Crowd Funding, MetaWatch, Wireless Muscle Oxygen Monitor

Hey All!  Thanks for reading my blog.  Lots of things going on these days...


Crowd Funding
This is a concept that has come along over the past couple of years.  Simply put, it's more of a "pre-sale" approach than it is an investor approach.  You don't end up owning a piece of the company you invest in, but you get to be the first-in on a lot of cool new items.  The one I linked up below is the MetaWatch.  They are targeting $100K, and are already almost double that at the writing of this blog post.  Really cool - see the link below.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/metawatch/metawatch-strata-the-smartwatch-for-the-iphone-4s

And if you think that's amazing, check out the Kickstarter that Pebble watch did a few months ago - over $10M raised. 

Why do I bring this up in my blog?  Because we are working towards doing a Kickstarter for Moxy Muscle Oxygen Monitor in the Fall of this year. 

Also - another significance to MetaWatch - this device works well with the Moxy Muscle Oxygen Monitor.  That's right - we are planning to display our SmO2 data right on the MetaWatch.  In fact our technical team already has one, and is working on establishing communications.

New Wireless Prototype
As I mentioned in a previous post, the wireless version of the Moxy Muscle Oxygen Monitor is now available.  I have been running with mine since the middle of last week - and the data is looking really good.  Next week we will have 10 systems to send out to our Developers group. 

Reminder that our developers forum is up and running.  The developers group has edit and posting rights, all others can view their activity.  If you want to be a part of the developers forum group - let me know.   It's on our new web site at www.moxymonitor.com.


Thanks again for reading my blog.  I will keep you informed as things develop.

Stu

Big Developments in Moxy Muscle Oxygen Monitor

First of all, thanks for reading my blog.  I enjoy writing it, and hope you are getting something out of the discussions about exercise physiology.

To stay true to the title of this post, there is some news that I would like to share.

The Device
The progress that our development team is making is tremendous.  Tomorrow I have the honor of receiving the first wireless Moxy Muscle Oxygen Monitor system.  It includes the sensor, which attaches directly and non-invasively to the muscle of the athlete, and a wrist watch type device that displays the SmO2 readings.  I can't wait to hit the road and put on some miles with this device.

The New Web Site
We are very excited to see the new web site.  Please make sure you check it out, spend some time looking into the content.    www.moxymonitor.com  

The Advisory Team
The players are all in place to begin use of the new wireless system.  Their names are published on our web site.  There will be more than 13 monitoring systems going out over the next couple of weeks.  Their job is to post information, questions, and discussions on the site, and help us refine the uses for the device.

The Forum
We have started a forum that you can view from our web site.  This is where the Advisory Team will communicate with each other, and all of you will be able to observe as well.

Thanks again to all of your for reading my blog, and for sharing this journey with us.

Thanks for reading my blog!

Stu

Bonus: Here's a picture of the new Moxy Muscle Oxygen monitor.

Why I’m excited about Muscle Oxygen Monitoring for Training

Why I’m excited about Muscle Oxygen Monitoring for Training

(This blog post contributed by Roger Schmitz, Owner and Chief Engineer at Fortiori Design LLC, and inventor of the Moxy Muscle Oxygen Monitor.)

The mechanisms by which the human body improves performance are well understood.

1)      Neurological adaptations

2)      Physiological adaptations

The first mechanism occurs relatively quickly with any training regimen.  It’s sometimes called the novice effect.  Basically it means that your body learns how to most efficiently control the muscles to perform the intended task.  This adaptation can occur very quickly because you don’t need to grow more muscle mass; you just need to learn more efficient movements.

A personal example of this phenomenon occurred when I had a job setting concrete forms to pour basement walls.  The forms were 8 feet tall, 3 feet wide and weighed over 80 pounds.  At first, I just about couldn’t move the things.  However, I quickly learned how to balance the weight, hold them close to my body, and many other techniques that made the job much easier.  Within a few weeks, I could carry them on one arm!

The neurological adaptations occur on large and small scales.  The body learns to only recruit muscles that most efficiently perform the task and fibers in within each muscle start to work together better. 

 

The physiological adaptations take longer and are more difficult to stimulate.  A muscle needs 2 things to generate physiological adaptations.

1)      Stress

2)      Recovery

Stress is the body’s signal to grow muscle.  The stress comes from use… hard use.  Recovery is the body’s opportunity to rebuild the muscle stronger than it was before the stress.  Recovery isn’t just passive however.  Recovery requires adequate nutrition and it works best with lots of blood flow to the muscle.

This brings us to muscle oxygen monitoring and we need to think about both mechanisms of performance improvement.  Muscle oxygen monitoring indicates the current stress status of a muscle.  High oxygenation means low stress and vice versa.

It’s not always easy for an athlete to know that they are exercising at the proper stress level to induce muscle growth or at the proper level for recovery.  Studies have shown that athletes tend to exercise at too low of intensity on the high stress workouts and too low of intensity on their recoveries.

The athlete’s perception of the stress level in their muscle can be clouded by the neurological adaptation.  Initially, a certain workout will induce the desired stress level to induce muscle growth.  However, as the neurological adaptation occurs, the same workout becomes too easy due to improved efficiency.  Workouts like the p90X workout were developed in an effort to address this issue.

On the recovery side athletes tend to want to feel the burn or feel like they’re pushing themselves.  Often, this puts them at too high of an intensity level for optimal recovery.

Monitoring the muscle oxygen level is a fundamental answer to this problem.  It measures directly what athletes need to know in order to improve performance.

Thanks Roger, and a big thanks to all of you for reading my blog!!

Stu

Mountain Bike Racing in Idaho! Sun Valley Nationals Course

Scott Spoo, graduate student at the University of Minnesota, and a member of our Moxy Muscle Oxygen Monitor Developers Forum, just got back from a Mountain Biking race on the Sun Valley Nationals course in Idaho.

The race was a "loop" and was over 22 miles in total distance.  And if you think Mountain Biking over 22 miles is tough, consider that the elevation change for this race was over 3000 Feet!  Quite a feat, if you ask me.  Congratulations Scott on a great race.

Scott tried using the physiological metrics available to him, most prominently Heart Rate.  However, in his post-race write-up, Scott commented that he really would have like to have had the Moxy Muscle Oxygen Monitor giving him Oxygen readings throughout.  Especially, during the large elevation changes. 

Quoting Scott, he says that "I was just out in Idaho for the Mtn bike national race.... and boy do I wish I had the Moxy !"

I am really looking forward to seeing Scotts write-up published in the Moxy Muscle Oxygenation Developers Forum.

In Other News - Roger and I are off to the studio to make a promotional video for the new web site tomorrow.  Wish us luck!

Thanks for reading my blog

Stu

Muscle Oxygen vs. Muscle Oxygenation for Athletes

Getting a bit technical with today's blog - something to ponder for the physiology-minded reader.

I have done some research on the term Oxygenation, specifically regarding how well it fits with the Moxy Muscle Oxygen (or Oxygenation?) Monitor we are developing.  Any thoughts on this one are welcome ...

• Oxygenation - according to one source (Wikipedia) - "occurs when oxygen molecules (O2) enter the tissues of the body.  For example, blood is oxygenated in the lungs, where oxygen molecules travel from the air and into the blood.  Oxygenation is commonly used to refer to medical oxygen saturation."
• Oxygen - according to one source (Dictionary.com) - "a colorless, odorless, gaseous element constituting about one-fifth of the volume of the atmosphere and present in a combined state in nature."

So the question is: would "Oxygenation" be the more appropriate description of what we are measuring?  The answer would be an obvious "yes".  But the real challenge is  - do our users understand "Oxygenation" more easily, or is the term "Oxygen" more understandable to them?

I'd sure like to hear from a few readers on this one. 

At present we are continuing to use the term "Moxy Muscle Oxygen Monitor", but there are also a few of us that use "Moxy Muscle Oxygenation Monitor" to describe the device.






In other news ...

• This is a big week.  We are planning to release the new web site for public use.  Can't wait to see what it looks like when finished.
• In the week following ... the new wireless version of the Moxy Muscle Oxygen Monitor we be available to our "Moxy Developers" group.  We currently are up to 13 (possibly 14) members in the group, and their on-line forum is set up and ready for feedback and discussion.  And you will have access to it!  I will be posting the web address soon.

Once again, thanks for reading my blog!

Stu

Great Athletic Training Device on Kickstarter.com

Hello again everyone, and thanks for reading my blog!

I read an inspiring piece today in Triathlete Magazine, and I wanted to share it with all of you.

http://triathlon.competitor.com/2012/07/gear-tech/mio-to-launch-strapless-heart-rate-monitor_57233

Using Kickstarter (www.kickstarter.com) is an excellent method of raising funds for a new business opportunity without giving up equity in the business. 

Earlier this year we watched as a product called Pebble, a simple e-paper watch, raised over $10M on Kickstarter (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/597507018/pebble-e-paper-watch-for-iphone-and-android?ref=live).  That's pretty impressive - maybe even too impressive when you think about how many of those watches need to be built and shipped in the three months following the closing of the project.

There are currently plans coming together to get the Moxy Muscle Oxygen Monitor into a Kickstarter project - most likely by this Fall.  Our goals is to raise enough funds to get the design ready for mass production. 

Thanks again for reading my blog!

Stu

What does it take to get better?

First of all, I have to clear up some "technical" business.  As we develop this new MOxy product, it is important that we get some consistent terminology associated with the metric.  For more detailed information, check out the two blog posts I wrote earlier about the "Dump Trucks".

SmO2 - This is the technical term (abreviation) for the metric that the MOxy Muscle Oxygen Monitor actually measures. 

The "S" refers to "Saturation", as in the percent of hemoglobin that is saturated with Oxygen.

The "m" refers to "muscle". 

The "O2", of course, refers to "Oxygen", which in this metric is tied to hemoglobin.

"Muscle Oxygen Monitor" refers to the complete measurement system including the sensor, the display, and any external software and websites that we might use. 

Now on to the topic at hand, "What does it take to get better?".

As I work through the benefits (and, at times, disappointments) in my own training regime, I am finding that there is room for both aerobic and anaerobic workouts.  I thought all it took was to just keep running, but I have never made gains as quickly as I have recently mixing things up a bit. 

I start my week (like I just did tonight) with what I'm told is an LSR (Long Slow Run), which for me is about 6 miles at somewhere around a 9 minute mile (sometimes longer).  This I do once per week.

Then I make sure I mix in a few "interval" training runs.  Being that I am mostly interested in competing in 5k and 4 mile runs, I keep the overall length of the interval training to about 3 miles.  From there, it's pretty simple.  I run half mile intervals, starting with a half mile slow and steady, followed by a half mile as fast as I can for that distance.  The fast half is always tough.

With this method I am seeing great results.  My times are consistently coming down, whereas they were actually getting worse before I tried this.

How does this connect with the MOxy Muscle Oxygen Monitor?  It's clear from our early testing that this system gives direct and instantaneous feedback to the athlete that lets them know if they are aerobic or anarobic, how long they have been in that state, and how deep into that state they have been.

For example - the LSR (Long Slow Run) is for building endurance.  MOxy's SmO2 readings can tell the athlete that they are maintaining their Muscle Oxygen readings in a zone that is safe for long endurance type workouts.  Sure they are tiring workouts, but the supply of Oxygen is not an issue.  This "zone" is excellent for building the endurance the athlete is looking for, and has the added benefit of being great for weight loss.

However, the LSR won't build your speed.  For that the athlete must get into some kind of speed training, like the "interval" training I talked about earlier.  The athlete must push themselves to drive their muscles into the "anaerobic" zone, starving the muscle of Oxygen for short periods of time.  With MOxy's SmO2 readings, the athlete can determine the depth of the anaerobic "zone", and how long that depth has been held.  Following the fast interval, there is a recovery period that must occur before the athlete goes after another fast interval.  This is sometimes done with heart rate (HR) or with time, but MOxy's SmO2 readings tell the athlete their rate of recovery and the peak of their recovery as well.  How long they chose to hold the recovery period, once it is complete, is up to them. 

I personally tested the device, both on myself and other athletes.  The system worked well, but still had a chord and a laptop computer.  I am really looking forward to getting the wireless systems in the hands of our MOxy Developers.  The delivery date is now within just a few weeks, and our Developers are waiting anxiously for the systems to be delivered.  With wireless sensors and a wrist worn monitor, this device is ready to "hit the road". 

More to come on the Developers group.  I will share their Bios, and a link to the Forum that they will be using to post their feedback.

Once again, thanks for reading my blog!!!

Stu

It's Official - New MOxy Logo

Hi again everyone. 
I am excited to announce that we have a new logo.  This logo will be showing up on the product, on the new web site currently under development, and on clothing and other promotional materials.

Thanks to the Marketing Team for all the solid work putting this together.

Here it is!

As always, I welcome your comments.  What do you think of the new logo?

Thanks for reading my blog!

Stu