Why do we run? A comment on my dad's bypass surgery.

On a personal note, this week my father went through heart bypass surgery.  Based on my simple minded genetics viewpoint, I should be getting prepped for mine in about 26 years.  I find it amazing that today's state-of-the-art procedure has him under the knife on Monday morning, and sitting up in a chair, eating his evening meal, and laughing a chatting with his grand children on Wednesday evening. 

We all run for a variety of reasons, our personalities drive us all to this activity from so many different perspectives.  But we all get the same benefits.  I could blog 10,000 words today about the mental and physical benefits of exercise, but you can do that research yourself  - there's ton's of it out there.  My philosophy on health and fitnes, weight gain or loss, and basic energy levels is quite simply - Eat Right and Exercise.  I haven't seen a fad diet or exercise gizmo on TV yet that can come close to just working at it from that simple philosophy.

Followers of the MOxy Muscle Oxygen Monitor have probably been wondering, as they read the first two paragraphs, "how is he going to work the product into this post?". 

Well - here it is.

Again - it's all about oxygen, and the ability to deliver oxygen.  The heart bypass is a procedure targeted at dramatically increasing blood supply,oxygen, and nutrients, to areas of the heart muscle that, through disease, are becoming starved and damaged.  This is the cause of chest pain, fatigue, and heart attacks. 

You, the athlete, are working hard every day to increase the efficiency with which you delivery oxygen to the muscles you are working, and to increase the efficiency with which those muscles utilize that oxygen.  Cardiovascular improvements are noticed by you as you improve your times, increase your speed, and increase you distance.

MOxy Muscle Oxygen Monitor measures "directly" the oxygen delivery and consumption in the muscle you are targeting.   It's a scientific approach that has been used in medicine for decades, and, with MOxy, has now become portable and cost effective for athletes.

I am still planning to get the new news out on this blog regarding our new logo, web site, and user community.  That's still on the "Coming Soon" list (very soon!).  I am very excited about these changes, and know that you will be too.

Thanks for reading my blog!

Stu

Development of a user community ...

In a previous blog I talked about the addition of Valerie Hunt to the MOxy Muscle Oxygen Monitor "User Community".  The mission of this group is to use the new wireless version of the device, help develop some best practices on it's use, and write/talk/blog about it.  Keeping this passionate group of users together and interacting regularly will help aid in the rapid development of the final device in the Fall of this year. 

If you are interested, or know someone who may be interested, in becoming a part of the User Community, please let me know asap.

I am looking forward to the next couple of weeks.  There is a lot going on with the build up of the wireless systems, establishing communication to a wrist worn monitoring device, launching a new web site, and introducing a totally new logo for the MOxy Muscle Oxygen Monitor.  I think you are going to like it.  We are sure excited. 

Thanks for reading my blog.  I am looking forward to your questions and feedback.

Stu

More on the Dump Truck Analogy

Thanks for the feedback from the fans of the MOxy Muscle Oxygen Sensor and of this blog.  Your comments are very helpful in the process of getting this product into the hands of those trainers and athletes that need it.

In a previous blog I talked about the analogy of "Dump Trucks" where the Dump Trucks represented hemoglobin, the blood component that carries oxygen from the lungs to the tissue (muscle) that needs it.  In the blog I references a draft paper that was being prepared by Roger Schmitz, Owner and Chief Engineer at Fortiori Design (www.fortiorides.com).
As Schmitz explains, "By carefully measuring color (of the hemoglobin) MOxy measures the percentage of hemoglobin in the capillaries that is loaded with oxygen." 

The connection to exercise is that "The human body has several response mechanisms to exercise that alter the whole dump truck system. First, heart rate goes up in response to exercise. This has the effect of increasing the speed limit... all the trucks move faster. Second, traffic can be redirected at the side street level. When more oxygen is needed in a certain area, chemical signals cause more side streets to open up.

As more and more of the dump trucks in the capillaries are unloaded, it means that more and more parts of the muscle aren’t getting all of the oxygen that is needed. This is true regardless of the heart rate.

When muscles get all of the oxygen they need ... they can keep doing work for a long time (aerobic metabolism). However, when a muscle isn’t getting all of the oxygen that it needs (anaerobic metabolism), it can keep working… but only for a while. The fuel store for this type of work is limited and it causes the buildup of byproducts like lactic acid. Eventually, the muscle runs out of anaerobic fuel and the lactic acid build up causes the muscle to stop doing work."

In future blog posts I will discuss more about the benefits of knowing whether your workout is aerobic or anaerobic.  Both have benefits - but they are quite different.

Thanks to everyone again for reading the blog.  Thanks as well to Roger Schmitz (rschmitz@fortiorides.com) for his contributions to this post.

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!

Welcome Valerie Hunt to the MOxy User Community

I'd like to throw a special thanks out there to Valerie Hunt.  Valerie is the owner of Xpressfitness in Austin, Texas, and is the most recent addition to the MOxy User Community.  Valerie has a BS in Kinesiology from the University of Texas in Austin, with a minor in Nutrition, and she now has a MOxy device and is just getting started.  Valerie has indicated that she's already got an application for the device, targeting improving performance of a client that seems to be lagging in performance compared to where she should be.

On an interesting note - Valerie is a Pose Method Certified Running Coach Level II.  If you want to know more about Pose, check out this link  http://www.posetech.com/services/ValerieHunt.html.  I watched one of the videos, and it makes the claim that it can reduce energy expended for the same or similar speed accomplished.  The method is very interesting, and I think I could really benefit from it myself.

Valerie's addition to the team is an example of what we intend to keep doing - looking for people who are very interested in the technology, and can help us understand the uses and methods that need to be associated with using the MOxy device.

If anyone has any questions or comments, on this post, and other posts, or just in general about the MOxy device - please contact me at sgiere.fortiori@gmail.com.  Also check us out on our web site at www.fortiorides.com.  Finally, of course, you could just respond (in-line) within this blog.

Thanks for reading my blog.

Stu

MOxy Explained - Dump Trucks of Oxygen?

As always, a very big thanks to all of you who are reading this Blog.  I am new to doing this, and I am still trying some things out - so thanks for your patience.  In this post, I would like to ask all those readers out there in my friends network to give me some feedback on the exerpts below - let me know if this information makes sense, or give ideas on how it can be improved or clarified.

A reminder - the purpose for my blogging is to develop a body of information about my start-up company, the device we are launching THIS YEAR, and some information about the fitness industry that is connected to the MOxy Muscle Oxygen Sensor applications and technology.

Today I thought I would reference a paper recently written ( but still in draft form) by Roger Schmitz,  the Chief Engineer at Fortiori Design (the makers of the MOxy Muscle Oxygen Sensor). 

In an effort to simplify the description of MOxy, Schmitz created the analogy of "Dump Trucks" to represent the blood component Hemoglobin.  In the paper, Schmitz says that "Hemoglobin is the molecule in blood that is the primary carrier of oxygen from the lungs to where it’s needed in the body."

Schmitz goes on to state that "Hemoglobin is the dump truck that hauls oxygen from the lungs to where it’s needed. The dump trucks travel on the circulatory system of the body. The heart moves the trucks. The lungs load the trucks. The arteries and veins are the freeways for the trucks to travel. The capillaries are the business end where the trucks unload."

What's important to know at this point, is that the MOxy Muscle Oxygen Sensor measures this DIRECTLY.  In other words, the MOxy sensor can detect how much Oxygen is in the muscle being measured.

Schmitz states "A little gift from physics is that the hemoglobin dump trucks change color depending on whether they’re carrying oxygen or not. So by looking at the color of the dump trucks in the capillaries we can see how many are carrying oxygen. This is where the MOxy comes in. By carefully measuring color, it measures the percentage of hemoglobin in the capillaries that is loaded with oxygen."

Again - I am looking for feedback on the analogy of the Dump Trucks.  In the future I will talk about the aerobic and anaerobic states, and why they are important to the athlete.

Thanks for reading my Blog!!!

Stu

First Annual Oak Island 5K! (???)

That's right, Oak Island.  I was the sole competitor in my own 5K workout.  Just so happens that if you run from the East end of the island to the West end, then back again, it's about 3 miles.  Too bad it's all rutted up muddy paths.  But that's a great challenge for a runner.  Keep on the path, keep track of your intensity, don't lose your footing in mud, and don't turn your ankle on the terrain (I did twice, a bit sore, but OK).

If you aren't aware of Oak Island, it is the Northern most point in the lower 48 states, and sits atop the Northwest Angle in Northern Minnesota.  Nice place to go if you want to catch Walleye, and a nice surprise that this island in the Northern paradise has enough trails to support at least some kind of training while up here.

Got some evidence, as you can see.  Pictures include 1) trail conditons,  2) halfway point (West end of island), and 3) my son with the "proof" of why we came this far (just a sampling).

Thanks for reading my blog!
Stu