Using heartbeat monitors: from sports to health

Heartbeat monitors are indispensable tools for anyone who wants to practice cardio fitness at home or in the gym. They have long been a constant feature on most wearable devices like the Apple Watch which are dedicated to sports and training. These devices have become extremely helpful for sports people because they allow you to keep track of maximum and normal number of heartbeats, both when the user is at rest and under stress. In other words, a heart rate monitor can generate valuable biometric data about not only sports performance, but also physical performance in everyday life.

Apple Watch will reveal any abnormality in your heartbeat

One question arises: why aren’t wrist heart rate sensors in the medical sector as well?

Apple has thought about it. While many of the wrist sensors can provide a rough estimate of the pulse, their use is merely limited to sports use, and it could be expanded for daily diagnostic purposes. Of course, the use of wearable devices to measure heartbeats is not intended to replace professional medical advice, but rather to better monitor the body and provide indications of certain health problems - in this case heart problems.

Apple is working closely with researchers at Stanford University to determine if the Apple Watch can be an accurate and reliable tool in the detection and recognition of any abnormalities in the heartbeat. In particular, the focus of Apple’s research is on non-detectable asymptomatic arrhythmias by traditional diagnostic methods, which are among of the major causes of stroke, a disease usually discovered once it is too late. Precisely on this issue, Apple believes that its smartwatches could come in handy.

Technogym MyRun, the treadmill that displays your heart rate

Technogym MyRun is fully compatible with Apple Watch: by installing Technogym Live Connect on your watch, you can view your heart rate without wearing any other device. At the end of your workout, Technogym’s innovative treadmill will send distance and speed data to accurately save your workout also on Apple Health.
Moreover, with MyRun it is your heart rate to set the intensity of your workout: the CPR (Constant Pulse Rate) system follows your heart rate and automatically changes speed or incline while you are training, in order to give you a workout that is completely tailored to your features.

Technogym MyRun is the compact and silent home treadmill, designed to offer a wide range of on-demand running and walking workouts, suitable for users of all levels: from beginners to fitness lovers, to sports enthusiasts.
By simply placing your tablet on the MyRun console and installing the Live app for MyRun, you will be able to choose your favorite trainer from the comprehensive library of on-demand content: engaging one-to-one guided sessions, training routines for athletic performance, tailor-made workouts and virtual paths set in nature or in your favorite city.
MyRun’s technology also offers a real-time biofeedback on your cadence and stride width, comparing them with optimal reference values that are calculated with an algorithm, based on your biometric parameters. In this way, you can perfect your running technique by increasing the efficiency of movement.

Apple Watch's Cardiogram app engineers and Stanford University scientists created an algorithm, which when combined with smartwatch monitoring, detected cases of atrial fibrillation with 97% accuracy. The resulting study, called mRhythm, used the algorithm to "listen" to more than 139 million heartbeats from 9,750 users. Some of the users involved in the analysis had already been diagnosed with the disorder. The heart activity of these people was collected and then used to build an algorithm capable of identifying irregularities in the heartbeat.

It is important to remember that Apple Watch does not and cannot replace traditional electrocardiograms, but it can a useful alerting tool for its users before undiagnosed problems worsen.

In addition, the heart rate sensor may recognize other disorders in the future such as hypertension, night apnoea and first signs of diabetes. Preliminary studies suggest that all of these conditions could be "discovered" by analysing data collected from your smartwatch or other wearable devices.

The results bode well for future uses of wearable devices; they may be able to recognize signs of disorders quickly, even in individuals who have never experienced heart rate issues. This could lead to a visit to the cardiologist for a more thorough check-up. In short, wearable devices could largely improve the way we monitor people’s health.