Personalised, micro-adaptive bike workouts from XERT (Baron Biosystems)

I really like this.

There’s some new cycling training stuff from XERT released today and I’ve included the press release and some links, below. I’ve had a little look at it and ‘mild’ play with it recently.

We all seem very keen to technically join all our cycling gadgets together electronically with our smartphone and our power meter and our HR strap and our ANT+ controlled trainer and Zwift and all the rest of it.

They all link together super nicely, on the whole, with all the bells ringing and all the whistles whistling.

HOWEVER.

All of that, sort of, misses out one critical part of the equation…YOU. And by that, I mean ‘you today’ and ‘you mid-way through your workout’.Your bits of tech understand each other, but do the UNDERSTAND YOU?

ie What you are capable of right here right now changes continually. XERT’s take on this is that it models how you change through your workout and then ADAPTS YOUR TRAINING SESSION’S GOALS DYNAMICALLY, theoretically, it should help you more precisely hit the specific goals of your training session.

XERT calls their workouts ‘smart’. Perhaps an often over-used term these days. Maybe you could call them ‘micro-adaptive’ ie adaptive in the sense that the workout itself changes as you execute it. [Macro-adaptive workouts would change the workout type day-by-day with varying levels of STRAIN and RECOVERY…XERT doesn’t do this – I’m currently looking at WHOOP! to see if it can input into that side of things]

XERT’s new player does link in to all the above bits of kit, allowing you to control supported trainers and link to Zwift. You can make your own workout or use one of the dynamic workouts from Xert’s online library and adaptively play it through their PLAYER software – this works on either a computer or a CIQ-enabled device such as an Edge 520 or Edge 820.

I see this type of use of technology as moving AUTOMATED training forwards positively towards the ultimate end goal of ‘proper’ training. Whatever that might exactly be.

It’s by no means near the limit of what can be achieved. As I hinted at, above, adaptation can be handled on a macro level; holistic levels of strain and recovery can be dialled in with HRV analysis; Muscle oxygen data could be brought into play; as could hydration levels. And so on…

It’ll be a while before our sheds become medical-grade training labs!!

I’m toying with doing a review on this but to really see the benefits of some of the hard sessions might perhaps need me to be in a different part of my training plan. We’ll see.

I think this is all free to try for a month or so give it a go.

RESOURCES

• http://baronbiosys.com/?p=1796 – Introducing SMART workouts
• http://baronbiosys.com/?p=1805 – ‘Hardness’ as a new athletic measurement
• www.xertonline.com
• Download the CIQ app: https://apps.garmin.com/en-GB/apps/9fff72da-bb0d-4cf8-9d08-ab3d8e9f22d6
• Edit: since I wrote this there are new and insightful Xert CIQ apps that are worth a look

PRESS RELEASE BELOW

“The development of our Smart Workouts has been a tremendous achievement.”, says Armando Mastracci, founder of Baron Biosystems. “What makes up each individual’s response to exercise has been mathematically quantified. Workouts can now be designed that match each individual’s abilities, their response to high and low-intensity exercise, their goals as an athlete and the available time they have to train. When this is combined with our new workout players, athletes can perform workouts that are adaptive in intensity and duration in real-time, ensuring they get the most benefit out of their training.”

The Xert Workout Player for Garmin Connect IQ is best suited for playing Smart Workouts using an available smart trainer, as it will control the trainer’s resistance dynamically as the workout progresses. Complementing the new Xert Workout Player, Baron has also released a web-based Remote Player that takes telemetry data from the Garmin device and allows you to track and see your performance in real-time over the web. “Our Xert Remote Player is the cherry on top of these new features. Athletes can perform their workouts and watch their fatigue and recovery on their large screen monitor overtop their favourite videos or cycling application.” The Remote Player also supports remote viewing by athletes’ coaches so that they can monitor how well their athletes are achieving the goals of each session.