Breaking Barriers Between Wearables and Research Systems: Linking Exercise Physiology and Biomechanics

Synopsis: Advances in sensors measuring electromyographic (EMG) activity have made impactful contributions toward understanding questions of fatigue, locomotion, power output, coordination, control, and metabolic cost in the field of biomechanics. Similar advances in wearable technologies for measuring VO2, NIRS-based muscle oxygenation, and exercise power output have simplified access to complex measures in the domain of exercise physiology. Progress in linking these disparate measures to obtain a comprehensive picture of human performance has been challenging due to the lack of interoperability between wearable sensor technologies, and the absence of a single system for acquiring unified, time-synchronized datasets. We present a case study showing the ability for Trigno Link technology to integrate EMG muscle activation profiles, with system-wide VO2 usage, muscle oxygen usage, breathing rate and heart rate to show how physiological subsystems work together to adapt to changing load