1. Athletes Catching the Omegawave
By, Sean Joseph Grassi II
The offseason is the best time for athletes to improve their strength, endurance, and
speed. The one aspect of working out that most people overlook of forget is allowing the proper
amount of rest for the muscles to repair and grow. With people being so unique from one
another, it brings into question the proper amount for each person. Omegawave, a Finnish sport
training equipment manufacturer, has created a product that will record data of the individual’s
resting state.
One team that is utilizing the Omegawave technology is the Pittsburgh Pirates. The head
athletic trainer for the Pirates, Todd Tomczyk, talked about the usefulness of the Omegawave,
“The Omegawave gives us a snapshot of the body as a whole, different system and give us the
information that we can better prepare the players for upcoming games. This product is battle-
tested.” Tomczyk uses the Omegawave as a talking point to coordinate strength and conditioning
plans with the athletes. Employing a daily stress test to gauge a player’s capacity for
performance is one of the vast features that the Omegawave software offers readably available
and user friendly for the teams the company works alongside.
The Omegawave test requires four minutes to collect and analyze the integral systems of
the body such as cardiac, metabolism, and central nervous system. The data is collected through
two sensors, one on the forehead and the other on the chest of the individual, analyzed, and sent
to the device of the strength and conditioning coach. The data will give an insight on the athletes’
mental stress levels, oxygen usage, and various other factors in between. Mark McLaughlin, a
physical preparation coach, explained the data collecting, “The benefits from using the
Omegawave began to show once I understood just how much I could individualize not only the
training sessions but also the recovery process as well.”
Omegawave has been assessing the athletic performance of professional athletes with
their technology for more than 20 years with the first major use in the 2000 American Olympic
qualifier for the track and field athletes. Since then the Finnish company has had the opportunity
to work alongside with many teams such as the Pittsburgh Pirates, Golden State Warriors, and
Los Angeles Dodgers. The company’s work in applied sports science is predominantly used
among the entire athletic active community with the overall aim to create the most effective and
efficient training sessions and recovery periods.