Nerding hard with heart rate/breathing rate synched to video

[jetjackson]

So I started a vlog series on the Rock Warriors Way - or more me just vlogging about how I'm trying to implement the theory, practical things I'm doing to work on my mental game etc. etc. Reading the book got me thinking about heart rate/breathing etc. and I thought there has to be a way for me to measure that and show it against my climbing footage so I can analyse it and find my weaknesses etc. So late last week I worked out how to synch my heart rate monitor with my camera and output the iphone screen to my macbook and record it. The result, is I can watch my heart rate climb as I climb;

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S62rrj3Fgs

Here is link if video doesn't imbed properly - [/span]link here

I also bought a Stethoscope that hooks up to a microphone jack. The plan is to record my breathing, and then covert that into an audio wave visual, and superimpose it over the climbing footage, so you can see how heavy and rapid my breathing gets, as I climb. 

More interesting footage in the works than just gym climbing, but I was pretty stoked with how the heart rate monitor worked out, and so I wanted to share it.

[Lundy]

This is pretty cool, man. Great idea.

[erk]

That guy on the right's footwork ... 
It'd be cool to see how HR varies on different styles of climbs and different caliber of climber

[jetjackson]

Go easy on the guy, he's wearing rental harness and shoes - we were all there once.

Yeah, so going to get my wife to wear the heart rate monitor, and see how she goes. Also going to film myself on the same route on top-rope vs lead.

[jetjackson]

Okay, so my stethoscope came in the mail on Friday. I taped it to my heart and climbed a route at my limit, first on top rope and then on lead, to see how there was a change in my breathing. Unfortunately the sound it picked up was virtually unusable due to the background noise that the stethoscope picked up - gym music, general talk, movement on the wall and also my own calling for clips. You can make out my heart beat quite easily, but the breathing is less obvious - which is really what I was hoping to capture.

On Sunday, I strapped a gopro to my helmet, directly looking at my face - the aim there was to capture my facial expressions, and see how much I'm grimacing through difficult moves. When I watched that back, my breathing was more obvious. I think that could be a better way to track/analyse the breathing.

In both situations though, the background noise really killed it. I think this is best suited to a nice quiet crag outdoors, where there is little background noise. I'll post up the video results when I'm done anyway.

[Lundy]

Nice, dude. I love the experimentation, but given that your heart rate and respiratory rate are very highly correlated, I wouldn't sweat it too much. How often do you think your breathing is elevated and your heart rate low, or vice versa? My guess would be likely never, right? Or maybe you want to see if one is leading the other - bringing your respiratory rate down helps you bring your heart rate down. But you can probably figure that out on a treadmill and not have to go through all the rigging your doing!

[climber511]

Wow - and I can't even use a smart phone without messing something up

[jetjackson]

Thanks Lundy,

With the breathing, it's more about identifying when I'm holding my breath, when I'm breathing rapidly, and when I'm breathing long and deep.

The gopro in face seems to be a good solution for that though... although it's not that flattering.

There is a product on the market, but I'm not convinced of it's accuracy from reading reviews. It's called spire, and it's supposed to be able to give you a live breathing rate, among other things.