6 Wearable Tech to Improve Performance

“Wearable technology has become a mainstay in human performance. The key is being able to find the right solution that provides actionable, meaningful results.”

Adam Loiacono

1. Oura Ring

The Oura Ring I believe will become the standard for 24-hour activity tracking. I find it hard to imagine a more simple yet effective tool. The Oura Ring offers a unique blend of features that are highly valuable in sports performance, mirroring the approach of devices like Whoop but with its own distinct capabilities.

1. Precision Sleep Tracking: The Oura Ring’s advanced sensors provide detailed insights into sleep patterns, including REM and deep sleep stages. For athletes, understanding sleep quality is as crucial as training itself. The data helps in tailoring recovery periods, ensuring the body and mind are adequately rested for optimal performance.
2. Heart Rate Variability (HRV) Analysis: Similar to Whoop, the Oura Ring monitors HRV, a critical indicator of recovery and stress levels. By tracking HRV, athletes can gauge their readiness for high-intensity training or the need for rest. This data is vital in preventing overtraining and injuries, thus maintaining a healthy balance in training schedules.
3. Activity and Readiness Scoring: The Oura Ring offers daily scores for overall readiness and activity levels. These scores are computed by analyzing various metrics, including sleep quality, HRV, body temperature, and activity data. Athletes can use these scores to make informed decisions about training intensity and duration, ensuring they are working at their optimal level without risking fatigue or burnout.
4. Temperature Monitoring: An often-overlooked aspect in sports performance is the body’s temperature fluctuations, which can indicate physiological stress or the onset of illness. The Oura Ring continuously monitors body temperature, providing athletes with early warnings about potential health issues that could impact their training and performance.
5. Long-term Wellness Trends: By collecting and analyzing data over time, the Oura Ring helps athletes understand long-term trends in their health and wellness. This holistic view is essential in making lifestyle adjustments that positively impact both immediate performance and long-term athletic career.
6. User-Friendly Interface and Feedback: The Oura Ring, paired with its app, offers an intuitive interface that presents complex data in an easily understandable format. Athletes can quickly grasp their physical status and make immediate adjustments to their routines, enhancing training efficiency and effectiveness.

2. IMU Step

IMU Step is a wearable technology that utilizes Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) to gather detailed data about an athlete’s movements. These units typically include accelerometers, gyroscopes, and sometimes magnetometers, allowing them to measure acceleration, rotation, and orientation in space.

Application to Athletic Performance:

• Gait Analysis: By attaching the IMU to the athlete’s ankles, coaches can analyze gait patterns, stride length, and ground contact time, which are crucial in the return to sport process.
• Asymmetry: IMU Step can detect asymmetries in movement that may indicate a risk of injury or re-injury. This information is vital for managing load and coaching technique during rehab.
• Performance Optimization: The chronic load feature that shows how much workload the athlete performs over time can showcase the acute:chronic relationship.

Below are 2 sample screens from the IMU website. The top image showcases how the system analyzes asymmetry and step count at increasing intensities. The bottom image displays a longitudinal workload. Each bar represents a training day and the lines references both the intensity and bone stress.

3. Whoop Band

The Whoop Band is a wrist-worn fitness tracker that focuses on monitoring physiological data such as heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), and sleep patterns.

Application to Athletic Performance:

• Recovery Monitoring: By tracking sleep and HRV, Whoop helps athletes understand their recovery status, which is crucial for optimizing training schedules.
• Training Intensity Adjustments: The device provides insights into an athlete’s daily strain, enabling adjustments to training intensity based on real-time physiological data.
• Health and Wellness Tracking: Continuous monitoring helps in understanding the broader health and wellness trends, which can impact long-term athletic performance.

The image below showcases many of the data visualizations that the Whoop band can provide through their simple iPhone and Android apps.

4. Kinexon

Kinexon specializes in precision localization and motion sensing, using small sensors to capture a variety of metrics, including position, speed, and acceleration. The system is geared towards team sports.

Application to Athletic Performance:

• Spatial Analysis: In team sports like basketball or soccer, Kinexon sensors can track players’ positions, offering valuable data for tactical analysis.
• Performance Metrics: They provide real-time data on speed, distance covered, and acceleration, which are essential for performance analysis and conditioning.
• Load Management: By measuring the intensity and volume of movements, Kinexon helps in managing an athlete’s workload to optimize performance and reduce injury risks.

5. Polar Verity

Polar Verity is a heart rate monitoring system known for its accuracy with the advancements in optical heart rate tracking.

Application to Athletic Performance:

• Cardiovascular Training: Accurate heart rate data is crucial for designing cardiovascular training programs. Polar Verity helps in setting training zones and monitoring cardiovascular response to different training stimuli.
• Recovery Assessment: By monitoring heart rate variability, athletes can assess their state of recovery and readiness for training or competition.
• Endurance Sports: Especially valuable in endurance sports like long-distance running, cycling, or swimming, where monitoring heart rate is essential for pacing and energy management.

6. Catapult Sports

Catapult Sports offers a range of wearable devices that collect data on athletic performance, including movement, workload, and physical responses during training and games.

Application to Athletic Performance:

• Comprehensive Performance Analysis: Catapult devices provide a wide array of data points, including speed, distance, acceleration, and workload, allowing a detailed analysis of an athlete’s performance.
• Team Sport Dynamics: In team sports, Catapult’s technology can be used to understand team dynamics, player roles, and the physical demands of specific positions.
• Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation: The data from these devices can be crucial in injury prevention strategies and monitoring the rehabilitation process, ensuring that athletes return to play safely and effectively.

Each of these technologies offers unique insights and advantages, contributing significantly to the optimization of athletic performance through detailed, personalized data analysis.