Mar 29, 2023Polar Solutions for your athletes: Turn tech driven measurements into informed decisions
How the Las Vegas Raiders aim for success with the help of Polar
(Sponsored) Since 1977, Polar has worked to provide athletes with personalized data and transform it into actionable guidance — helping tacticians and athletes perform at the highest level while becoming resilient to injury and fatigue.
Continuing to focus its leadership on personal guidance for fitness, sport and health, Polar supplies the world’s best measurement technology and data-driven insights — perfect for anyone, or any team, to understand their bodies better and improve their health and overall happiness.
Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Las Vegas Raiders, AJ Neibel, has worked in the National Football League (NFL) for 22 years. With degrees in sports psychology, physical therapy and advanced exercise science, Neibel knows how important it is to track player fatigue and monitor their health.
With 17 regular season games in the NFL, players consistently experience high-intensity workouts. Neibel ensures players recover efficiently and successfully — starting in the off-season.
According to Neibel, communication between various training staff, coaching staff and the general manager is crucial when creating a plan to best improve the team both mentally and physically. Through the advancement of technology and with the help of Polar, Neibel and the team can engineer some of the best players in the league.
“When building a robust, resilient athlete, preparation is the key. We need to make sure the guys have a well-balanced calendar and targeted rest periods,” Neibel said. “It’s important to know your athletes … you can’t manage their performance unless you (monitor) it. That’s where Polar comes in.”
With Polar, Neibel can monitor a player’s internal and external load. Because football teams consist of players with various load tolerance, it’s important to understand how each individual recovers during high-intensity workouts — ensuring the strength and conditioning staff can attend to players in the most efficient way possible.
“When using Polar, I’m capturing their internal and external load and I am able to see what’s going on with those particular athletes. Some athletes need to be worked and addressed in different ways in order to prepare them for games and increase load management,” Neibel said.
Neibel works with athletes on their heart rate recovery — teaching them how to push their heart rate up and bring it back down within three minutes of a workout. Players practice heart rate recovery drills during the off-season, training camp and rehab to ultimately prepare them to get back on the field.
Players, teams and coaching staff often face unique events such as weather, short weeks and injuries. Neibel manages their workload through a week-to-week evaluation and provides different types of training for sufficient recovery.
Readiness and resiliency for athletes is more than just physical preparation. Neibel also incorporates emotional, spiritual, cognitive and nutritional preparation into the athlete’s routine.
“My job is to educate the athlete; if I’m not educating them, I’m not doing my job to help them with their routine,” Neibel said. “Having the ability to monitor each individual starts a conversation with the athlete. I’m able to focus on their recovery and fatigue and educate them on how to better perform, push, heal and be prepared for the week.”
National Account Manager of Team Sports and Government at Polar, David DiFabio, has worked with the company for nearly ten years and has a strong background in strength and conditioning. DiFabio explains how Polar’s technology advances an athlete’s abilities — both on and off the field.
“Polar provides the coaches, sports medicine staff and strength and conditioning staff with a microscopic look into how an individual athlete or team is recovering,” DiFabio said. “The technology allows for individual training — tailoring to an athlete’s specific needs, goals, physiology and biomechanics. This allows athletes to be more effective, efficient and perform to their best ability.”
Polar has a number of different solutions and technologies that allow athletes and training staff to measure heart rates accurately. Polar’s H10 heart rate sensor is trusted by sports professionals and medical researchers across the globe — giving maximum precision insights during high-intensity exercise.
Another innovative technology from Polar is the Polar Verity Sense — an optical heart rate sensor that provides athletes with the maximum freedom of movement with up to 30 hours of battery life and is waterproof up to 50 meters.
“Tracking an athlete’s heart rate will give you a different perspective of what the individual or team accomplished during a practice or game. It’s one indicator of the athlete’s health, well-being, fitness, and recovery time,” DiFabio said. “If you’re not tracking heart rates, you’re missing a huge piece of the puzzle.”
DiFabio explains the importance of understanding an athlete’s limits and utilizing the collected data to tailor their individual strengths and weaknesses.
“Polar’s technology gives you a greater insight into the proper dosage of exercise, so teams have the right balance between volume, intensity and recovery — making the athlete more resilient to the demands of their job, sport or workout,” DiFabio said.
Focusing on recovery analysis, Polar can track this data in a multitude of ways, including heart rate variability, heart rate recovery between drills, sleep patterns, movement and more.
As more people around the world wear smart devices to track physical activity, Polar’s technology is more relevant now than ever. Being the only wearable company in the world that provides both individual and group training solutions. This technology allows people to better understand themselves, perform better and live a healthier lifestyle.
To learn more about Polar and inquire about team pricing please visit https://www.polar.com/
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