If you’re like me and always looking for new and exciting ways to measure your fitness, the O.Zen from Ubisoft might be for you. The reason I like O.Zen is how they have taken these things are created games out of it.
The O.Zen device retails for $149.99 CAD.
What is O.Zen?
- Ubisoft’s first connected application that allows you to analyze heart rate, manage stress and find inner calm through a variety of gamified breathing exercises.
- Developed by Ubisoft and Dr. David O’Hare, a child psychiatrist and heart coherence specialist, O.zen aims to complement a healthy lifestyle.
- Designed as part of a preventive approach to foster everyday well-being and can also be used more occasionally, in particularly stressful or high-emotion situations.
- Users are guided by the advice of a personal coach, Coach K, and must fill out a range of topic-specific tests to help them create good habits, which in turn enable them to achieve better well-being through breathing over time.
- Regular, personalized assistanceDeveloped in collaboration with Dr. Frédéric Kochman, a child psychiatrist, and heart coherence specialist, O.zen complements a healthy lifestyle. Users are guided by the advice of a personal coach, Coach K, and must fill out a range of topic-specific tests to help them create good habits, which in turn enable them to achieve better well-being through breathing over time.
- Personalization: The program features over 600 self-reflection questions (physical and psychological state) to help users create a personalized profile. They can create their own avatar, self-assess and enjoy tailored content.
- Breathing: Breathing games and exercises that match the user’s needs are spread over 70 levels and 14 different programs. As such, the experience can play out over the long term.
- Everyday use: The program can be used every day in 3- to 8-minute sessions.
- Unique sensor: With the help of a fingertip sensor, O.zen records the heartbeat and provides not only statistics, but also exercises to help go beyond simply reporting results.
Heart coherence at the heart of the experience
The concept of heart coherence, popularized in France by Dr. David Servan-Schreiber, rests on the close, reciprocal link between the body’s two main organs: the heart can influence the brain. Breathing deeply and calmly, and focusing on the length of the exhalation, can affect the so-called “autonomic” nervous system—breathing being the only automatic function that can be acted on consciously.
The nervous system is made up of two branches, the sympathetic and the parasympathetic, whose respective roles are to accelerate the heartbeat (by releasing adrenaline) and to slow it down (using acetylcholine). During breathing, the inhalation temporarily inhibits the influence of the parasympathetic system and produces an acceleration of the heart rate. Conversely, exhaling slows the heart down by stimulating the parasympathetic system
