… HRV is measured by looking at the spaces between R waves on an EKG. This is just a fancy way of saying you’re measuring the difference between heartbeats. The good news is that you no longer need a doctor or EKG to measure your HRV.
Many sports watches and some fitness trackers measure this. For example, most of the latest crop of Garmin fitness trackers keep tabs on your stress 24/7 by monitoring your HRV. Some sports watches go even further and calculate the stress of training on your body. Then they let you know when its safe tracking heart rate variability with wearables why it s important to exercise again. The high-end Garmin sports watches and cycling computers tap into Firstbeat metrics to achieve this, as does the Amazfit Stratos smartwatch and Huawei Watch 2. The full list of compatible devices can be found on this link.
How many times have you forgotten to charge your fitness watch the night before a long run, then found yourself stopping on the side of the trail to dim your screen and turn off Bluetooth connectivity in an attempt to eke out just a little more juice? Suunto’s newest watch, the Suunto 9 ($600), has a solution for just such a moment.
The watch comes with three modes (performance, endurance, and ultra) that adjust various settings to preset levels, including vital battery-saving maneuvers: dimming the screen, reducing the saturation of the color display, turning off touchscreen capabilities, and lowering the frequency of GPS tracking from every second to every 60 or 120 seconds.
I love music when I’m running, but I do not always want to carry my phone.
Garmin introduced a new running watch that let’s you download music for on the go, if Spotify whould support this that whould make a ideal combination.
Body odour is the unpleasant smell produced by bacteria on the skin breaking down acids in your sweat. It is largely linked to the apocrine glands. The problem can typically be managed with proper hygiene, but unless you have very honest friends or family, sometimes it can be difficult to know you’re emitting a stink.
The Japanese have a peculiar term for this – “sumeru harasumento” – which can be translated into English as “smell harassment.” This, we are told, is a particular issue in the packed Japanese subway system. We’ve caught a whiff of this problem on the London Underground as well!
Growth in the wearable electronics market may be slowing, but with device shipments projected to expand—even double by 2021, according to some estimates—what does the future hold for the multi-billion dollar industry? For one, the market is no longer simply defined by smartwatches or fitness bands. Smart socks can now make you a better runner, while a smart bra “wellness coach” can discreetly check your heart rate and stress levels throughout the day.
In order to build a better product strategy, a major chemical and technology company recently came to us so they could get a more informed understanding of the changing market landscape and the technological innovations that will shape industry focus going forward. Quid did a comprehensive natural language processing analysis on the global wearable electronics market—looking at news, companies, patents, and product review datasets—to assess top narratives, trends, and innovations that are driving consumer interest and company investment.
In the lead-up to Eurobike, today Garmin announced the new Edge Explore. Now, you’ve probably heard the Edge Explore or ‘Touring’ names battered around for half a decade or so. Usually along with a numerical identifier like ‘Edge Explore 1000’, which was essentially a dumbed-down version of the Edge 1000. Previously, it’s been targeted at the cycle touring market, but I think the new non-numerically identified unit does away with that.
Nope, now it’s all about mass market and at a price that actually makes sense – $249.
The Edge Explore (kinda a simplified version of the high-end Edge 1030) includes all the core stuff most cyclists want, like full turn by turn navigation on a color touchscreen display that actually works, smartphone notifications, data field customization, and even Connect IQ apps.
Firstbeat’s Aerobic Training Effect combines cutting-edge sports science and analytics to connect the dots between your activities and how your body will respond. It describes how your training session is expected to affect your aerobic fitness level, that is your VO2max. Is it improving or maintaining it – are you promoting recovery – or having no effect at all?
Navigation is one of the most fundamental elements of planning and executing a successful outdoor trip. Thanks to phone apps, it’s also easier than ever. Of course, everyone should learn how to use a physical map and compass before heading into the backcountry, but digital maps often provide everything you need to get around safely, and many have more information and functionality than what’s available on paper. Here are three of our favorite map apps.
Finnish fitness company Polar has temporarily suspended Explore, its global activity map after a pair of reports from De Correspondent and Bellingcat (via ZDNet) pointed out flaws in the app’s privacy settings that made it easy for someone to locate the location data of users, echoing a similar privacy incident with another fitness app earlier this year. It’s a worrying discovery, as one report was able to use the information to locate the names and addresses of thousands of users who appeared to work for military and intelligence services.
Polar is a Finish company that produces a variety of smart devices, including the Polar Balance smart scale, the M600 smartwatch, and M430 running watch, all of which are connect to the company’s fitness app, Polar Flow. The company’s devices work together to record one’s weight and activity, which can appear on a user’s online profile. Users can have their information included in Explore, but can also opt to have their profiles marked private, which Polar says will prevent the service with sharing that information to third party apps like Facebook.
Zwift, the global online training and gaming platform, has acquired the commercial rights to manufacture and distribute footpods previously manufactured under the Milestone Sports brand.
As part of the deal, Zwift has secured the core team responsible for the design and engineering of the legacy Milestone product – including ex-Milestone CEO, Jason Kaplan, Chief Technical Officer, Meir Machlin and Tzach Goren, former VP of Business Development . Zwift intends to start producing new pods imminently for its running experience offering.
Running footpods provide a first entry point into the world of virtual running on Zwift and allow Zwifters to ‘run in any gym, on any treadmill, anywhere’. By simply clipping a footpod to their existing running shoes, runners can communicate speed and cadence to the Zwift platform powering their avatar through the Zwift virtual environment.
The thing about action cameras is while in the midst of the action, the last thing you want to do is frame the shot or make sure the camera is pointing the right way to record that key moment. The next generation of action cameras are taking care of that by recording everything—they literally see everything happening around them without having to point the camera in the proper direction. These are 360-degree cameras. They usually have at least two very wide angle lenses and the images are then stitched together. These kinds of cameras have been trending since about 2015 but as always with new technologies, they were relatively pricey, clunky and took particularly special care. Now, they’re much easier to use and more companies are making them.
I’ve had the chance to play with two different models (there are now quite a few of them out there) to call out the general similarities that apply to using these cameras and to dig into some of the specifics of what makes each camera style unique.
An international team of researchers have developed a low-cost sensor made from semiconducting plastic that can be used to diagnose or monitor a wide range of health conditions, such as surgical complications or neurodegenerative diseases.
The sensor can measure the amount of critical metabolites, such as lactate or glucose, that are present in sweat, tears, saliva or blood, and, when incorporated into a diagnostic device, could allow health conditions to be monitored quickly, cheaply and accurately. The new device has a far simpler design than existing sensors, and opens up a wide range of new possibilities for health monitoring down to the cellular level. The results are reported in the journal Science Advances.
Almost 6 months ago, I wrote a short post about (what I thought was) a lack of technologies for monitoring training in flatwater or sprint kayaking. To make sure that it wasn’t just me thinking that way, I created a survey and sent it to a couple of kayaking friends who graciously helped spread the word. I also posted a link to the survey on social media (i.e. Twitter) which I think wasn’t quite as effective. Overall, I didn’t get a big response but it still gave me a peek into things. So let’s dive into it and see what it’s telling us.
Running shoes get dirty. But don’t let it bother you too much—look at the grime as a sign that you’re putting in good miles. But if your shoes get so dirty or smelly that you’re just dying to wash them, there are ways to clean them safely.
“Skip the washer and dryer,” says David Bond, who’s designed running shoes for adidas and K-Swiss, and is a co-founder of Ampla footwear. Bond explains that running shoes use a water-based cement to hold them together. “If you submerge them in water, like in a washing machine, or put them in the dryer, the shoe will start to disassemble.”
For similar reasons, Bond also says to steer clear of spraying your shoes with a hose, or letting them dry in the sun. “It’s just not good for the shape of the shoe,” he says. Instead, take a wet washcloth and wipe down the outside of your shoe, treating your kicks like you would your car.
… Everyone knows that being dehydrated is not a good thing, but few understand that there are different types as well as levels of hydration.
Terms such as “electrolytes” and “carbohydrates” have become quite familiar, but did you know there are different types of electrolytes that have different roles in keeping you healthy?
To begin with, you need to understand that there are three basic levels of hydration: hypertonic, isotonic and hypotonic.
Fabrics that resist water are essential for everything from rainwear to military tents, but conventional water-repellent coatings have been shown to persist in the environment and accumulate in our bodies, and so are likely to be phased out for safety reasons. That leaves a big gap to be filled if researchers can find safe substitutes.
Now, a team at MIT has come up with a promising solution: a coating that not only adds water-repellency to natural fabrics such as cotton and silk, but is also more effective than the existing coatings. The new findings are described in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, in a paper by MIT professors Kripa Varanasi and Karen Gleason, former MIT postdoc Dan Soto, and two others.
“The challenge has been driven by the environmental regulators” because of the phaseout of the existing waterproofing chemicals, Varanasi explains. But it turns out his team’s alternative actually outperforms the conventional materials.
Dermira, a Silicon Valley firm, won FDA approval for a wipe to treat excessive under-arm sweating, clinically known as primary axillary hyperhidrosis. The cloth contains glycopyrronium, an anticholinergic.
Winning a national championship may be the ultimate goal of sports team today, but for foraging societies long ago, games involving contact may have helped hone skills for warfare, say researchers.
“Skeletal evidence from Africa suggests that warfare dates back to at least 10,000 years ago,” says Michelle Scalise Sugiyama of the University of Oregon’s anthropology department. “People ask often ask, what did people back then fight about? Well, that can be answered with, ‘What do you got?’”
In a paper in the journal Human Nature, Scalise Sugiyama and colleagues identified a previously unrecognized type of play, or coalitional play fighting, and tested for its presence in hunter-gatherer societies. They associated eight motor activities—catching, dodging, grappling, kicking, parrying, running, striking, and throwing—with both team play fighting and lethal raiding.
… Dauwalter has excelled at slower, more mountainous races like the Run Rabbit Run 100. A fast 100-miler like Western States, where the overall winner routinely finishes well below 16 hours (compared to Run Rabbit Run’s 17 or 18 hours), was out of her wheelhouse. But Dauwalter didn’t put much thought into devising a race-specific training plan. “I just kept doing what’s already been working,” she says.
When asked for details, Dauwalter admits she doesn’t really have a set training schedule. “I just leave my door and see where my legs take me for the day,” she says. “Some sections of trail I will do a bit faster—informal interval stuff. But there’s not much structure to it.” This way, she leaves herself the freedom to take a day off or cut a run short when her body needs it, or go longer when her body is feeling good, without feeling guilty for modifying the plan.
Dauwalter carried that same mentality over to race day. Many athletes spend the days before the gun studying their goal paces and going over strategy. Dauwalter passed that time playing cribbage with her crew.
It may seem obvious – as you push on through a long run, veering wildly between sensations of agony and elation – that running can have a huge effect on your state of mind. It is an intuitive idea that a growing number of neuroscientists have begun to take seriously, and in recent years they have started to show us what actually plays out on the hills and valleys of your grey matter as you run.
Their findings confirm what many runners know from their own experience: we can use running as a tool to improve the way we think and feel. And we are now learning precisely why running can return focus, vanquish stress and improve mood. Plus we know why – if you’re lucky – you might get a brief glimpse of nirvana.
Medium, EPFL Extension School, Go to the profile of Linda Farczadi Linda Farczadi from
This is part 3 of a series of posts about analyzing your own data from the online network Strava. In the first two posts we covered obtaining the data using the Strava API and cleaning it using Pandas. In this post, we will look at some exploratory data analysis and plotting. We will use two main tools: pandas and Seaborn.
The Washington Post, Wonkblog, Christopher Ingraham from
Among the nine indicators we analyzed, the biggest predictor of weekly physical activity at the state level was money: Residents of states with bigger median incomes were more likely to get out and exercise than people in low-income states.
[Calories and macros and BMI don’t count. Here are the numbers that really matter.]
We uncovered some surprises in the data, too. Heavy drinking is slightly correlated with more physical activity, believe it or not. Warmer temperatures are linked to less exercise. And other characteristics of the physical environment, such as daily sunshine and mild winters, don’t actually seem to matter much.
In a previous post we covered studies that show using HRV to be significantly better than a standard training program in improving the performance of club and recreational runners.
Now, a new study by researchers from the Universities of Alicante in Spain and Stellenbosch in South Africa shows very promising results in well trained (but not elite) road cyclists.