Moxy for beginners?

Beginners & Basic Tips
#1

First, I’m interested in the Moxy. I’ve spent some hours reading blog posts, threads here, and have listened a few podcasts.

After all of that research I’m still not sure if spending $1200+ on a device, software, and a course is worth it. Also, do you need more than one device? Measuring both legs? Or a leg plus a deltoid or paraspinal simulantiously? Three devices = $2500+, gulp!

Is going deep with muscle oxygenation unlocking the last 2% of gains or could it be a total game changer for training?

I also find it interesting that some coaches are talking about muscle oxygenation and respiratory training (lots of Canadians, Swiss mountain bikers, etc.) but most US coaches never mention it. Curious.

I do really enjoy geeking out with exercise physiology. Is there a market for testing friends for a fee to defray equipment costs? (I realize it’s not a get rich quick scheme.)

(I’m just a slightly above average 56 year old athlete doing fondos, small local races, and group rides. I’m no where near making the podium at big races. An extra 2% in watts is not that meaningful to me. Now, if it was 10-20% then I’d be on board.)

Is there anything I can read that is A to Z for beginners?

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#2

Hello,

I can touch on a few of these topics.

I have been using a moxy since it has been around, my mentor ( Juerg Feldmann - father of Andri Feldmann who you may have found on youtube).

Juerg helped me greatly in the first 15-18 years of my 33 year coaching career, I honestly think about what I learned from him on many levels, every single day.

As an athlete you only need one. You can learn an awful lot by putting this on a working muscle, and sometimes even more by putting it on a non-working muscle relative to the sport.

There are many ways to use the device for testing (LT1 and LT2 or non-invasive way of finding those two points), very easy. So compare the cost of a moxy to say lactate testing?

You don’t need the software as an endurance athlete, just a device like a garmin or wahoo to be able to see the data live.

You can use this for testing as mentioned above, and if you get more of an understanding you can also define some of your limitations from the moxy that could help your training.

You can also use this during every training session, which then really starts to show the cost benefit relative to say lactate with ongoing costs.

I think you are already doing the right thing by finding as much as you can online regarding the device.

Does it work? yes all of my private clients use one everyday. I teach them how to use the device to make live decisions during workouts or when to go ahead with a planned workout. The device really tends to agree with a persons perceived exertion and gives you confidence in making daily decisions.

If you are interested I do have a discount code that you can use for your purchase, has been listed somewhere before but don’t mind posting here again if you decide to go ahead.

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#3

Here is one way I use the device.

Below is a step test done wearing a moxy, and on a metabolic cart.

Simple moxy - at stable power you either have increasing smo2, stable smo2, or decreasing smo2.

increasing - more o2 available than being used
stable - same available as being used
decreasing - more being used than available

You can see my peak smo2 as well as my only stable part of the test happens at fatmax.

This can fluctuate by about 15-20w daily depending on numerous factors, so I do this mini test every day to decide about the session.

It is great for recovery rides - you should have continuing increase in smo2 the entire ride.

Great for endurance, you should be slightly increase or just on the first point of being stable for the entire ride.

Tempo/Threshold/harder sessions - number of different uses.

sn moxy fatmax
sn moxy fatmax2032×1022 422 KB

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#4

This is super interesting, thank-you! Looks like it is worthwhile to grab one, might have to do that in the near future.

#5

@THowe @AJS914

The code for my discount on a moxy is:

SteveNeal

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#6

I would suggest looking in the following two places for really detailed info.

https://forum.moxymonitor.com/

On the forum you will see that they are starting to discuss a fine test (versus coarse test) this is something I have been doing for years, now that they are doing the same idea we will get a lot more science from what I believe works.)

The other place is Andri Feldmann youtube.

There are other great resources as well.

Many of the scientific details will be explained in great detail in these places, and you can ask questions as well.

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#7

The Upside Strength podcast also has tons of inteviews that talk about Moxy. @SpareCycles was on there and that was a great episode.

Half the episodes are in French. (I actually read/speak French but I think exercise physiology in French might be beyond my vocabulary.) :slight_smile:

Youtube channel too for those that prefer that format:

They also talk a lot about respiratory training.

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#8

This deserves a longer response, but my initial answer to this question is usually caution: IMHO the game-changer insight that muscle oxygenation reveals is that if we pay attention to our bodies and respect the sensations of effort, we’ll find that our brain does a pretty good job knowing how hard we can go, and how to pace an effort of a known duration. Muscle oxygenation is a very nice way to confirm or learn about those sensations in real time.

I think there’s an under-utilised model for coaches / clinicians / performance specialists to loan NIRS sensors to athletes for some period of time, eg. a two-week period or 4-week training block. Where the athlete can use that time to collect data and work with the expert to interpret the data and gain maybe 80% of the insight from that shorter period. Rather than every athlete buying a sensor to use permanently. Maybe it’s being done and I’m not aware. Maybe it’s a bad model for a reason I haven’t thought about.

Of course, there are performance specialists (incl. myself) who perform an assessment using NIRS and provide the insights from that single session test to an athlete. But I do think there is a lot of value in understanding the numbers in real-time during a variety of ‘real-world’ training or competitive sessions.

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