Nowadays, technology makes it possible for virtually any industry to thrive in any area of its operation. Sports is one of the industries that continues to allow technology to shape and influence it in more ways than one, so fans, teams, sponsors, organizations, and industry partnerships can all benefit in various ways.

When it comes to endurance athletes, who you’d typically find in spots like the NBA teams, they make use of different technologies to plan, perform and re-evaluate their training. So, with the help of primary devices like head units, watches, heart rate monitors, apps, and power meters, athletes can look into their training data and workouts to improve their performance.

In this article, we’ll look at the most interesting sports technology and apps that endurance athletes continue to use to get more out of their training.

Technology for Athletes

It’s worth noting that the sports technology athletes typically use does often come in the form of a device but most times, these devices offer complementary applications that athletes can download to assess their performance.

HRV Tracking

Tracking heart rate variability (HRV) isn’t necessarily new; however, the technology gained awareness when it started being used to determine athletic recovery and readiness. Today, the technology is being used by more and more athletes so they can collect data to use and review during workouts and training.

HRV tracking is becoming more mainstream, but its use is also receiving its own fair share of controversy, like how athletes can best use this to normalize the information it provides and whether it’s actually valuable to monitor an athlete’s HRV while they work out. But through it all, the technology’s core value remains clear in saying that large deviations in tracking an athlete’s daily HRV can indicate whether or not something is wrong.

Some athletes aren’t too invested in paying attention to the signs their body is providing; therefore, tracking HRV can help athletes get in tune with their sense of readiness and recovery, especially in the event of something happening. And then, for athletes who make an effort to invest in the messages their bodies are sending, HRV tracking can help them receive additional information on whether it’s a good day to work out or whether it’s best they get some rest.

Sleep Training

It’s a proven fact that after injury, your recovery doesn’t stem from training but rather from taking time to recover from it. Often, the most effective way to improve something is to rest enough so you’re able to deliberately pay more attention to any patterns that may emerge along the way.

The market offers athletes different technologies that they can use to track sleep. These devices are no different from the running, non-sport, and multi-sport smartwatch devices that are already available on the market. By focusing on an athlete’s sleep patterns, one can assess whether certain efforts produce positive or negative effects.

Because sleep tracking technology is still new in the industry, the technology endurance athletes use to monitor their sleep stages still remains inaccurate. Therefore, most athletes focus on interpreting its simple metrics.

Pulse Oxygenation

HRV, resting heart rate monitors, and pulse oxygenation all use the same optical sensors to perform the task they are meant to perform. As a result, device manufacturers have begun the process of tracking pulse ox, but from updates regarding the progress of this project, it seems the idea is still in the pipeline.

With saturation or pulse oxygenation, athletes can determine how well their blood is transporting and binding oxygen to the rest of their body. Athletes who maintain a healthy lifestyle and are healthy usually get scores that are close to 100%. But should the athlete suddenly fall ill, not have meals that are nutritious enough, travel to high elevations, or overtraining, this score will drop.

By keeping track of this, one can determine if the athlete should take active steps to reduce their training volume in case their saturation or pulse oxygenation is dropping in response to conditions that are harming their health.