UPGRADING FROM TRACKERS TO SENSORS
Get ready for the next wave of technology that is transforming training as we know it. While visiting two recent tech events in Southern California, Wearable Tech & IOT and The Luxury Technology Show, I had an opportunity to try out some of training's hottest new devices. While most of you have been working with activity trackers, apps, and smartwatches, this new product wave is all about sensors.
Sensors will be in your shoes, socks, shorts, shirts and even your sports bra. Sensors can now be embedded in textile fibers, so that you can wash and wear your sensor clothing just like any other training apparel. These sensors can measure heart rate, respiration, hydration levels, muscle activation, stride length, foot strike, ground contact time, and more.
One innovative product is from Sensoria. Their first release is a smart sock, smart shirt and/or sports bra, ankle bracelet transmitter and a mobile app, designed for runners. The product provides real-time feedback on cadence and foot strike, among other data, to improve running form. I sat down with Davide Vigano, Sensoria’s co-founder and CEO, and he told me that this first product release is only the beginning of an entire platform of products and services based on sensor activity with clothing and footwear. Pretty exciting.
Another product released in 2015 is the Skulpt Aim, a hand-held device that allows you to almost instantaneously measure muscle quality and body fat in every major muscle group throughout the body using electrical impedance myography [try to say that fast three times :)]. I met the co-founder and CEO, Jose Bohorquez, who explained to me that its accuracy is within 2 percentage points of DEXA, which is the "gold standard" for body composition testing. This can really impact your training as it enables you to see muscle quality differences from right to left and front and back to help you to target your training program and track its effectiveness.
There's so many devices— from wearables to monitors to smart clothing—available today to help you get fit and improve health. Whatever your goal -- weight loss, better performance, more activity, strength training, body building -- there's a device that can help you. Watch this quick 4 minute overview based on my interviews with multiple CEOs of fit tech start ups for a magazine fit tech column that I wrote.