To get ultimate results, you need to know what metrics to track and how to improve them. For many users though, the amount of data that today’s fitness trackers can measure and track can be overwhelming.
Despite all the data available, there’s also a problem with most wearable devices: most wrist-worn fitness trackers today have only a 60% reliability of accuracy. The average device will be more precise if you’re standing still or seated, but the moment you start moving that accuracy drops considerably.
The problem, as I see it, is that so many people rely on the data of their device 100% of the time. That means they’re receiving inaccurate data 40% of the time, and the most inaccurate data comes during periods of exercise and movement.
You’re not going to get accurate readings of your calories or your true heart rate variability (HRV). Instead, you’ll be getting values that can be heavily filtered through assumptions and influenced by algorithms. You’re simply not going to get the true, correct data so you can train and recover the way you should.
Really, the most accurate method is an assessment at a sports medicine lab with their highly specialized equipment and programs. However, a study can cost anywhere from $875–$1,600 USD, and only offers a single snapshot in the moment. It can’t give you continuous readings on how your body’s performing, responding to training and how it’s recovering from day to day. It will not give you the follow up that you need in order to track and adjust to reach your goals.
With your Atalanta biometric wearable device, you’re getting the best of both worlds. You have a wearable tracker with a level of precision of over 98%. It also gives you continuous readings, monitors your body’s condition and performance over time, and gives you the feedback you need to stay on track with your goals.
So whether you’re just starting out or are a seasoned athlete, here are the metrics you should monitor to get the most out of your Atalanta tracker.
Heart rate
Our heart rate (in beats per minute or BPM) is a key metric to track, and it needs to be measured accurately, especially during activity.
As we’ve seen above, most devices only have 60% reliability, and most of that inaccuracy occurs when people are active. We need accurate measurement of our heart rate during activity, as so many of the other metrics we’ll talk about below rely on this reading, including heart rate threshold and HRV.
Breathing rhythm
If you’re holding your breath while you’re running that means you’re exerting yourself too hard. You’ll end up overrunning your body’s ability to use oxygen, your CO2 will increase and you’re going to underperform.
A breathing rhythm that exceeds our recommended range can be an early indication of dehydration and a sign you need to replenish soon — and possibly reduce to a more sustainable pace.
Heart rate threshold
This is such an important metric to monitor, especially if you’re an endurance athlete. If you go too much above your heart rate threshold, you’ll exhaust yourself too quickly if you’re engaged in an endurance event. Going above your threshold also means you’re going to need much more oxygen, which will increase your breathing rate.
If you’re a sprinter — going as fast as you can over a very short distance and for a very short time — you don’t need to worry about going above your threshold as that’s the nature of your event. But if you’re running a marathon and you have a very high heart rate and breathing rate, chances are you’re not going to finish that race.
For example, say your heart rate threshold is between 120 and 140 beats per minute, and your breathing rhythm is around 12–18 breaths per minute. You could therefore decide that you want to run your race while maintaining a heart rate of around 120 breaths per minute, with a reasonable breathing rate of 12–16 BPM. A pace that keeps your readings in that range makes it almost certain that you’ll finish the race.
If you want to increase your pace, you could increase your heart rate to 130–135 BPM, with a breathing rate that will also increase but stay within a reasonable 16–17 breaths per minute. You can finish at a faster pace while still keeping the readings within your thresholds.
Now, if you’re running with a heart rate of 150 and your breathing rate is climbing up to 20–21 BPM, chances are your body is going to crash. At some point your body will force you to significantly reduce your pace, and you’ll end up having a much slower time or not finish the race at all.
HRV
Heart rate variability determines your level of recovery. If your HRV is too high, that means your heart is working overtime to compensate for the tissue that needs to recover, including your muscles, tendons and articulations.
There can be quite a bit of variability in the time between heart beats. Knowing where that variability lies — and monitoring when it starts to occur outside of those values — can give you an early signal of overtraining. Monitoring and keeping you on that level where you train smartly and start to stabilize your curve is key, then you can gradually increase your training and improve your HRV baseline.
Oxygen saturation of the blood
When you inhale oxygen into your lungs, it attaches to the hemoglobin in your red blood cells and is transported through the bloodstream to your muscles. During low to moderate-intensity exercise your blood oxygen saturation will remain about the same as at rest — typically 95–100%.
Exercising at higher intensities and/or longer duration can see blood oxygen saturation drop, mainly due to dehydration. If that number drops too far, however, it becomes very difficult to recover because that’s when lactic acid starts to build up in your tissues.
You can only get rid of lactic acid through urinating and time because once it crystallizes it needs to dissolve. So, to prevent crashing you need to adequately replenish and keep your lungs hydrated so you can more efficiently oxygenate your blood.
Tracking your progress
Every athlete is different and when you look at the data, you start to see patterns emerging:
- Recovery time: some people recover in 72 hours, others need 5–6 days. Atalanta learns your patterns and starts to optimize for you. Learn more about the importance of recovery in our previous blog >
- Preparing for competition: how many days do you need to prepare before heading into competition? Some might need 24 or 48 hours, others might need a week with only a light training schedule.
- Peaking your performance: there is cumulative data on HRV that can tell you how efficiently your heart is working. If it’s operating at a high threshold, you’re probably ready to jump into a competition. It will also tell you if it starts to drop – like when you’re detraining or in your off-season. Nobody is at their peak all the time. If you try to always be on-peak, you’re going to hurt yourself.
- Balancing your nutrition: current devices don’t give you a true snapshot of calories burned because they use a formula that’s heavily influenced by algorithms. They collect some data and then project the results by filtering the numbers through some assumptions. Atalanta, on the other hand, measures true heart rate, oxygen saturation of the blood and body temperature. Then, instead of doing an estimate, we pass everything through a sports medicine formula to give you a much more accurate reading of how many calories you’ve burned. So if you start to feel low on energy, you can increase your carbs. Go for that banana or that apple, and maybe shy away from the pizza!
Fitness tracker with hydration monitor
One more thing on nutrition: when fueling for a race — especially long distances like marathons or triathlons — you can get high-energy gel packets that contain hydration, carbs and caffeine. You can program Atalanta to notify you at a determined calorie consumption threshold so that you can be ready to consume that energy gel pack before your body starts to crave it.
The key is to fuel yourself BEFORE you crash.
Essentially, your Atalanta fitness tracker is keeping your hydration at optimum levels so that your body can evacuate it all through perspiration — urinating is just inconvenient during a race! You’ll lose far fewer minerals through perspiration and can replenish them fairly easily with electrolytes. Remember, when lactic acid starts to build up, you can start to cramp and will get exhausted more quickly. Once that threshold has been broken, no amount of water or nutrition can make you bounce back. You might be able to maintain a pace at a lower level, but you’ll underperform and not be able to achieve what you’re actually capable of on that day.
And, your recovery time will be even longer. The more exhausted you are when you finish a race, the more time it will take to recover and the higher the risk of injury. It becomes a vicious cycle.
Fitness tracker programs
Your Atalanta tracker uses AI/machine learning to analyze your data and give you feedback on how well you’re performing. It can give you a personalized program based on your goals.
Say you want to do an Ironman race — Atalanta will measure and track you for 4 weeks to get a complete picture of your physical state. It will recommend when you could be ready to do that race (6 months, for example) and suggest a training program that can get you there. It can program the types and frequency of training sessions and build in the proper recovery time. If you happen to miss a session it will self-adjust to help you reach your goal.
What your tracker does is help you build up in a gradual manner to get you to an optimum performance level in a sustainable way. You’ll be able to perform and recover much more effectively than if you just tried to jump to the next level.
Taking too big of a jump too quickly almost always leads to injury or overtraining.
Atalanta will help you measure, track and gradually increase your training load and optimize your recovery times. This makes training and preparing for an event a much more enjoyable process that can help you avoid the pain, exhaustion and frustration of setbacks.
While you’re here, take a look at my earlier blog posts in this series to see how to spot the signs of overtraining, and how to adequately recover to perform your best.
