Wearable Tech Trends in Sports

In sports, you need to take every competitive advantage you can take. From nutrition to exercise, wearables are making their way into sports and have been doing so for years. In this article, we are going to look at how wearable tech effects sports and what we can expect in the years to come.

Training and Conditioning

Training and conditioning is a major part of sports along with strategy. Without proper training and conditioning, athletes aren’t able to implement the strategy as effectively. Wearables help coaches and other performance experts help athletes develop faster and avoid injuries for longer play time during the season and throughout their career.

Sports wearables are always changing as is any other technology. Staying on top of the latest technology as a sports professional will allow you to maintain your edge. If your competition has these tools and you don’t, you will be left behind and won’t see as many wins as you could have.

If you think wrist wearables are the only wearables for sports that exist, you should know there are plenty of other wearables already available. These wearables are not only available to top sports professionals, but many of them are making it to the mainstream.

Wearables Aren’t All Ironed Out

There are still challenges to tackle with wearables, but more advancements take place every day. Things the common consumer wouldn’t think was possible one year ago are now commonplace. Rapid advancement will continue as the years keep coming and here are some of the trends you have to look forward and even enjoy now.

Tracking Athlete Performance

Wearables that help coaches and other performance experts track the athlete’s performance in order to analyze and help them make take their training to the next level. The GPS derived movement data and other advancements makes all of this possible

Having very specific information about how an athlete’s preforms makes it easy to put an in-depth training and conditioning routine together. Without this information, it is like flying blind and hoping you make it to your target.

The technology continues to be one of the most widely used for elite sports and aims to keep its place at the top of the pile.

Sports bras with sensors. Smart sports bras have sensors in the fabric to measure breathing and calculating the anaerobic threshold. You can even machine wash most of them if you were worried about hand washing your undergarments.

It is comfortable and easy to wear if you need to monitor these stats. You won’t feel the sensors in the fabric so don’t worry about getting stabbed by them. There is a companion app for the iPhone that lets you know when to push harder and when you should stop pushing so hard or take a rest.

Wearables for tracking running measures hip movements for runners. All they have to do is a clip a device on the back of their shorts. Track the stats from your iPhone and even create an exercise plan.

If you need to work on your running style, so you don’t injure yourself or have other problems, this is a great device. The way you move will either make you faster or slow you down so pay attention.

These aren’t super glasses from the future. Coaching and training glasses have earbuds attached to the temples of the athlete. These glasses are also UV protected.

You can get your own coach through the system so you can train audibly. The coaching feature is meant to help you get through to your goals. You can rest assured when you wear it because it is water-resistant and has high impact protection features.

Using Wearables to Prevent Injury

Using wearables to prevent injuries may be one of the biggest values they offer. If a player is injured, they might not be out for the season, but they might be out for the rest of their career. Making sure that players know when to pull back and when they can push forward is important.

For athletes that constantly need to test their strength, endurance, and speed, knowing how their sleep is, their weight, diet and heart rate may not be enough. Depending on the sport, different injuries can take place.

Predicting injuries before they happen can not only help the athlete, but it can reduce medical bills and other losses from the injury.

While you can collect a lot of data, not all data is going to be helpful to each athlete. If you are gathering data on yourself, speak with your performance expert to find out what kind of data you need to collect and monitor to be at your best.

Various monitoring devices can be put in shoes to detect how the foot hits, how much weight is hitting where and more. With all of this data, it may seem like an overload situation, but when it is analyzed, it can help determine when someone needs to take it easy on their foot, knee or another part of the body.

Paying attention and trusting wearables in sports is becoming easier for athletes instead of trying to push through the pain and create an even bigger injury. While it might seem like the hero thing to push through the pain even to the point of severe injury – that is not the case.

Conclusion

Wearable devices will continue their trend in sports, but other applications are developing now. Workplace safety is one of the major areas people see a need for wearables. Whether these wearables are reporting for safety or keeping track of productivity, they will be implemented soon.

Materials like smart yarn are making clothing safer in the workplace. There are other applications and as they unfold, keep an eye on them to get involved in the latest top wearable tech for athlete trends before the masses.