Philip Batterson is a staff physiologist for Moxy Monitor. He is finishing a Ph.D. in molecular exercise physiology where he explores how muscles (more specifically mitochondria) adapt to dietary and exercise interventions. His master's degree is in biology where he focused on applied physiology and predictors of endurance performance. This where he first used near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to show that NIRS derived skeletal muscle oxidative capacity was the single best predictor of 40km cycling performance in highly trained cyclists. 

Andri Feldmann is a staff physiologist for Moxy. He’s been involved with Moxy since the first prototypes were developed as an extension of the work done by his father, Juerg Feldmann. Juerg was a pioneer of using Near Infrared Spectroscopy for training athletes, using medical versions of the technology before Moxy was developed. As a teenager, Andri was often a test subject of Juerg’s and his constant exposure to Juerg’s ideas led him to pursue studies in sports science and human kinetics at the University of British Columbia.

We exhibited Moxy at the ACSM Annual Meeting last week and Moxy was everywhere. There were two clear trends.

We often talk about identifying physiologic limiters with Moxy.  We can determine if an athlete is limited by oxygen delivery or oxygen utilization and we can further discern if a supply limitation is due to the cardiac or the pulmonary system.

Here's an interview I did on the future of wearable fitness trackers for the Accurofit.com w

Denis Šketako is a Slovenian triathlete that Moxy has recently begun sponsoring. He has been using Moxy with his trainer, Sašo Rupnik, for the past two years. Here is a short email interview with Denis that tells us a little bit more about him and how Moxy fits into his training.

Denis also made a video that shows how he uses Moxy, which you can check out here.  

1. How did you get interested in the sport of Triathlon, and at what distances do you compete?

I have been training for basketball at local club for 14 years, but I couldn’t see the opportunity for being a professional athlete in that environment, so I decided to find new challenges. Working as a lifeguard for a couple of years, I learned to swim pretty well. I also started with some recreational cycling. One day, the word “Ironman” randomly came to my attention, and I just couldn’t get it out of my mind. I got beaten by the curiosity and decided to give it a go. In 2011, I finished my first Ironman at the age of 21 in 10h 20min, and last year I finished it in 8h 27min.

There are many variations of Triathlon competitions, depending on the length of each discipline. I find my best performance at long distances, i.e. a full Ironman: 3.8 km swim + 180 km bike + 42 km run. To prepare for these races, I sometimes also compete in a half-distance Ironman called Ironman 70.3.

Moxy was the first muscle oxygen monitor developed specifically for athletes. Originally conceived as a possible solution for medical applications like Acute Compartment Syndrome, Peripheral Arterial Disease and Heart Failure, it has been on the market for over two years supporting trainers and athletes globally in their quest to improve sports performance. We’re starting to see competitive devices enter the market; a welcome sign of the market recognizing the usefulness of the technology for athletes. However, it does start to bring up questions about differences between these devices and the quality of their respective muscle oxygen metrics.