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From Fellrnr.com, Running tips
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[[File:Running Sensors.jpg|right|thumb|300px|A selection of the running sensors I've tested. From top left: [[Moxy]], [[BSX]], [[Wahoo TICKR Run]], [[Lumo Run]], [[TgForce]], Garmin [[Running Dynamics]], [[SHFT]], [[MilestonePod| MilestonePod v2]], [[MilestonePod| MilestonePod v3]], [[Stryd]], and a Gu for size comparison.]]
There are a growing number of wearable devices that will analyze your biomechanics, mostly from small startup companies, though the bigger players are also contributing to the space. Many of these devices a making use of the cheap and accurate accelerometers that are now readily available, though there are some other approaches being used. Here are my sound bite summaries:
* Garmin's [[Running Dynamics]] is well worth having if you own a Garmin watch that support it, though I wouldn't buy a Garmin just for its support of Running Dynamics.
==Deriving Practical Impact From Acceleration==
Often running sensors will provide a value for impact based on the acceleration measured at the foot or leg. However, the bulk of the stresses on the lower limbs comes from the acceleration of the overall body mass during landing. Therefore, I believe it would be more effective to measure the acceleration of the torso on landing to provide an estimate of the stresses on the lower limbs. I suspect that both peak acceleration and the area under the acceleration curve would provide insight into the stresses of running. Peak acceleration is fairly obvious, and I suspect is more useful than a jerk. However, it may be useful to evaluate the area under the acceleration curve, as the time spent under stress could also be a significant factor on injury rates.
==Measuring Foot Strike==Several running sensors will measure [[Foot Strike]], though so far, I've only found RunScribe and SHFT to provide useful data. However, even these devices tend to measure the foot angle on initial contact, and I suspect that it would be far more useful to measure foot and call at the time of maximum deceleration of the torso. This requires at least two sensors, one on the torso and another on the foot, and ideal three so there's one for each foot. Synchronizing the timing between the devices is likely to be problematic, but not insolvable.
