STRIVE’S CAPTURE OF 20 REPETITIONS OF 400 METERS, ALL RAN AT APPROXIMATELY 90 SECONDS
INTRODUCTION
Currently, athletic organizations relate “Player Load” as a metric of output. IMU tech measures the output of an athlete’s session and then a load is provided for use in comparison with the athlete’s body of data to detect longitudinal trends and outliers. This number is then used as insight into how hard a session was for an athlete in relation to all other sessions, and sometimes even used as an injury risk indicator.
In reality, the term Player Load is much broader than a simple movement score provided by an accelerometer. The amount of stress that an athlete’s body is under, influences the difficulty of a session. A movement score is not without value, and it plays an important role in the idea of a player’s load. However, there is additional context that is needed to fill out the picture that is true Player Load.
Strive is able to offer Muscle Load. Strive uses “sticker-like” EMG sensors placed on the right and left glute, quad, and hamstring regions, via sliding shorts, to capture amplitude in microvolts. This number is then added up and converted to Muscle Load. Muscle Load is comparable to numbers provided by the external load, IMU metric, that is also provided. Muscle Load provides an undeniably important component of true Player Load. Muscle Load is essentially a measurement of how many motor units were recruited to perform a task. When analyzing this metric in comparison to the external load provided by the IMU an idea of true Player Load begins to take shape.
REAL WORLD EXAMPLE
A collegiate triathlon athlete performed a workout while wearing shorts outfitted with Strive technology. The premise of the session was to run 20 laps around a 400-meter track. The athlete would aim to finish each lap in 90 seconds and then take a 90 second rest between each repetition. Thus, the output remained approximately constant. The distance was the same and the speed should be approximately the same for every lap as well. The athlete did an excellent job at keeping the output of each repetition similar. Her average time was 89.65 seconds. The first 17 repetitions were all put between 88 and 90 seconds and the last three were completed in 93 seconds.
Figure 1 The external load, IMU based, metric has very little variation as expected. The times show that the athlete’s output was kept relatively constant.
Figure 1 shows the second by second depiction of the external load metric that was being collected. As expected, it changes very little. Each repetition has essentially the same output. The athlete runs 400 meters at approximately the same speed every time. Traditional “Player Load” is a movement score. It is not without value, but it measures how an athlete moves. This exercise was completed outdoors, in 95-degree weather. Fatigue played a role in each of these repetitions. Each individual repetition did not feel the same to the athlete, and Muscle Load tells this story. The first rep was not the same as the 10th rep, which was not the same as the 20th rep. Strive’s Muscle Load provides insight on the motor unit recruitment of the muscle groups during each repetition.
Figure 2 The Muscle Load, an EMG based metric, shows an increase in amplitude throughout the first 12 repetitions and then a decrease as the athlete’s motor units become exhausted throughout the last 8 repetitions.
Figure 2 shows the corresponding Muscle Load for each 400-meter repetition. The Muscle Load shows an increase in amplitude throughout the first twelve repetitions. Essentially, the athlete is fatiguing and is requiring a higher muscle input to complete the approximately constant output. This leaves repetitions 13 through twenty to explain. During fatigue, an athlete’s form can tend to break down or change. This can be further explored using Strive, by viewing the individual amplitudes of the quads, glutes, and hamstrings of the left and right legs. Figures 3 and 4 show relatively stable increases from muscle groups throughout the first 12 repetitions. The overall increase in amplitude seems to mostly come from the quads and hamstrings, as the glutes remain relatively stable. However, the engagement pattern and trends remain similar. The latter half of the repetitions where the Muscle Load was seen to decrease correspond with the breaking of the engagement pattern. The athlete has exhausted her available motor units and is compensating by breaking her form. She is only able to keep up the pace with her compromised form for five more repetitions at which point she slows to a time of 93 seconds.
Figure 3 and 4 Looking at the quads, glutes, and hamstrings individually can provide insight into form, asymmetries, and engagement patterns.
Strive’s Muscle Load provides real insight to a player’s load and capture’s more information than just a movement score. Together, Muscle Load and external load can be used to capture the essence of a player’s actions. By comparing input to output, a practitioner can make more informed decisions based on how their athletes’ bodies are actually responding. External load is a pretty good estimate of an athlete’s total output for the day. It can be useful in recognizing when athletes put in extra work through means of pure output. However, when analyzing external load with the added context of Muscle Load, the image of the athlete’s true player load becomes clearer. The efficiency of input to output can be examined and decisions can be made based on how hard the session actually was for the athlete. Muscle Load places an importance on muscles where it was previously unseen. Movement scores are good, but Muscle Load brings practitioners multiple steps closer to evaluating complete Player Load.
WHITE PAPERS & CASE STUDIES
If you’re looking to dive deeper into the STRIVE Platform, review the literature below illustrating various use cases and research.
PURPOSE
Understanding game workloads allow coaches better insight into the demands of Women’s Basketball at the NCAA D1 Level. Coaches look to prescribe training loads in the gym and on the court through progressions that appropriately prepare athletes to perform during matches. Most team sport that require demands of intermittent exercise include the ability to perform through high-intensity bouts of high-speed running. The purpose of this case study was to capture, analyze and visually prepare data to better understand sprinting demands of Division 1 Collegiate Women’s Basketball.
BACKGROUND
Strive is a performance tracking wearable technology system seamlessly integrated into compression shorts for both female and male athletes utilize in all training settings. The garments are comfortable, can be embedded in whatever brand the team desires, and…
DESCRIPTION
Tracking metrics like speed, distance and accelerations can reveal patterns in practices and games that allow coaching staff to make adjustments. In addition to those metrics, one team wanted to understand the amount of effort players exerted throughout a week leading up to a game. The team employed STRIVE to track both the external metrics as well as the muscle EMG activity.
RESULTS
STRIVE worked with the team to analyze the results and found an interesting early correlation: The overall fatigue of the team, which compared how hard the muscles worked to produce the accelerations, directly correlated with the how well the team performed in the game. Essentially, the team performed below their potential when the players approached fatigue the week leading up to a game.
MONITORING INTENSITY OF GAME VS. PRACTICE
DESCRIPTION
How can coaches structure their weekly practices to better prepare for a game? One team wanted to replicate drills that produced similar game-time intensity that would allow them to structure their practices to optimize performance. With the help of STRIVE, they collected millions of data points across jumps, distance and accelerations to see what insights they could capture before games.
RESULTS
By analyzing the practices and non-conference games at the start of the season, the team identified how the opponent’s style of play impacted their player’s metrics. Using this information, the team made adjustments to their weekly practice schedule in an effort to get the same results in practice as on game day.
CHANGES IN PLAYER LOAD? SYSTEMS INTERROGATION
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the use and utility of Sense3, a sensor system embedded in compression shorts that measure kinematic changes, muscle activation and physiology in elite athletes.
THE PROBLEM
Elite sports teams have been monitoring athlete loads through wearable technology for close to 10 years, yet most leagues and teams have yet to see a quantifiable reduction in athlete injury or a significant change in performance-based outputs. In many cases, the technologies provide a singular load metric “score” indicating a difference from game to game- or practice sessions. Practitioners are left to make “inferences” on why the score changed, without forming a direct rationale as to which biological system…
RETURN-TO-PLAY – INTERNAL VS EXTERNAL LOAD
DESCRIPTION
As the player started return-to-play protocol, the team asked STRIVE to re-assess his efficiency. The goal was to replicate the pre-injury practice session and identify any significant changes that could impact his recovery.
RESULTS
Before the injury, the player was found very efficient likely due to his conditioning to recovery balance. When STRIVE re-assessed the player post-injury, it showed that the internal load drastically increased even though the external load stayed consistent causing his efficiency to decrease nearly 40%.
USING STRIVE TO ASSESS RETURN TO PLAY FOR NFL PLAYERS
DESCRIPTION
There are an average of 176 hamstring injuries each season in the NFL. Once a player sustains an injury, they are more prone to re injuring the same muscle. Players with hamstring injuries miss an average of 13 days depending on the severity. While practicing return-to-play protocol for hamstring injuries, one NFL team used STRIVE. Taking into account body composition, position, left vs. right dominance and previous injuries, STRIVE discovered how certain exercises affect specific muscle groups differently on individual players.
RESULTS
With this finding, the team worked collaboratively with strength coaches, athletic…
STRIVE'S CAPTURES REPETITIONS OF 400 METERS, ALL APPROXIMATELY 90 SECONDS
INTRODUCTION
Currently, athletic organizations relate “Player Load” as a metric of output. IMU tech measures the output of an athlete’s session and then a load is provided for use in comparison with the athlete’s body of data to detect longitudinal trends and outliers. This number is then used as insight into how hard a session was for an athlete in relation to all other sessions, and sometimes even used as an injury risk indicator. In reality, the term Player Load is much broader than a simple movement score provided by an accelerometer. The amount of stress that an athlete’s body is under, influences the difficulty of a session. A movement score is not without value, and it plays an important role in the idea of a player’s load. However, there is additional context that is needed to fill out the picture that is true Player Load.
ANALYZING INTERNAL & EXTERNAL LOAD IN DIVISION I NCAA BASKETBALL TEAM
DESCRIPTION
Electromyography (EMG) is a diagnostic technique that evaluates and measures the electrical activity of skeletal muscles. The resultant amplitude of the muscles can help provide an approximation of internal load or how much work the muscles have done during an exercise period. With the noticeable uptick in the usage of wearable technology that measures external load, most strength and conditioning practitioners, athletic trainers, and other athletic organizational professionals are aware of the usefulness of an external load measurement. While the external load metric is useful in approximating the output of an athlete within an exercise session there is no accounting for the workload felt internally, by the muscles. One popular purpose of measuring external load is to reduce general fatigue and chronic stress. This is a reasonable…
VISUALIZING PERIODIZATION AND ITS EFFECTS ON AN IMBALANCE OF MUSCLE INPUT TO OUTPUT RATIO
INTRODUCTION
Periodization in sport is important. Seasons can be long and grueling, and an organization always needs to be aware of the fatigue status of its athletes. With the influx of wearable tech, the increasingly common way to monitor load status in athletes is to obtain an external load metric (traditional player load) and monitor it over the course of a season. This has worked well for visualizing periodization of athlete training. With an external workload quantified, teams now have a better idea of what a “normal” external workload is at an individual athlete level or a more general team level. This is a good start but is missing a key piece of information. When measuring external load…
EFFECTS OF FATIGUE ON INDIVIDUAL’S PERFORMANCE AND MUSCLE COMPENSATION
INTRODUCTION
Fatigue is the key driver in exposing weaknesses and deficiencies in athletes’ performance. Traditional methods have been inadequate in location weakness points and ensuing compensation when athletes enter fatigue stages. To mitigate further injuries, coaches have been working with players strengthening their muscles in symmetric ways, whether left to right, or posterior and anterior. To understand this better, we will look at the athlete who conducted six extensive drills as a part of a daily workout. In this example, we will discuss how fatigue affects this athlete and his muscle response during the compensation.
STRIVE BLOG
SEPTEMBER 1, 2021 | STRIVE, the only platform proven to optimize muscle performance for elite athletes and teams, today announced a strategic partnership with Fairly Group, the premier insurance broker and risk management company with hundreds of clients across all major professional sports leagues. Through the partnership, STRIVE is now available to players and teams as a benefit. Numerous players are already using STRIVE to help their return to play from injuries suffered during games.
AUGUST 10, 2021 | STRIVE CEO and Cofounder Nikola Mrvaljevic sat down with the Driving Force Podcast to discuss STRIVE’s place in human performance. From playing professional basketball in Montenegro, to leading his team at STRIVE, Mrvaljevic discusses it all.
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