What To Know About Athletes and Personal Pulse Oximeters

To be a successful athlete, you have to work hard. You have to push yourself to the limits and overcome the barriers in your way. While this is necessary, it is also important that you take care to avoid hurting yourself.

Working your body too hard without giving it ample time to recover can result in injuries that can affect your overall performance. This is true especially when you are not yet conditioned properly or have underlying health issues.

An oximeter comes in handy to enable you to monitor your pulse rate and oxygen concentration during your sessions. By doing so, you can control the intensity of your workouts accordingly. Here is what you should know about Masimo personal oximeters.

What is an oximeter and how does it work?

It is an electronic device used to measure an individual’s pulse rate and level of oxygen saturation in the blood. As such, it is a very important health gadget and should be handled with care.

Initially, it was only being used in hospitals and health facilities by medical personnel. Nowadays, it can be used by anyone anywhere as it is readily available in the market and is easy to operate. It is most popular among athletes and other people who need to monitor the variables.

For instance, those who work out frequently and patients with respiratory illnesses find it very useful. Generally, it uses electromagnetic waves to measure the hemoglobin content thus determining oxygen saturation in the blood.

They are of different types, the most common one being the one that uses a clip for attachment to the finger. It also measures the heartbeat rate to determine the pulse. The results are displayed both as numerical readings and waveform thus allowing real-time monitoring of the variables being measured. See more details here https://www.healthline.com/health/pulse-oximetry.

What are the benefits to athletes?

It is of great importance to athletes especially while they are working out or performing rigorous activities. The benefits include:

1. Oxygen equalization

Sportspersons usually engage in a variety of exercises to build on different areas such as speed and power. Strength and conditioning exercises for instance can be very strenuous and might affect oxygen distribution. To develop properly and be a complete athlete, one has to ensure an equalized oxygen supply during the workouts. The oximeter will help you monitor the range and make the necessary changes.

2. Acclimatization

A good example of an activity that requires acclimatization is mountain climbing. The various parts of the mountain are at different altitudes hence affecting oxygen supply to the body. If you climb too fast then you might experience breathing difficulties and end up suffocating. With an efficient monitoring system, you can properly control your climbing to allow for acclimatization thus allowing you to withstand the low levels of oxygen supply at higher altitudes.

3. Managing respiratory disorders

Health conditions such as asthma can disrupt your activities if not managed well. An inhaler will only help you with mild and moderate cases. If it gets out of hand then it will be very hard to recover especially when you are far away from a hospital with the necessary health equipment. Monitoring your breathing and oxygen levels will help you stay within the safe ranges. Therefore, you will avoid sudden attacks that are usually surprising and hard to deal with. This can also help you to identify underlying respiratory complications that you were not aware of.

4. Recovery

After completing a hard training session, one needs adequate time for the body to recover. This is very important especially for athletes since it directly affects the performance both at the present and in the future. Thus one must know how much time their body requires to recover after such an activity. The oximeter can help you determine this since it can measure the parameters continuously even after the exercise. When the body finally returns to normal the readings will also return to normal thus indicating full recovery. Click here to see more advantages.

What are the factors to consider when buying one?

As mentioned earlier, they are of different types meant to suit different conditions. For an athlete, here is what you should consider:

1. Weight

Its portability alone is not enough for a sportsperson. You need something that will not get in your way while you are training. The lighter it is the better. Avoid those that are complex in design making them cumbersome. Go for something small and simple.

2. User-friendliness

The gadget should be easy to use so that you can focus your time and energy on exercising instead of operating it. A good one should have a wide enough screen with clear readings. Varying data is best represented by graphical models such as graphs. In this case, therefore, a graphical user interface will be better than a textual one.

3. Memory

You should opt for one with a large enough memory space for the storage of recorded data. Using this information, you can track your progress and even plan your future activities based on personal facts rather than speculations. It allows you to be in the know regarding the adjustments that you need to make to suite various conditions.

4. Type of battery

Some use disposable batteries while others use rechargeable ones. The latter is better as it can provide lots of power required for features such as continuous monitoring. The former on the other hand is unreliable because it can drain off in the middle of a vital monitoring session.

Conclusion

Having vital information about your day to day health such as oxygen saturation and pulse rate is very important. It helps you manage your activities well and conduct them safely thus ensuring progress. For an athlete, the oximeter is just as important a tool as any other training gear. Through it, one can make the necessary adjustments to allow them to get the best out of their session and become great competitors. This is also influenced by the type that you are using hence you should take into account the factors outlined above when making a purchase.