Secret Weapon Changing the Game For Sports Performance

Ted Johnson, founder of Performance Athletix trains super bowl champ Greg Jennings

For those in the business of getting an athlete to peak performance – and, perhaps more importantly, keeping them there, healthy and on the field of play – gone are the days of guessing. So long, supposing. Wave goodbye to wondering.

No longer must a coach or trainer rely on gut instinct, no matter how fit or toned their athletes may be.

There once was a time when – and this isn’t too long ago, either, maybe a half-dozen years or so – a coach or trainer would look at an athlete’s form and make an educated guess. He’s favoring his right side…I think? That squat looks off…maybe?

Wearable technology such as non-invasive step-trackers and heart-monitors were introduced to the fitness world as early as the late-1990s. The market made a big jump with advanced metric technology – including surface EMGs, or electromyography – available for some time as well, albeit typically too bulky and in limited settings for accurate readings while in motion.

But those earlier technologies were like using a spedometer to measure a car’s performance. They answer some questions, but not all. Missing was the ability to pinpoint where in a body, down to the muscular level, an athlete was impacted by stress, fatigue, injury, even simply poor technique.

With the advent of new technologies that monitor specific muscular stress by Athos, the guessing game has become a thing of the past. They have cleverly embedded biometric sensors within compression gear to seamlessly integrate into the routine of today’s athlete.  

And for coaches who for so long wanted technology like this to answer those formerly unanswerable questions, it has been a paradigm shift. The game, as they say, has changed.

“When I got (Athos), I just had a visceral reaction to it,” said Ted Johnson, who is the founder of  Performance Athletix in Minneapolis, Minn., which trains professional and future professional athletes. “To be able in real time to see your muscles working, my staff, we all went crazy. It changed the way I do business, how I interpret data, how I collect and give it back to the athlete. It’s changed our testing process. If I had a dream, this is something I would’ve loved to have come up with. It made me rethink our entire process.”

Too often, coaches were forced to rely on heart-specific equipment when trying to translate muscle-related issues, like a doctor using an EKG to test brain function.

Athos’ muscular stress-based feedback has given coaches the data they needed to adjust an athlete’s form in real time, not only enhancing performance, but helping prevent the injury risk that inherently comes with poor movement mechanics.  In addition and perhaps more importantly, it has also given them post-session data to be able to view the impact of their programming and assess effectiveness.  These combined elements help them keep players healthy and ready for play.  

Skylar Richards, head athletic trainer for Major League Soccer’s FC Dallas, credits the technology with helping midfielder Mauro Diaz come back from an achilles tear that sidelined him near the end of last season. Diaz came back nearly two months earlier than predicted as Richards and his staff were able to monitor Diaz’ muscle output during rehabilitation and ensure he was ready and available for play. If Diaz favored one side during a lift, his trainers were able to correct it, in real time, and with real results.

“For him, it was huge,” Richards said. “Coming off an Achilles tear, with that injury being so close to the ground, ankle function is so huge, and it can really affect things up the chain. Glutes, hamstring, quads – that’s all affected, and for us to be able to understand that some things were not adapting or working that well at certain times, we got him back quite quickly.

“It allowed us to push hard, but not worry it was too hard.”

Watch any 1980s football movie, and you’ll see weight-lifting and training the way it used to be.

As technology has evolved, though, so too have athletes, particularly the latest crop of future stars. They are no longer afraid of data. Information is swallowed whole, and digested.

Wearable technology, and Athos in particular, has opened a new line of communication with athletes, University of Denver assistant strength and conditioning coach Matt Van Dyke said. Not too long ago, Van Dyke was one of those football players – as a wide receiver for Iowa State from 2009-12, Van Dyke majored in exercise science – and he’s amazed at the technological advances that have arisen in such a short time.

“That’s the biggest thing, the communication,” Van Dyke said. “Regardless of the kind of data you’re getting, does your coach receive it? Does your athlete? We want our guys to be aware of what’s going on within them. The communication opens up a line – and that’s literally what Athos does – and gives me some guidelines. This left hamstring did this much more than the right, and it’s been a trend for three days. How does his left knee feel? Ah yeah, my knee is pretty sore today. Teamwide, if you’re starting to feel this, we can do any kind of research we need to.”

Richards echoes Van Dyke’s point when he discusses Diaz, his current FC Dallas star, and the future FC Dallas leaders. Diaz now approaches Richards seeking his numbers, and better yet, those in the FC Dallas developmental program, which consists of soccer players from 12 to 18, are accustomed to, and in some cases demanding instant feedback.

“That’s validation for me that we’ve educated them on something,” Richards said. “This generation of athletes now, they’re saying what’s my score today? I want to beat that score. There’s a cool factor to it. And if you’re going to a team that’s not using anything, it raises some flags.”

Cal Dietz, the head Olympic sports strength and conditioning coach for the University of Minnesota, believes that the use of this technology is quickly becoming a recruiting tool. How can a parent afford to send their kid to a school that doesn’t use the best technology possible?

And for Dietz, who has pioneered the revolutionary Reflexive Performance Reset; a method that enhances proper muscle recruitment to reset the body into performance mode – essentially training the body to readjust when a muscle is injured or fatigued – Athos has become an essential part of his regimen.

“Odds are you’re going to fall behind at some point if you’re not using this,” Dietz said. “For me, it’s a huge screening tool day one when they walk in the door. One athlete, pretty solid, my golden child, if he gets a foot injury, his muscles change their firing patterns. Let’s say he takes a hockey puck in his foot and there’s pain – well, now there’s dysfunction in his quads, hamstrings and glutes.”

Dietz, like the other trainers who have come to rely on Athos, understands the hesitation to shift to such a new technology. But, he also knows that his field has changed, irreversibly, and for the better.

“The field has some narrow mindedness at times – people might not want to admit they’ve been doing something for 20 years and it’s maybe been wrong,” he said. “Or maybe not wrong, but not as perfect as we thought. The technology can be a reality check, and that’s why some people might fight it. But that’s why you’ve got to embrace it.”