TOMORROW'S WORLD OF TRAINING

Modern tech has removed the guesswork from gauging fitness, but where will smart gadgets take us next? asks Joe Laverick

- Joe Laverick

From the introduction of heart rate monitors in the 1980s to the proliferation of power meters during the 1990s and early 2000s, technological breakthroughs have facilitated, if not driven, improvements in training. Just think how motivating and potent virtual training and racing platforms like Zwift have proved, particularly over winter. Toplevel performance continues to advance and that’s thanks, in large part, to the tech that allows us to train more effectively. So what’s the next transformative innovation coming down the track?

There are plenty of contenders for the ‘next big thing’: continuous monitors promise to let us keep tabs on everything from glucose to lactate, and there is technology in development to measure your aerodynamic drag as you’re riding. Thanks to this emerging tech, we have more data points than ever before, giving us greater insight into the human body. The question is, what will be the game-changing piece of kit we all end up relying on – and which apparent innovations will turn out to have been mere gimmicks?

Big ideas

The big idea for the next generation of cycling tech revolves around tracking performance in real time. In the past, we’ve measured resting heart rate when waking up, visited a lab to study lactate threshold, or headed to a wind tunnel to test aerodynamic drag. In 2022, we are getting closer to being able to take all these measurements continuously, using small devices mounted on our bodies.