Moxy Strength Training eBook

1Using Moxy for Strength Training

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Table of Contents

Introduction ............................................................................................. 4

What is Muscle Oxygen Monitoring? ......................................................... 5

Muscle Oxygenation

Total Hemoglobin (tHb)

Why Use Mucle Oxygen Monitoring for Strength Training?

How to use Moxy Muscle Oxygen Monitor to Control and Guide Training .. 6

Recovery Baseline

Performance Baseline

Creating Your Own Moxy Workout ............................................................ 9

Recovery Protocols Based on SmO2 .......................................................... 10

Hypoxic Recovery - No Recovery or Extended Set

Complete Recovery

Incomplete Recovery

Enhanced Recovery

Performance Indicators Based on tHb ...................................................... 14

Training Recommendations ...................................................................... 17

Hypertrophy Training

Maximum Strength and Power Training

Strength Endurance Training

Moxy Sensor Attachment .......................................................................... 21

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Using Moxy for

Strength Training

We invite you to refer to our sport-specific eBooks at www.moxymonitor.com

for practical information on how to Train with Moxy.

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This eBook should be considered a starting point rather than an ending point for how to use the Moxy Muscle Oxygen Monitor to guide strength training. We are just beginning to understand how the technology can be used to optimize strength training. The goal of the eBook is to provide the reader with some concepts and ideas to develop their own strength training methods. The examples are meant to introduce possibilities rather than define a rigid program. Ongoing discussion is welcomed on the Moxy Forum at http://forum.moxymonitor.com/ in the Strength Protocols topic. If you are interested in partaking in the development of Moxy applications for strength training, please do not hesitate to contact us.Introduction

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Muscle Oxygenation

Muscle oxygenation is a measurement of how much hemoglobin and myoglobin are carrying oxygen in the capillaries and tissue of the muscle. It is expressed as a percentage from 0 to 100 and is represented by the abbreviation SmO2. It is a localized measurement that depends on exertion level, blood flow, and changes in the hemoglobin dissociation curve.

Total Hemoglobin

Total hemoglobin is a measure of the amount of hemoglobin and myoglobin are in the muscle tissue under the Moxy Sensor. Total hemoglobin is a relative measure with arbitrary units, so it can only be used to determine if the hemoglobin levels in the muscle are increasing or decreasing. Changes in total hemoglobin depend on the volume of blood in the muscle. Total Hemoglobin is often abbreviated as tHb.

Why Use Muscle Oxygen Monitoring for Strength Training?

Muscle Oxygen Monitoring provides real-time physiological feedback on the relationship between oxygen consumption in the muscle and oxygen supply to the muscle. This relationship is a determining factor in the recovery and fatigue level of the muscle and, therefore, can be used to guide the number of reps, the number of sets, and the recovery time between sets in order to optimize the desired type of muscular adaptation. If the goal is hypertrophy, increases in maximum strength or improvement in muscular endurance are adaptations that can be most effectively achieved by guiding the training based on individual physiological parameters rather than generic numbers.

What is MuscleOxygen Monitoring?Moxy Muscle Oxygen Monitor measures muscle oxygenation and total hemoglobin. Both parameters are measured optically with near-infrared light, so they are completely non-invasive. The amount of absorption of the infrared light at different wavelengths is used to determine the two values.

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How to Use Moxy to Control and Guide

TrainingMuscle oxygenation responds within seconds of the onset of muscular activity. It is monitored in real time while working a muscle to guide the number of reps in a set and the rest interval between sets.

Recovery Baseline

The recovery baseline is the stable SmO2 value that occurs during the rest period following an easy warm-up. The recovery baseline is determined after a muscle specific warm-up which will usually result in an increased SmO2 value owing to increased physiological function. A warm-up using a Moxy device has the same goal as other warm-up protocols, and therefore should reflect a similar routine: muscle and joint mobilization, central nervous system and physiological preparation, and psychological forethought. Moreover, such a warm-up should be specific to the activity or exercise about to be accomplished, use a range of motion that reflects the intended activity, and achieve increasing intensity while avoiding muscular fatigue. Having completed a warm-up you can now establish your recovery baseline value.

Performance Baseline

The Performance Baseline is the minimum SmO2 value reached during a strenuous set of a given exercise after warm-up. The determination of this minimum has a subjective component and requires the exertion of maximum effort for the given goal of the exercise. This also means that a second or third set may actually cause the performance baseline to shift as a new minimum SmO2 value is reached following increased motivation or physiological effort; the means of reaching this new minimum SmO2 value is then dependent on the specific goal of the training (see Training Recommendations).

Two SmO2 baselines are required to guide training. The Recovery Baseline indicates the normal muscle oxygenation of a rested muscle after a short warm-up. The Performance Baseline indicates the lowest oxygenation that a rested athlete is able to achieve during strenuous exercise. These baselines should be established at the start of every workout to ensure accuracy. They may change over time due to incomplete recovery from previous workouts or due to physiologic adaptations.

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Training

Figure 1 – Determining SmO2 Baselines for Bicep Curl Exercise

Figure 1 shows an example of how to determine Recovery and Performance Baselines for a single arm bicep curl exercise. The light warm-up consisted of 25 reps with a 4-pound weight. The strenuous exercise consisted of 25 reps with a 17-pound weight.

Sm02 Strength Baseline Determination

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Training

Figure 2 shows data from a strength workout comprised of 15 sets. For each set, the reps are continued until reaching a low plateau. Sets 1-3 show the low plateau reaching the Performance Baseline. Sets 4-7 show that the low plateaus is a bit above the Performance Baseline. Sets 8-11 are after an extended recovery and again show the low plateau reaching the Performance Baseline. The final 4 sets show thatthe athlete cannot get close to the Performance Baseline, and indeed does not completely recover back to the Recovery Baseline.

Figure 2 – SmO2 During 15-Set Strength Workout

Strength Workout Between SmO2 Baselines

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Creating Your OwnMoxy Workout

Having established your Recovery Baseline following a warm-up, it is now time to start a workout. Before you begin, however, you must decide on the primary goal of your workout. Is it to achieve muscular hypertrophy, maximum strength or power, or muscular endurance?

Once you determine this, you are ready to proceed by selecting from the Recovery Protocols and Performance Indicators listed below. The first set (Recovery Protocols) will determine your initial Performance and Recovery Baselines. These two Baselines will guide the remainder of your training as you alternate between SmO2 recovery and depletion. Once it is clear that either the Recovery and/or Performance Baseline can no longer be reached, your workout is complete.

MuscularHypertrophy

Maximum Strength or Power

MuscularEndurance

What is the Primary Goal of Your Workout?

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Recovery Protocolsbased on SmO2

Four different Recovery Protocols can be used depending on the desired type of muscular adaptation. This section describes the different Recovery Protocols in greater detail.

• Hypoxic Recovery

• Complete Recovery

• Incomplete Recovery

• Enhanced Recovery

Hypoxic Recovery - No Recovery or Extended Set

The goal of a Hypoxic Recovery is to allow no significant SmO2 recovery (see Figure 3). In order to achieve this, the set must continue for an extended amount of time with very little rest. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways.

First, a submaximal amount of weight can be used for a long series of repetitions until exhaustion. Second, a maximal effort can be immediately followed by a largely reduced weight to extend the amount of achievable repetitions (traditionally called a drop-set). Third, a single rep can be performed for an extended period of time either by creating a very slow motion or with intermittent stops in an isometric contraction.

When this kind of extended set is complete, SmO2 recovery back to baseline value should be reached. The next set should follow immediately.

Figure 3 – SmO2 During Hypoxic Recovery Workout

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Complete Recovery

The goal of Complete Recovery is to have SmO2 return to the stable value, or Recovery Baseline (see Figure 4) before completing another set. The first step in doing so is to establish a Recovery Baseline SmO2, from which a set is executed until a minimum SmO2 value, or Performance Baseline, is achieved. The next step is to rest until a stable SmO2 value, or Recovery Baseline, is reached. As soon as this occurs, the next set is started, and so on.

Figure 4 – SmO2 During Complete Recovery Workout

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Figure 3 – SmO2 During Incomplete Recovery Workout







Incomplete Recovery

An Incomplete Recovery protocol requires SmO2 recovery to never actually reach the recovery line, differentiating it from a Complete Recovery. Just as in the Complete Recovery protocol, a Recovery Baseline is established after a short warm-up. An initial set is then executed until a minimum value of SmO2 is reached, establishing a Performance Baseline.

After the initial set, the idea is to achieve only limited recovery before starting the next set. The amount of limited recovery prior to starting the next set could be based on numerous factors, such as performance goals or competition types. In the example below (see Figure 5), limited recovery equates to an approximately 50% reduction in SmO2 level from the Recovery Baseline to the Performance Baseline. When this 50% recovery level is reached, the next set is started.

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Enhanced Recovery

The goal of Enhanced Recovery is to reach the maximum increase of SmO2 in-between sets. This value will often exceed the Recovery Baseline due to elevated cardiac output and vasodilation in the working muscle. The following example (see Figure 6) shows the SmO2 recovery exceeding the Recovery Baseline until it reaches a plateau before the next set is started.

Figure 3 – SmO2 During Enhanced Recovery Workout

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tHb is an indirect indication of blood flow in that, an increase in blood flow, in a normal situation, will result in an increase in tHb. The ability and rate of blood flow is determined by how open or closed the blood vessels are, a phenomenon itself greatly affected by muscular contraction during strength training. In other words, when we flex our muscles we impede blood flow; as our blood vessels are compressed, a resulting drop in tHb occurs.

To an extent, this biological process can be used to determine muscular performance. How? As we explained, an increase in muscular contraction is accompanied by a decrease in blood flow, but because venous blood flow (blood flow out of the muscle) has a lower pressure than arterial blood flow (blood flow into the muscle), at a given point we will not see a decrease, but rather an increase, in tHb. This is not because we have normal blood flow. Instead, it is because muscular compression has stopped venous blood flow but is still allowing arterial blood flow, and therefore blood continues to flow in but not out, resulting in an increase in blood volume. This is the first indicator of a given performance rate – a venous occlusion, or a cessation in venous blood flow (see Figure 7).

Figure 7 - tHb During a Contraction that Causes Venuous Occlusion

PerformanceIndicators Based

on tHbMoxy Monitor was developed to measure muscle oxygenation, and therefore the focus of the recovery protocols is muscle oxygenation recovery. However, as a consequence of the muscle oxygenation measurement, a relative value of tHb can also be measured and thereby used to give us a better look at what is happening in the muscle.

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Figure 8 - tHb During a Contraction that Eventually Causes a Complete Occlusion

The second indicator of performance is an unchanged or plateau of tHb. This can occur almost instantly or following a venous occlusion depending on how quickly muscular compression builds up. This plateau of tHb is a result of both venous blood flow and arterial blood flow stopping along with the in-flow or out-flow of blood, which in turn keeps tHb levels flat. This second indicator of performance is known as a complete (venous and arterial) occlusion (see Figure 8).


on tHb

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If neither of these two indicators occur, the third one is likely to: a decreasing tHb, usually accompanying a decreasing SmO2 (see Figure 9). This decreasing tHb means the muscular compression is squeezing the blood vessels together so less blood can flow, but the muscular contraction force is not enough to actually impede blood flow completely. Muscle blood flow becomes effectively impeded at about 50% of maximal contraction force. Please do not confuse this with 1RM, because the progression is different. In order to complete any kind of effective strength training, a minimum contraction force should be achieved. In this case, Moxy can give two indicators of performance using tHb (see Training Recommendations). If neither of these two indicators is reached, workout intensity should be increased.

Figure 8 - tHb During a Contraction that Causes a Muscular Compression


on tHb

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TrainingRecommendations

Having identified a variety of Moxy Recovery Protocols, the next section will examine which Protocols should be used to achieve particular adaptations. The combination of various Moxy Recovery Protocols will offer highly individualized guidance for daily strength training.

Hypertrophy Training

The purpose of Hypertrophy Training is to increase muscle size. This can be encouraged by the natural release of growth hormones caused by muscle work performed in hypoxic conditions. The number of repetitions of this type of workout is determined be the speed of each repetition and then by the desired period of muscular hypoxia (i.e. low SmO2). Each repetition should follow the desired range of motion and should be controlled in both extension and flexion.

The following example workout aims to keep SmO2 at a minimum valued for an extended period of time under load followed by a complete recovery. It utilizes both the Hypoxic Recovery and Complete Recovery protocols.

Example Workout – Hypertrophy Training:

• Select a weight that allows the muscle to get down to the Performance Baseline and allows extended contraction times for up to 5 sets.

• Perform 3 to 5 sets with the Hypoxic Recovery protocol. Keep SmO2 levels at the Performance baseline for 15 seconds.

• Allow Complete Recovery between each set.

Employing drop-sets for this type of a workout can be very effective. Using a heavier weight to quickly cause SmO2 levels to drop followed by a lighter weight to keep SmO2 at the Performance Baseline for an extended period to time to create muscular hypoxia is very effective.

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Maximum Strength and Power Training

The goal of maximum strength and power training is to increase the ability to generate maximum strength or power for a single movement or short series of movements. In either case, the muscles must be supplied with maximum energy to produce maximum contractile force.

Enhanced Recovery in between sets allows time for the energy pathways to be restored. The number of repetitions for this kind of training is determined by the ability to repeat a maximum effort, and for this reason usually follows a lower number of repetitions. Repetitions for a maximum strength effort should follow a desired range of motion and should be slow and controlled; repetitions for maximum power, on the other hand, should be explosive in execution.

Example Workout – Maximum Power Training:

• Complete a series of maximal power tuck jumps to exhaustion (maximum effort).

• Complete a SmO2-enhanced recovery, and then start second set.

• Repeat for desired number of sets, and then continue to next exercise or until SmO2.Performance Baseline and/or Recovery Baseline can no longer be reached. Example Workout – Maximum Strength Training:

• Complete a series of maximal strength repetitions for a given exercise (low repetitions 1-4, maximum effort).

• Complete a SmO2 Enhanced Recovery, and then start second set.

• Repeat for desired number of sets, and then continue to next exercise or until SmO2 Performance Baseline and/or Recovery Baseline can no longer be reached.

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Strength Endurance Training is very different from Maximum Strength Training. The goal of Strength Endurance Training is to be able to continuously contract the muscle at a given performance level for an extended period of time rather than achieve a maximum effort. The continuous energy supply for contractions is what constitutes muscular endurance. For this, we recommend a combination of the Complete Recovery protocol and the Incomplete Recovery protocol.

First, much like Hypertrophy Training, this approach will create a hypoxic situation that will promote capillarization, increasing oxygen delivery potential to the working muscle. Second, it will create a continuous contraction situation demanding muscular endurance to maintain performance.

A Strength Endurance Training workout should use submaximal resistance for a large series of repetitions until exhaustion. The number of repetitions is determined by the speed of each repetition. All repetitions should follow a desired reach of motion and be controlled in their execution.

The following example workout uses a combination of Complete Recovery and Incomplete Recovery.

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Example Workout – Strength Endurance Training:

• Complete a series of repetitions of a given exercise at approximately 40-50% of 1RMax until exhaustion. Consider completing more than 10 repetitions or lowering weight.

• Complete a SmO2 Complete Recovery protocol, and then start second set.

• Repeat set with the goal of reaching the same number of repetitions (which should be at exhaustion). If the number of repetitions decreases greatly, a lower weight should be chosen in order to maintain the time frame of activity.

• Repeat sets and recovery intervals for desired number of sets or until SmO2 Performance Baseline and/or Recovery Baseline can no longer be reached.

• The Recovery Protocol can be substituted in periodically with the Incomplete Recovery Protocol to alter the physiological effects.

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The Moxy Sensor should be placed on the bulk of the muscle you want to measure. While the Moxy is very mobile, a decision on the measurement site has to be made. During exercises where specific muscles are highly isolated, this is fairly simple. For example, during bicep curls the Moxy can simply be placed in the middle of the muscle bulk of the biceps brachii.

For exercises involving larger muscle groups simultaneously, a decision of priority should be made, perhaps based on the desired training regime. During a seated rowing exercise, for example, numerous muscles are activated, including a large portion of the back, shoulders and arms. Here a Moxy user has to decide on the measurement site. The recommendation is that, if the seated row is done as part of a back training routine, it would make the most sense to place the Moxy Sensor on the back (perhaps on the latissimus dorsi) rather than the biceps. As with any NIRS, device it is vital that intrusion of ambient light is eliminated, so make sure that the unit is properly covered by dark material.

Moxy SensorAttachment

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What is Moxy monitor?

Fortiori Design has developed the Moxy Muscle Oxygen Monitor system to measure the oxygen levels of muscles in athletes while they exercise. Its accurate, real time measurements are fundamental to athletic performance. Oxygen is the fuel that drives the muscles, and muscle oxygen levels are constantly changing with exercise intensity.

Moxy provides the feedback on exercise intensity that athletes are looking for. Our technology is superior to existing measurements because it is completely mobile, continuously recording, and totally non-invasive.

Why Moxy monitor?

Moxy is Accurate: Its sensor utilizes cutting-edge medical device technology to produce accurate and consistent readings of Sm02 muscle oxygen levels.

Moxy is Easy to Use: Its small sensor and strap can be easily fitted to measure virtually any muscle group.

Moxy is Durable: Its water resistant, lightweight industrail design is built to withstand the rigors of elite training.

Moxy is Fully Mobile: Sensor data is displayed on a wristwatch, so athletes can monitor their muscle oxygen throughout each workout.

Moxy is Affordable: With a price point similar to a GPS heart rate monitor, it is accessible to individual athletes.

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