Computer Software: Its Role and Function in Fitness & Athletic Training
by Kenneth P. Burres, M.D.
(Revised July 2005)

Every athlete, coach and aspiring weekend warrior faces the challenge of improving his or her training, athletic performance and competitive techniques. Even many non-athletic people possess simple health and fitness goals. In the past, performance improvements in sports and fitness have been identified by trial and error and, occasionally, by scientific method. The idea of using a computer to identify trends for the purpose of optimizing outcomes is commonplace in many fields, but the recent introduction of the use of computer software to advance the state of the art of fitness and athletic training promises to push athletic performance to dizzying new heights in the millennium.

Sophisticated computer technology, once limited to large corporations and the military, is now widely available on the desktop environment. Prior to the Cold War, coaches in Eastern Block countries were tracking workout aspects, trending the numbers, and mathematically peaking performance to produce amazing results. These sophisticated methods helped produce Olympic and world championship performances. Although some of the records may have been achieved with the aid of anabolic steroid supplements, there is evidence to show that their success was directly related to a scientific approach to training, including use of computer technology. The use of their computer programs in athletic training was not recognized until the mid-1980s.

Artificial intelligence technology and fuzzy-logic expert systems are not new, but their use has been limited, e.g. “Smart Weapons” used in the Gulf War. Use of these technologies allows performance analysis to remain goal focused and incorporate physiologic and training factors. Even after only a few workout days, the amount of accumulated data could be enormous. In order to make sense of these factors, this “data dilemma” must be dealt with. The human mind simply cannot manage the barrage of observations, calculations and factors, both negative and positive, that affect training. An interactive trend analyzer is required to deal with the resulting combinations and permutations. A simple example shorter distance goal event training leans more heavily on anaerobic data; long distance training, with a greater risk of overtraining and injury, requires emphasis on other areas of the workout database. Individual training schemes incorporate different mixes of distance, speed work, heart rate criteria, etc. The training algorithms for different sports create a complicated inter-relationship that is an “ideal dilemma” for computer software to solve.

Analog and Digital Data: How It Can Help You

Athletic training generates data in two different formats -analog and digital. The analog data relates to weather, equipment, sport surfaces, apparel, etc. This also relates to athletes and their body configurations and articulations biomechanical interfaces between athlete and... These differences may be subtle, but can dictate success or failure in a sport. For example, in breaststroke vs. freestyle, different shoulder and hip rotation angles may promote or reduce successful stroke mechanics. Athlete analog perspectives often have a genetic link. A swimmer or bicycler can be biomechanically efficient, but limited in potential performance success by genetically determined connective tissue compliance at certain joints. These aspects can be analyzed using sophisticated digitizing analysis tools and soon may be interpolated with a digital base.

Digital analysis is the measurable workout data in physiology, training and goal/race performance. This data can be obtained from stopwatches, exercise machines, heart rate monitors, pedometers, lactate analyzers, EKG machines, etc. Digital data has a high degree of accuracy. Incorporating this data into a computer program raises the program’s accuracy considerably. As sports science progresses, more digital data will be recorded and analyzed and methods of digitizing analog data will gain importance in athletic performance measurement.

Heart Rate Monitors, Digital Fitness Data and Your Computer

Heart rate monitors have gained increasing acceptance among athletes, coaches and even those involved in rehabilitation programs. Experts such as Sally Edwards, Edmund R. Burke, PhD, James Rippe, M.D., as well as excellent athletes like Greg LeMond, Scott Tinley, Mark Allen, and Pauli Kiuri, have known for some time that heart rate monitored workouts can help maximize training efficiency and consistency. The storage and analysis of multiple heart rate workouts allows for performance comparison and utilization of this data to alter training procedures. With the ability to record other physiologic factors, such as sleep patterns, changes in body weight and body fat, incidents of injury and/or illness, lactic sugar, blood sugar, etc., and then trend and analyze these factors, computer software can produce digitally optimal workout suggestions.

Accumulated workout heart rate data is only one measure of cardio-respiratory performance. Laboratory collected data, i.e. blood pH, blood lactate, inspired and expired gases, may be more scientific, but collection of such data is currently confined to athletes in a laboratory environment. Sampling lactate and expired gases during training/competition is difficult, but a heart rate monitor can accumulate workout data in the field that can be analyzed by athletic training software. Re-obtained heart rate data from similar course work can produce insight and aid in scientific evaluations. Other performance measurement devices, such as pedometers and accelerometers are rapidly declining in price, improving in performance, and gaining more widespread use by all levels of athletes. Each of these represents a new category of digital fitness data for interpretation by sophisticated computer tools.

Identifying Overtraining

Athletic training is not just for competitive and professional athletes. The majority of individuals who work out on a regular basis are using their training to stay fit, lose weight, and reduce cardiac risk. Most athletes do not have access to, or cannot afford, a coach and rely on monthly publications and books to provide workout plans and coaching assistance. Athletic training software can fill the gap if it is affordable, interactive, and has the proper functionality. Publications may warn of overtraining, a form of athletic exhaustion, but the individual factors and trends that create this syndrome are often overlooked in the enthusiastic participant. Computer observation of these same factors and trends, however, can recognize the risk of progressive exhaustion from over-effort and alter workouts accordingly. These subtle changes may make the difference between success and injury in a training program.

Assessment vs. Management

Athletic computer software programs generally fall into two categories. The first includes fitness assessment programs, which are oriented towards testing of various physiologic factors, such as flexibility and aerobic capacity (V02 MAX). Assessment software has also been developed to recognize EKG (electrocardiograph) patterns during training and cardiac testing. These programs often require sophisticated and expensive hardware and are generally research tools used in laboratories to study athletes and the effect of specific conditioning variables. They are usually not available to the public, and have limited application to “real-world” athletes.

The second group of software has been developed for users -athletes with enough computer literacy to adopt software - to manage their workout data. Physiologic and performance data is entered or digitally downloaded from devices into a database, which can produce analytically valuable charts, graphs and other reporting tools. Programs that are more sophisticated offer links to artificial intelligence software modules that harness the processing power of computers to create workout programs that optimize athletic performance, both from an athletic performance and time management perspective.

Choosing Athletic Training Software:

Athletic training software should meet the following criteria:

1. User friendliness, i.e. easy data entry and simple, quick configuration.
2. Complete management of all athletic training data in multiple sports.
3. The ability to provide coaching suggestions based on your own individual workout data.
4. The program should be capable of accepting workout plans produced by coaches and trainers.
5. The program must be able to recognize overtraining and adjust workouts accordingly.
6. The capability to accept data from recording/storage devices, including heart rate monitors, pedometers, lactic acid analyzers, and other performance measurement devices.
7. The ability to generate easily understood graphs, charts, summaries and reports.
8. The ability to identify personal bests/records and set goals for motivation.
9. Configurability to different athlete fitness levels, from entry level to professional athlete.
10. Upgrades should be readily available on a regular basis as improvements and insights are gained in sports medicine and exercise physiology.
11. Friendly and competent Technical Support.

UltraCoach® Multisport Athletic Training Software fulfills all of the criteria listed above. The UltraCoach® software allows for the direct incorporation, either manually or via electronic download, of heart rate monitoring or other athletic data from performance measurement devices. It displays and analyzes data with a view towards creating your next workout. Abnormal numbers, when accumulated and trended, are recognized by UltraCoach and routines can be altered to avoid overtraining. UltraCoach® creates “virtual workouts”, based on a complicated set of rules and conditions priority-weighted to goal achievement. The philosophy of the software is to optimize training to goal performance and to recommend statistically optimal workouts. This is achieved by incorporating all aspects of the athletic profile, illness, injury, recovery, goal, previous performances, etc.

About the Author

Kenneth P. Burres, M.D. is a neurosurgeon, sportsmedicine physician, and four-time Ironman® triathlete. He is Chairman & CEO, FitCentric® Technologies, Inc. FitCentric Technologies is a leading developer of Internet-enabled software for the sports and fitness industry. The company produces innovative virtual athletic training and fitness data management systems for home and commercial use. FitCentric’s products motivate and assist people of all ages to improve their health, fitness and athletic performance, while serving the technology needs of the digital athlete™.