STRAVA | PowerDot Link Up

I love it when something unusual or clever pops up in my inbox.

Background: Musing On STRAVA

As power and heart rate data were captured and collected by STRAVA, many more avenues were opened to STRAVA and 3rd party partners to do weird, wonderful and clever things. For example, STRAVA has long been able to show the relative intensity of any workout and some of you might have occasionally noticed a message against one of your super-hard workouts along the lines of ‘Massive Relative Effort‘.

Now, you almost certainly knew you maxxed out that particular super-hard ride. But, so what? What next? We’ve seen apps that will recommend nutrition, generic recovery time and the amount of sleep you might need to optimally recover. What about active recovery/massage devices? Even though I have various physio/massage/recovery devices, I’d never really considered how they might be automatically linked to my workout data to improve the quality of my recovery. At least not until recently.

I mused further and presumed that a third-party app which linked a recovery device to STRAVA could know this:

1. The sport you performed – and hence the likelihood of which muscles needed some post-workout TLC
2. The intensity of your workout – and hence the nature and duration of physio-like recovery required
3. and the third-party app could also write-back to your STRAVA description how much recovery you actually did, perhaps also adding in some perceptions about how you felt and letting you rank your feelings of tiredness out of 5,  🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 /5 . Perhaps, also, placing a little bit of subtly-based advertising of their app/product for your followers to see too 😉

Sure, such an app could do more than that but this is a great place to start.

Bring On PowerDot

PowerDot is an electrical stimulation/massage product that’s controlled by an app. PowerDot does perform the first two of those three tasks and is thinking about the third 😉

WHOOP recently did something similar and sent physiological status data one-way into STRAVA using a personalised graphic here’s info on what WHOOP did, although I think PowerDot is cleverer still.

WHOOP creates INTERESTING FORMAT link to STRAVA

The PowerDot Linkup with STRAVA

As of NOW, PowerDot has linked up to STRAVA and Apple Health to recommend and partly-automate recovery protocols with the massage/stimulation product and app. Android and Google Health are pencilled in for the year-end.

Let’s say you’ve completed the super-hard ride I just talked about, above. From STRAVA, PowerDot takes speed, elevation, power averages and length of your ride to quantify if active recovery (massage) is needed whereas from Apple Health it just takes the heart rate. For many workouts, you will then get a notification in iOS suggesting some recovery actions. If you go to the PowerDot app you are efficiently guided through a short wizard which configures the type of massage/stimulation from PowerDot – the wizard effectively fills in the gaps from what PowerDot has already gleaned from the STRAVA data. You have about 4 hours to complete the recovery protocol for best results. Further details are in the PowerDot app that I haven’t shown which, for example, charts some elements of the progress with these protocols/muscle groups over time.

STRAVA | PowerDot Linkup – Take Out

This is one of those “Huh! that’s clever” moments.

If you’re an existing PowerDot user then I reckon there’s a good chance that you will use this new feature. The new linkup perhaps won’t get too many people to rush and buy a PowerDot now but articles like this will possibly stick in your mind for when you next think about the cost and need of your next physio visit.

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PowerDot Discount Code, Pricing, Availability & Pads

PowerDot seems to have fairly consistent pricing at rrp. They have periodic one-off offers and there are various standard discount like my 15% one, below which seems to match the best I’ve seen elsewhere (that actually work!)

Available in red or black

Generic replacement pads are cheap (like 50 cents each) check pin size compatibility first, or just pay al little extra for the PowerDot ones ($18, Eu18, £17) which you know will fit and which will have a high quality, long-lasting adhesive.