One of my areas to watch for 2012 was Health+Intertubes, and on that note, here comes Squid, the compression shirt that monitors and tracks your workouts.
As a side note, compression is how cool people say Spandex.
Squid looks a bit bulky, but the data it collects and the technology itself are very impressive. I used to train a lot, and keeping a journal was always key for tracking progress and for motivation, albeit artificial motivation. I did this by carrying around a thick notebook and pencil to track reps and weight for all the various exercises I did. Seems pretty stupid now, but it served its purpose.
Having that data in a format I could quickly analyze and plot would have been very nice to observe trends and help plan future training.
Seems a lot of gym rats are nerds at heart, and Squid looks like a great way to tap into that geeky desire for self-programming. Although I haven’t seen any discussion of Squid as more than an experiment/proof-of-concept, I expect its concept will soon find a way into mainstream production via some apparel giant like Nike or Under Armor.
Imagine the applications for professional sports too, especially when it comes to preventing and diagnosing injuries. Very cool stuff.
Find the comments.
When it’s the size of an iPod Shuffle I will be interested. Until then, I’m heavy enough thank you very much. 🙂
Definitely too big, but it’s a prototype. Look at what Nike has done w Nike+ and see the future.