Fitness Tracking: Bring DIY biomedical technology to your home or school | MAKE

http://makezine.com/2014/01/26/open-source-emg-coming-to-a-muscle-near-you/

This project shows the power of the Maker Movement. These guys are opening up a field of research to DIY which unleashes numerous problems that can now be worked on by others with a lower cost of entry.

Do I have a use for the DIY E‎MG (Electromyograph) module? Not really but what can I think of that would be cool with this?

How about when cycling if it graphed your muscle output along with speed, watts, and altitude change. Would this give us more insight after collecting multiple sessions as to whether we should back off

 this training session or go harder?

Can the EMG readings of our muscles show us if we are over/under trained?

Can we make cheaper, consumer products with modules like this to allow anyone to easily unlock their potential? 

I have found that as I have trained, there are many questions I ask myself. Should I push harder today? Should I do that extra workout? Should I back off?

A work out plans is just a guide to how to reach a goal.  The guide is usually one that someone else has used which will help you prepare.  Guides are available for many distances and as long as you put in the time and keep to the guide, you should be able to complete the distance trained for.

The amount of training for a marathon for example ranges from 3-6 runs a week.  Then there are cross training days or sessions.  How can some go so far on so little training and others on so much?  Are some of us overtraining and some under training?

We are all different training plan/guides are just that, a guide used by someone else that worked for them.  Can we get more quantitative with our training and be able to customize it on the fly to avoid injury, burn out, and ultimately to increase our potential?

I know you can wear a heart rate monitor (HRM) all the time and look at your resting heart rate (HR) in the morning to get idea of your level of training. Too high above resting HR (and historical morning HR) and you are getting sick or have over trained.  So, you'll need to dial back today.

Can we make this even better with EMG‎ monitors?  Can we get a reading of how hard we can push our muscles for their peak workout?

I feel that the current wearable fitness tracking devices and apps are just the infant stages of where we can go with technology to help us achieve more in our physical pursuits.

What would you do with a wearable EMG?