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{{DISPLAYTITLE:Humon Hex Muscle Oxygen Monitor Review}}
The Humon Hex is a device for measuring [[Muscle Oxygen Saturation]] or SmO<sub>2</sub>, similar to the more expensive [[Moxy]]. This is a brief review of the Humon, which I've been using from 2017-2020, alongside the Moxy which I used from 2015-2020. Humon is no longer in business, so [[Moxy]] is the only option on the market at now. (The Spanish distributer humon.es appear to be keeping Humon alive and have produced an iPhone app, but it's not available in the momentUS, so I can't try it. )
=Introduction=
Humon works by shining infrared light through the skin and into the muscle to measure how much oxygen your blood is carrying to that muscle, called [[Muscle Oxygen Saturation]] or SmO<sub>2</sub>. The idea is that a hard-working muscle will use a lot of oxygen so the blood in the muscle will have less oxygen remaining. The problem with SmO<sub>2</sub>is that instead of varying directly with intensity, SmO<sub>2</sub>is typically low at rest or low intensities, and rises with exercise intensity as more blood flows to the muscles, decreasing again at high intensity. The values can also vary widely from session to session, possibly due to slight changes in sensor position. The data can be displayed on recent Garmin watches and the Humon smartphone app. SmO<sub>2</sub>sensors also provide an estimate of blood flow (tHb or Total Hemoglobin), allowing for the calculation of the amount of saturated and unsaturated blood, but this is rarely used in practice (Golden Cheetah being one of the few systems that perform the calculation.) While [[Muscle Oxygen Saturation| SmO<sub>2</sub>]] sensors are compared to measuring blood Lactate, I don't think this is valid.
