The UFC Performance Institute is partnering with athlete monitoring technology company Omegawave to identify “physiologically limiting factors” that might hinder mixed martial arts athletes from reaching optimal levels of performance.
The Institute announced this week that it will deploy Omegawave’s technology to monitor the training of UFC athletes to help maximize performance while minimizing the risk of injury due to overtraining.
A number of UFC athletes have already used Omegawave’s products, which collect data such as ECG, DC potential of the brain, and reaction rate. While the Institute, a state-of-the-art 30,000 square-foot facility that provides benefits and services to athletes competing under the UFC banner, is based in Las Vegas, the Omegawave technology will be available to all athletes competing on UFC’s active roster, regardless of where they live.
“We’ve been looking for a tool that can support UFC athletes and help them better understand how their body is responding to the rigors of training, so they can prepare and recover optimally. For us, Omegawave is that answer,” said Duncan French, UFC Performance Institute’s VP of performance.
Omegawave is used by multiple Olympic Federations, premier soccer teams such as FC Barcelona, and teams from the NFL, MLS, and NHL. It provides instant advice on the optimum amount of intensity and volume of training by identifying an athlete’s limiting factors and providing guidelines to overcome them.
“Omegawave provides true objective insights into key physiological systems relating to optimal performance. This aids in our efforts to define how an athlete responds to varying training loads and allows our team to implement diverse training strategies that can help maximize overall performance,” French said. “It takes away the guesswork for world-class athletes, therefore making Omegawave a critical part of how we support UFC athletes.”
SportTechie Takeaway
The UFC Performance Institute is joining a number of teams and leagues that are now emphasizing personalized training as a means to reach optimal performance while still minimizing the chance of injury. This new type of monitoring, however, comes with ethical and legal challenges.
Technologies such as Omegawave are touted as tools to reduce injury and tweak training to reach peak ability. Their invasiveness promise unprecedented levels of personalization that could fundamentally change athletics. But some warn of the bioethical concerns, and caution their use as this nascent industry evolves.