A Novel Wearable Device Enabling the Assessment of Exercise Intensity

One of the major epidemic in the advanced world is physical inactivity which is the 4^th factor leading to premature death. Physical inactivity is a global problem which affects both adult population and growth sedentary children. The current recommendations for physical activity among adults include 150 minutes a week of moderate intensity, aerobic type, exercise training, or 75 minutes of high intensity training. Polar watch (or equivalent) has been used for many years, specifically among athletes and cardiac patients to follow the recommended training heart rate during exercise. However, heart rate monitoring devices are limited by patients treated with beta blockers, by weather (temperature and humidity), stress and anxiety, and lastly, does not adapt to the improvement in cardiorespiratory fitness level (reflected by reduced heart rate at a given exercise intensity). In the past years we developed a new wearable device, based on a chest strap that measures the equivalent of pulmonary ventilation (VE). VE increases linearly with exercise intensity and much higher when anaerobic metabolism is involved. This method is known to be the gold standard for exercise prescription; based on the heart rate measured at the anaerobic threshold. We successfully validated the ability to detect the ventilatory anaerobic threshold on 10 healthy individuals during cycle exercise stress test. We recently developed a newer version of our technology that more precisely, accurately and stable allow the detection of the ventilatory anaerobic threshold during running activity. This novel device will allow the users to more efficiently improve their cardiorespiratory fitness level in healthy and diseased population.