Snyder Paper

Hope everyone is doing well and had an enjoyable Memorial Day holiday weekend.  Thanks to all those who work so hard to memorialize our heros, those who have passed on and those who are still with us.

I wanted to take the opportunity in this post to discuss briefly a paper that was published in September of 2009 in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning.  The title of the paper is "Using near-infrared spectroscopy to determine maximal steady state exercise intensity."  In this paper, the authors (Snyder and Parmenter, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) discuss a study they did on 9 men and 7 women using a medical version of the MOxy device, in this case referring to the metric as StO2 (Tissue Oxygen Saturation). 

In the paper, the authors state that "Maximal steady state (MSS) speed can be determined from blood lactate concentration (HLa); however, this method is not optimal.  (Lactate requires a finger stick blood sample).  The purpose of this study was to determine whether near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) technology could be used to detect a breakpoint in percent oxygen saturation (StO2) of the muscle and whether the determined breakpoint exercise intensity could be used to determine MSS exercise intensity."

The testing protocol included "Sixteen distance runners and triathletes ... they completed an incremental exercise test. A change from linearity when plotting StO2 or HLa (Lactate) vs. running speed was defined as the breakpoint."

"The subjects then completed constant speed runs to determine maximal lactate steady state (MLSS). In 12 subjects, breakpoints were identified for both HLa and StO2 values." the paper goes on to say.  This work was all done on a treadmill with the StO2 sensor on the calf muscle of the athlete.

Snyder states that "The results of this study lead us to conclude that the NIRS determination of StO2 is a noninvasive technique that is comparable with HLa (Lactate) in determining MSS intensity and therefore appropriate for use in determining exercise training intensity." 

In other words, the MOxy approach to measuring Maximal Steady State, or the pace at which a runner or triathlete can sustain long distances without running out of energy, and without pacing too slow, is an "appropriate" methodology.  And it is real-time, continuous, and non-invasive - which you can't get with a HLa (Blood Lactate) system.

Our thanks to Snyder and Parmenter for this excellent study.  This is good work.

In the near future I will be highlighting some work being done at the University of Minnesota Athletic Department with the MOxy device.  Stay tuned, its some pretty exciting feedback from real users of the device.

As I stated in previous posts, "The team at Fortiori Design (www.fortiorides.com) is driving hard to get the MOxy product to market, and get this tool into the hands of athletes that would benefit from seeing directly and instantaneously what is happening in their muscles during workouts. Maximizing the efficiency of their workout, and maximizing the progress towards their performance goals, will always be our priority."

That's all for now.  Thanks for reading my blog!