What My Oura Ring Confirmed About Fly Fishing, Nervous System Health, and Recovery
As someone who teaches people to reconnect to their bodies through fly fishing, movement, interoception, and nervous-system awareness, I’ve built my career around helping others feel their way back into themselves. I’ve spent years practicing and coaching people in developing a more refined sense of internal cues: breath rhythm, heart-rate shifts, muscular tension, emotional charge, and the ability to recognise when we’re regulated, dysregulated, or stuck in autopilot.
It’s affirming when a health wearable backs up what my lived experience already signals, and the added confirmation helps to better affix strong lifestyle habits.
Last weekend, I floated and fly-fished the lower Madison River. It wasn’t a numbers day and was exceptionally slow from a catching standpoint, but it was rich in another way: long stretches of sleepy current, sandhill cranes calling in the distance, a bull moose bedded down in the willows, bald eagles flying upriver at eye level, late-season sunlight hitting the hills. It was a sensory environment that allowed my system to down-shift.
That night, my Oura ring metrics reflected exactly that. Increased heart-rate variability (HRV), lower resting heart-rate, high Recovery Index, and a Readiness Score that suggested I had shifted into a deeply restorative state. The data aligned with what my body was already telling me: I had spent the day regulated and grounded.
The gap between lived experience and internal awareness
A lot of people have lost touch with these signals while we exist in a pace and environment that rarely lets the nervous system down-shift from sympathetic drive. Chronic overstimulation dulls interoceptive awareness, making it hard to distinguish “tired vs. wired,” “stressed vs. focused,” or “present vs. braced.” That’s why health wearables can be powerful tools when used intentionally: not to replace your body’s compass, but to help rebuild trust in it.
Why I appreciate Oura’s approach
As a strength, mobility, and functional movement coach, I understand the appeal of metrics around activity levels and movement output. But as a restorative yoga and meditation teacher who works with breath, vagal toning, and recovery, I especially appreciate that Oura prioritizes sleep, HRV, nervous-system recovery, and signals of restorative states. I also love that it lets me track these states without staring at another glowing screen. The ring design lets me disconnect and still gather useful insight.
Fly fishing as both active stimulus and restorative down-shift
What I appreciate most about fly fishing is its versatility. Not every day on the water looks like a quiet float watching wildlife. Some days I’m wading against strong current, hiking aggressively to reach un-pressured water, rapidly floating through whitewater, and staying mentally locked into fast-paced problem-solving. Those days are physically demanding, stress-inducing, and metabolically engaging in a way that supports strength, cardiovascular output, and resilience under challenge.
Other days look more like the one I experienced this weekend: slower, quieter, more observational, with long pauses between casts and an expanded sensory field. That shift allows the nervous system to move into recovery and integration mode.
One of the values of fly fishing is that it meets us where we are, and where we’d like to be, whether in a state of activation and engagement or decompression and regulation.
Fly fishing as a regulated nervous system practice
When I lead retreats or guide fly-fishing experiences, I’m not just focused on casting accuracy or fish count. I’m helping people re-enter themselves. The act of wading, observing, casting, pausing, tracking drifts, waiting - it all encourages down-regulation. Slow-water days like the one I experienced this weekend are often the most restorative because they shift the objective from performance to presence.
My Oura data didn’t convince me that I was recovered. It simply confirmed what my body had already registered: I had spent the day in parasympathetic dominance while recalibrating my breath and heart rate while widening my sensory field.
Rebuilding trust in your own signals
Fly fishing, when approached as more than a sport, becomes a moving practice in interoception. Wearables like Oura can serve as a bridge, helping people see in data what they may not yet feel in their bodies. Over time, that external validation can become internal confidence.
How I teach this through the Wade Well Method
The Wade Well Method is built around the idea that fly fishing is more than a sport, it’s a full-spectrum nervous system practice. Some sessions are high-output and performance-driven. Others are intentionally slow to promote recalibration, body awareness, and recovery. My coaching and guided experiences help people understand how to navigate both ends of this spectrum with intention and physiological literacy.
I offer this work through:
Fly fishing group experiences and retreats that blend time on the water with mobility, breath, and nervous-system reset.
Intensive workshops that explore both skill development and internal regulation.
1:1 movement and recovery coaching, where I integrate strength training, mobility, Functional Range Conditioning (FRC), breath mechanics, and recovery practices to help clients rebuild trust in their bodies and optimize performance and longterm health.
If you’re curious about how fly-fishing can support nervous-system health, or want to reconnect movement, recovery, and nature in a more intentional way, I invite you to explore what’s possible through the Wade Well Method, retreats, and collaborations.
REFERENCES / FURTHER READING
“Fly-Fishing and the Brain” – Harvard Medical School: A summary of research showing reduced stress and improved sleep in fly-fishing retreats. Harvard Medical School
“Recreational Fishing, Health and Well-being” – European review of fishing’s associations with psychological stress and sleep. PMC
“The Effect of Exposure to the Natural Environment on Stress Reduction” – Meta-analysis of green space/nature exposure reducing cortisol and improving mood. PMC+1
“Forest Walking Affects Autonomic Nervous Activity” – Large sample study showing HRV shifts in forest vs urban environments. PMC
“Viewing Nature Scenes Positively Affects Recovery of Autonomic Function Following Acute-Mental Stress” – Experimental study with HRV recovery differences. PMC