutive heartbeats in milliseconds) provides a great tool for gaining insight into your body and a better understanding of your mental and physical state.

This variation is modulated by the autonomic nervous system (ANS). If the ANS is in a fight-or-flight mode, the HRV tends to be lower, and when it’s generally in the rest and digest mode, the HRV is usually higher.

Running vs weight lifting – which one should you pick?

Thu, 03 Apr 2025 14:54:28 +0000

If you’re looking to supercharge your fitness journey, deciding between running vs. strength training and weights is a tough choice.

Conventional wisdom says that running is more beneficial for shredding fat – and running is really good for you. But evidence shows that strength training also comes with more benefits than simply bulking up – and could still shred fat and boost heart health.

Each form of exercise comes with benefits and has distinct advantages. But here’s how they compare.

Introducing Automatic Workout Detection On the Ring AIR

Tue, 13 Aug 2024 20:05:20 +0000

The Ring AIR now detects your activities automatically. You no longer need to worry about an activity not being logged and missing important training metrics.

When the Ultrahuman Ring AIR detects an activity, it shows you a banner on your home screen indicating the activity and the time spent on it. You now also have the option to log the activity with the time or dismiss it.

Activity Categorisation

You also have the option to categorise the activity. You can select from a “Recommended” list of activities that the app suggests based on your unique activity signature or tag the workout from the “All workouts” section, which is a list of all the activities. These workouts are classified into high-intensity, low-intensity, endurance, and strength training, which helps you easily scroll through and make the right choice.

14 Benefits Of Good Posture And How To Fix Bad Posture

Fri, 14 Oct 2022 22:49:38 +0000

We’ve all been told to “sit up straight” or “walk tall” since we were children. Everyone, from our relatives to influencers on social media, talks about the importance of having good posture, but very little effort is made to truly understand our own posture in order to improve it. Working long hours and standing or sitting endlessly have exacerbated this problem.

Over time, bad posture can manifest in different aches and pains in the body. So how do you know what good posture is? Why is it important to even have good posture, and is it something you can correct? Let’s focus on these aspects and learn more.

Why Do Stronger Ankles Equal A Healthier Body?

Fri, 14 Oct 2022 15:36:00 +0000

The human body is a complex network of interconnected muscles, joints and ligaments. All these components need to work in cohesion for the body to function at its regular or optimal capacity. If any part of the body fails to do its bit, another part has to compensate for it. This snowballs and manifests in the form of weaknesses, tightnesses and even injuries. If you aren’t regularly strengthening, stabilising and mobilising the body, some part of the body will give way.

How Can I Improve My Recovery?

Fri, 14 Oct 2022 15:05:00 +0000

Most athletes know that getting enough rest is essential for long-term recovery and performance. But many feel guilty about taking even a day off from the grind. One way to relieve this guilt is by going over the many benefits rest offers.

Implementing methods in your daily routine is crucial to facilitate the recovery and restoration of multiple systems in your body. Finding the right balance between things that stress the body and things that help it recover and function is key to a sustainably active lifestyle and peak performance.

Animal Flow: Getting Back To Your Roots

Fri, 14 Oct 2022 14:56:00 +0000

What is Animal Flow?

Animal Flow is a trademarked bodyweight program created by Mike Fitch that’s centred around ground-based work. It features animal-type movements that encourage core stability and strength, joint strength, and body awareness all without any fitness equipment.

The idea of animal flow is to unlock our fitness through primal patterns. The exercise challenges and exerts the body through multiple movements that the body typically may not be used to.

Exercise And Immune function

Fri, 14 Oct 2022 14:49:00 +0000

A field of study known as exercise immunology explores the effect that exercise, both in the short and long term, has on various aspects of immune function. There is evidence that a single bout of strenuous and prolonged exercise reduces the response of the immune system and puts an individual more at risk of acquiring an infectious disease. On the other hand, moderate exercise in the long term has been shown in some research to improve immune system response.

The Best Time of Day to Workout for Optimal Metabolic Health

Fri, 14 Oct 2022 11:47:00 +0000

People exercise at all times of the day, particularly when their work and personal schedules allow. However, research suggests that its effects on metabolic health vary, depending on the time of the workout.

Let’s first understand the various ways in which physical activity helps the body.

How does physical activity help insulin sensitivity?

Exercise or any form of body movement helps release the sugars stored in muscles, liver and fat cells. This process prompts the cells to effectively use insulin to function well and increase insulin sensitivity by workout .

How Water Weight Affects Weight Loss

Fri, 14 Oct 2022 11:21:00 +0000

Water makes up nearly 60% of your body weight, and it’s one of the first things you tend to lose. Weight decreases as a result of changes in fat, muscle, and most of all, water. Water weight and fat weight are not the same, and understanding the difference between the two will go a long way in recognising how your body works, how it affects weight loss, and how you can lose this water weight.

Exercises For A Powerful Jump

Fri, 14 Oct 2022 10:53:00 +0000

A powerful and explosive jump can be beneficial for several purposes, ranging from the ability to drive in and viciously dunk a basketball, cover the length of the football pitch quickly on the offensive transition to changing directions quickly and leaving your opponent frozen. To improve one’s ability to be explosive and have a powerful jump, we must first understand the underlying physiology and mechanisms which facilitate the same.

Muscular Endurance And Glucose Levels

Fri, 14 Oct 2022 10:51:00 +0000

When you consider powering your body, what do you think about first? While food may be a good answer, many do not consider muscle mass and endurance a huge factor in athletic performance and physical and metabolic health.

Muscular endurance is the ability of a muscle group to remain active and perform repetitive actions against a particular force over a period of time. The more muscle endurance a person has, the greater is their ability to complete more reps of a specific exercise such as sit-ups, lunges, squats and pushups. (1)

Functional Fitness: The Workout You Didn’t Know You Needed

Fri, 14 Oct 2022 07:22:00 +0000

Have you ever observed individuals that complain about the pain in their back after doing something as simple as lifting a 10 kg bag of rice? While this could be due to a variety of factors, it’s primarily due to a lack of fitness. Lifting a bag of rice works not only your back but also your arms, hamstrings, lats and, most importantly, your core.

The action is equivalent to performing a deadlift. Proper form, engaging many muscle groups instead of just one and strength are required to do these daily activities and form the basis of functional fitness, which is one way to strengthen and build your muscles to keep them firing for a long time in your life.

How to Stick to your workout routines this holiday Season

Fri, 14 Oct 2022 03:24:00 +0000

Holiday season across the world is here, and there’s every excuse to do something that might be more exciting and interesting than what’s in your routine! There are many times you may want to avoid your daily routine because that’s what holidays are for. But it’s important to remember that your body needs that little bit of exercise for so many reasons - including but not limited to the circulation of blood in your body, the oxygenation of your blood, stretching of your muscles, activating tissues, and so much more.

Can Exercise help in reversing PCOS?

Mon, 22 Aug 2022 10:49:00 +0000

This can make a person feel like they’ve caused this condition and that they can’t do much to help themselves. However, that’s not true. By following the right lifestyle, PCOS can not only be managed but the symptoms can also be reversed to a great extent.

PMOS: Why PCOS has a new name – and what it means

Highlights

Exercise is a great way to reduce stress, and it triggers the production of ‘feel-good’ neurotransmitters called endorphins.
Exercise can help in combating insulin resistance, blood pressure, obesity, cardiovascular diseases and more.
Research review has found that exercise can be beneficial in helping women with PCOS lose weight, and abdominal fat and lower insulin levels.

What is the role of exercise in managing PCOS?

It’s safe to say that the pandemic has wreaked havoc on most of our lives. Almost everything has shifted to the virtual world, from work meetings to college lectures. As a result, our body doesn’t get enough movement, even while our intake remains the same. Hence, we don’t end up burning enough of the calories that we consume.

Hacking your Menstrual Cycle for Training or Workouts

Sat, 20 Aug 2022 10:49:00 +0000

Aunt Flo can bring the best of us to our knees, making us feel achy, sad, tired or unmotivated. But what if you could learn to manage the tumultuous hormones and enhance your energy, mood and overall health?

Cycle syncing is a biohacking option that utilises a deeper knowledge of your menstrual cycle to enhance your health and feelings of well-being.

The lifestyle changes recommended in this regard can help us be more in tune with our bodies and attain a more balanced lifestyle with fewer mood swings, greater energy levels and better sleep. There are several ways to sync your life to your cycle, including watching what exercise corresponds to which stage of the cycle and nutrition.

Progressive Overloading: Steps to Improve Strength Training and Larger Muscle Gains

Sat, 11 Jun 2022 11:16:00 +0000

Ever grabbed a heavier dumbbell because after weeks with the lighter weight your body could handle more? Or run further, faster because training at a slower rate helped you feel prepared? If so, you’ve unknowingly implemented something called the progressive overload principle.

Sound like a fitness babble? Don’t worry, we make it easy to understand and implement below. Read on to learn what progressive overload is, why and how it works, and exactly how to implement it into your training schedule.

Metabolic conditioning: How it can help with your fitness goals

Thu, 09 Jun 2022 10:06:00 +0000

According to Britannica , metabolism is the sum of the chemical reactions that take place within each cell of a living organism and that provide energy for vital processes for synthesizing new organic material. In simple terms, it’s how we break down food for energy.

Metabolic conditioning or MetCon as fitness enthusiasts call it is a type of exercise that focuses on patterns of work and rest periods to produce a desired response from the body. It has formed its unique category in terms of where it fits in the exercise world. It’s different from distance running or long steady-state cardio sessions and contains more challenging, dynamic sessions of training.

The Effects of Mild Physical Activity on Metabolic Health

Sat, 21 May 2022 14:33:00 +0000

Walking helps you boost your metabolism and heart rate, which helps you burn fat, along with stimulating your digestive tract and reducing blood sugar levels when you walk after meals, reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.

Highlights

Being physically active throughout the day in combination with structured endurance/resistance exercise provides greater benefits for health,
Fast-twitch muscle fibers contract quickly and more vigorously. They are recruited during high-intensity activities, like sprinting or lifting a really heavyweight,
Aerobic glycolysis is not different from the anaerobic series of reactions (fast) glycolysis. The only departure is a different outcome owing to the availability of sufficient oxygen.

What is Mild Physical Activity?

An activity categorised as 2 METS would translate into twice the amount of oxygen consumed while sitting at rest (1 MET). METS are an accommodating and standard method for understanding the intensity of physical activities.

Posture: How does it affect your Health

Sat, 21 May 2022 13:22:00 +0000

If you’ve ever trained with a fitness coach, one of the most important things they highlight is the importance of a good posture in avoiding injuries and in improving the effectiveness of the exercises.

But is the impact of a good posture limited to injury avoidance and exercise efficiency or does it have long-term health benefits as well? Let’s find out.

Highlights

Good posture can make you look confident, avoid injuries and avoid long-term health problems,
The long term organ health effects of bad posture are poor liver function and lung capacity,
While some posture problems are just bad habits, most of them are driven by poor mobility and weakness in stabilizing muscles.

Good Posture vs Poor Posture

Before we begin, let’s address what really is a good posture. Here are some basic checks that you can do immediately to identify a good posture

How To (Actually) Stick To Your Workout Goals

Sat, 21 May 2022 10:53:00 +0000

We all make goals, but the hardest part is sticking to them. Putting in the time and effort needed to reach and achieve our goals is not an easy task.

Highlights

Sticking to your workout goals is the hardest part, not setting them,
Tracking, sleeping, prioritising are just few things you can do to stick to your workout goals.

Nine Tips To Stick To Your Workout Goals

Prioritise

It is very important to be mindful of and prioritise your goals. Writing down your goals will help you gain visual clarity as well as map out your thoughts and expectations for the future. Understanding the “Why?” of the goal helps cement its importance and the resolve to stick to it.

Working Towards Your Body Goals vs Casually Working Out

Fri, 20 May 2022 14:20:00 +0000

Working out has enormous health benefits. It helps you lose weight, manage blood sugar, and improve sleep and your sexual health.

It also contributes to your mental health through the reduction of stress and anxiety and the production of dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin, thereby improving your mood.

Highlights

With a body goal in mind, what you need to eat and what exercises you need to perform become structured,
Working out contributes to your mental health through the reduction of stress and anxiety,
To maintain your current weight or get to a future one, goal setting can help.

Working out itself has so many benefits, so why should I have goals? Why can’t I casually work out and keep my body the way it is? One might ask. While there’s nothing wrong with being happy with where you are, it is crucial to know that keeping your body the way it is, is also a goal.

WFH Effect: 7 Tips To Maximize Productivity

Sat, 07 May 2022 06:51:00 +0000

While most of us rejoiced at the idea of finally getting the break we have been looking for, in reality, the fine line between comfort and an unhealthy lifestyle seems to be disappearing.

The effects of the WFH(Work From Home) era

Attending meetings in your favorite pyjamas, bringing back the no-messy look, and sitting in one place for 75% of your time working has given rise to a new lifestyle also known as the “Lockdown Lifestyle”.

7 Morning Yoga Poses To Start Your Day Energised

Wed, 27 Apr 2022 05:19:00 +0000

Reaching for your third cup of coffee in a bid to give you the energy to get through the day? You’re not alone, more often than not most of us have conditioned ourselves into thinking that coffee is the answer to all our problems, while starting your day with a cup of coffee is fine, relying on it to get you through the day may not be the best approach.

Types of endurance Training

Tue, 05 Apr 2022 16:05:00 +0000

‘Going for a run’ is a common phrase associated with endurance training. In fact running is believed to be one of the most beneficial ways to improve your aerobic capacity and metabolic fitness. Although this is one way to build endurance, modern research has found that a diverse strategy towards endurance training programmes helps in maximizing the physiological adaptations. This would include a combination of long, moderate and short-duration exercise with varying intensities.

Different types of strength Training

Mon, 04 Apr 2022 15:34:00 +0000

Strength training is essentially the functional application of Newton’s Second Law, mathematically expressed as F=ma. Hence it improves an individual’s ability to express force. Although quite popular as a training modality, it is quite often generalized as a slow grinding form of training. However there are different forms of strength qualities that can be trained for specific purposes.

Often a staple in current athletic training for sports, strength training currently has more nuances in terms of the quality being trained by an individual. Types of strength training are classified based on the intensity and volume utilized by that form of training and the adaptations it elicits. Let’s start with the most traditional form of strength training.

Importance of having Body and Workout Goals

Sat, 26 Mar 2022 08:30:00 +0000

Working out has enormous health benefits, it helps in losing weight, managing blood sugar, and improving sleep and sexual health. It also contributes to mental health by reducing stress, and anxiety, and the production of dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin, thereby improving mood. Working out itself has so many benefits, so why should you have goals? Why can’t you casually work out and keep your body the way it is? While, there’s nothing wrong with being happy with where you are, it is crucial to know that keeping your body the way it is, is also a goal.

Throw a Punch: The Health benefits of Kickboxing

Tue, 22 Feb 2022 11:21:00 +0000

Are you tired of running on the treadmill or simply lifting weights? Is your fitness regimen becoming stale and mundane? In order to stay healthy, the US Department of Health and Human Services recommends that adults get between 150 and 300 minutes of moderately intense or between 75 and 150 minutes of vigorously intense physical aerobic activity per week. If you’re looking for a new way to break a sweat and reach these targets, we’ve got you covered. Kick the monotony out of your current fitness programme and consider kickboxing—a sure-fire way to get a comprehensive workout, keep you on your toes and make you feel great.

Get Set ‘METS’: Track your Workout Intensity

Thu, 03 Feb 2022 10:50:00 +0000

Did you know that no two people may burn the same amount of calories for the same workout? In addition to different workouts having different intensity levels, people can be of different sizes or weights and have a unique resting metabolism. METs, or metabolic equivalents, were developed by physiologists to help us understand and calculate an exact value for caloric expenditure for each person.

Highlights

MET is a number used to show the difference between your working metabolic rate and your resting metabolic rate, the number indicates the intensity of a given physical activity,
The MET for an activity, you can also estimate how many calories you burn in a minute by applying a simple formula,
METs help us really gauge how effective a workout is, be it standing up from a chair or running on a treadmill.

METs are a great way to measure exercise intensity, by using this method, you can save your brain from a long cardio session of calculating the energy burned during exercise.

Exercises for People with Limited Mobility and Physical Disability

Wed, 05 Jan 2022 10:52:00 +0000

Perhaps your mobility is impaired because of illness, injury, weight issues or a disability. WHO refers to a disability as an impairment of the body or the mind marked by activity limitation and participation restrictions. (12) Maybe you have diabetes, arthritis, cancer, or are frail and afraid of falling. None of these mean that you cannot exercise effectively. There are workouts you can do regardless of your age, physical condition or workout experience. Oftentimes, your workout routine needs to be examined and adjusted (with the help of a medical professional) to what your current needs may be. Some exercises will be easier than others, but any type of exercise can bring benefits into your life.

What is Zone 2 Training and why is it important for Performance and Longevity

Thu, 23 Dec 2021 06:12:00 +0000

When you think about building a better body, it is likely that you imagine yourself in a hardcore training montage, at the end of which you appear resplendent in your perfect form. This only becomes a problem when it translates into you overdoing it at the gym, this can lead to overtraining, ego lifting, permanent injuries, and the eventual drop in motivation. Heart rate zone training brings your attention back to where it should be—the present state of your body. One of the most personalized styles of training, heart rate zones teaches you where you need to improve, and what it would take for you to reach your maximum intensity. And it all starts at Zone 2.

EPOC: Burn Calories even after Leaving Gym

Tue, 02 Nov 2021 10:53:00 +0000

Your body continues to burn calories even after you’re done exercising. This process is called excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC), also known as the “afterburn effect.”

Let’s understand how it ties into the process of metabolism, specifically the aerobic and anaerobic pathways, and how it benefits your body.

Highlights

Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is produced either with oxygen using the aerobic pathways or without oxygen relying on the anaerobic pathways,
The body stores energy as fat for efficiency. It essentially responds to excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) by freeing up fatty acids in the bloodstream.

ATP Production: Aerobic and Anaerobic Pathways

Metabolism is a series of chemical processes that take place in each cell, transforming the calories we eat into fuel to keep us alive.

Beating Insulin Resistance: HIIT vs Mild Cardio

Sat, 09 Oct 2021 14:18:00 +0000

Introduction

Do you ever wonder why your blood sugar falls or rises after some workouts? The answer may lie in your insulin response. Let’s find out how high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and milder exercises interact with the MVP of the blood glucose bastion - insulin.

A primer on insulin resistance and sensitivity

Insulin is the hormone used by our cells to absorb glucose from the bloodstream. It maintains balanced blood sugar levels over time. Insulin sensitivity is a measure of how sensitive one’s cells are to the hormone. A low level of insulin sensitivity would point to a lack of efficient use of the hormone in one’s body and cells. A high level, on the other hand, would indicate efficient use. Certain lifestyle changes can improve or alter insulin sensitivity. (2) The opposite of insulin sensitivity is insulin resistance.

How to go beyond a Plateau

Fri, 18 Jun 2021 11:02:00 +0000

When you are working out every week for a considerable period, you tend to experience hitting a wall at some point. Your routine which helped you get to where you want to be and your nutrition among other factors doesn’t work anymore. It doesn’t give you the results that you were previously getting, that’s when you know that you have hit a plateau .

The stalled results may have been caused by a variety of factors, it generally means that your body has found a way to adapt to the physical stimulus you were giving it. To experience continuous progress, it is essential to expand the physical and mental limits that you have set for yourself.

My Run in with Death and how I came out Alive

Fri, 21 May 2021 08:57:00 +0000

When I was little, my parents used to call me “choo-choo”, because I was always at full speed like a train. And I have spent most of my life running, though not in the traditional sense. I’ve been running away: from feeling, from pain, from addressing the trauma that started at too early an age. Running away from feeling anything–even the good that I believed I didn’t deserve. By ten, my vehicle for freedom was alcohol and before I left middle school I had progressed on to harder substances.

Avoiding Injuries with home workouts

Wed, 06 Jan 2021 03:41:00 +0000

Has the pandemic left you stranded with even fewer options? Is your gym still closed too? It’s happening the world over, so not to worry! In the past few months too, you’ve probably spent a lot of time working from home, and working out at home too. But we’re quite used to having someone look over us and guide us in the right direction when we’re working out. This also leaves some room for error when we’re attempting an exercise, and don’t know if what we’re doing is right or wrong.