Moxy and Training Peaks

For the past few years, leading endurance coaches and serious athletes have integrated Moxy’s Oxygen and Hemoglobin data into warm up, training, recovery and racing protocols with tremendous results.  Realizing the value of Moxy data, these forward thinking men and women often created their own training workarounds whether engaging in-house or online.  

I am extremely excited to officially announce the release of support for Moxy data in Training Peaks and WKO4+ software.  This integration allows athletes and trainers to seamlessly share muscle oxygen data using an industry leading training platform.

This development is the next step in our strategy of expanding the availability of critical and accurate physiological data to an ever expanding base of users.  Since our founding, we’ve taken the position that the Moxy data belongs to the athlete and should be leveraged in ways that are most effective for the athlete and by extension their coach.

Imagine yourself in one of the most beautiful cities in the United States, possibly in
all of North America- Boulder, Colorado. That’s where I was on January 17th and 18th, 2014. The backdrop of the Rockie Mountains (and the beauty of the city) made it the perfect setting for our first ever Moxy Monitor Seminar.

Everybody knows drinking water during the summer is important, but all too often we see athletes “overhydrate” and forget about the always important electrolytes. I’m sure by now everybody is familiar with the term electrolyte. What most athletes are not educated enough on, though, is which electrolytes are most important, and why we need them. Here are a few reasons electrolytes are important: energy production, nerve transmission, muscle contractions, pH control, and fluid balance. We often see athletes start to panic when they get cramps, and start pounding down the water. Now, if the cramps are caused by dehydration, then it may be an easy fix, but if it’s from a lack of electrolytes, then taking on more water only makes the problem worse, as it dilutes the amount of electrolytes in your body even further. That’s the reason why companies like Gatorade or Redbull put electrolytes into their sports drinks.

Mitochondria are the power source of your cells. Their task is to convert nutrients you consume into energy by manufacturing adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a coenzyme that is used by your cells for a range of functions from breathing to exercising. When you increase the size and number of your mitochondria, through mitochondrial biogenesis, the mitochondria can more efficiently convert energy into ATP, meaning more energy is available to working muscles. In other words, a greater mitochondrial density will allow you to train or compete faster and longer.

Often trainers and athletes will refer to the importance of increasing cardiac output. But what exactly is cardiac output, and why is it a relevant metric for athletic training? In a basic sense, cardiac output (CO) represents the total volume of blood pumped by the ventricle, and is the product of heart rate (HR) and stroke volume (SV). Stroke volume refers to the amount of blood ejected by the heart with each beat, while heart rate reflects the number of beats per minute. The three are often expressed together in the formula CO= HR x SV.

The concept behind the central governor model is experienced by runners almost every time they compete in a race. If you have run a half marathon will have probably felt a sense of extreme fatigue around the eighth mile, and yet you were then probably able to increase your pace to several minutes per mile faster for the last 400 meters of the race.

If your cycling routes involve many climbs that make it difficult to maintain a reasonable cadence, you may find it better to switch to a bike with compact gearing. Compact drivetrains were originally developed by mountain bike component manufacturers to reduce the size of the chain rings and spider in cheap, heavy cranksets in order to reduce the weight of bikes. Today, compact drivetrains are embraced by cyclists for their ability to provide riders, especially non-professional cyclists, with a lower gear selection, which makes hill climbing easier while maintaining speed.

After a hard workout, you may feel tempted to cut your cool down to just a few minutes of stretching, but it is important to remember that an adequate cool down will have lasting effects on your muscles and their ability to recover. Cooling down properly prevents muscle soreness, improves flexibility, and generally rounds out your workout.