Often times when we talk about health trackers or health technology we typically assume that the people using them are average working people. However, the main group/society of people that can benefit the most from these are athletes. Health technology can be used in almost every sport. Companies such as the NBA, NFL, NHL, and other organizations can use these to better their athletes or track their progress during the off season. Some players can lack on exercise during the off-season and just like you have to meet requirements at a full time job, athletes should as well. One example is the running back for the Green Bay Packers (Eddie Lacy). Below is a before the off season and after the off season picture.
Players like Lacy that struggle to get workouts in during the off-season should be required to report the hours of training. With something like the Fit-bit Charge 2 they can track the steps taken and the average heart rates throughout the day. It would definitely make it easier for organizations to track the exercise of the athletes they pay.
As oppose to a sports that can track the heart rates and steps taken there are opportunities for other sports in the field of health and tech. The application Strava allows runners and cyclist to track their workouts but in terms of distance and the time it took to cover that distance. This helps cyclist prepare because now they are able to do this without having to manually calculate the distance they traveled or time it. They can now focus on their form and other things that will allow them to travel faster. Strava also allows people to share and interconnect times and distances traveled.
Recently there has also been innovation in clothing (Wendu) and how we can control climate through technology. Although this specialty clothing is still in a prototype phase this can cause a major change in winter Olympics sports such as snowboarding, freestyle skiing, speed skating and etc. With such thin clothing athletes do tend to get cold if they are not active for too long but something like thermo-controlled clothing can change this issue.
One of the things that I believed was really neat is health and technology applied to recovery of athletes. Not too long ago I found a video about the Warriors and specifically what Steph Curry does to heal himself during his down time in between games. Growing up I was always to that getting in a pool after football practice helps you recover a lot quicker but I never believed it. Fast forward to 2017 and now athletes are going to special spas and floating inside water filled chambers to relieve the tension in their muscles. Below is the video and I think it is something that can help every athlete.
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