Muscle-fatigue sensor lets you know when your body has had enough

If you’ve always had the problem of training too hard while you’re at the gym, you’ll be glad to know that there’s technology on its way to help you. Mohamed Al-Mulla, a researcher at the Esses University’s School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering has come up with a prototype muscle-fatigue sensor. This wearable device can tell how close muscles are to fatigue to that athletes know when to stop in order to avoid injury. This means that wearers of the device will be able to train to their limit instead of their perceived limit that they’ve been doing normally. The device uses surface-electromyography to detect electrical signals that occur when muscles contract. These signals are converted into digital signals, and when the transition to fatigue of the muscle is detected, the device can warn users that they should start resting soon. As of now, the device is still a prototype, but Mohamed Al-Mulla is already working on something more commercially viable – plasters that will be placed on the muscle and an app on the iPhone to communicate with the sensor. Looks like the days of lying to your gym trainer “I can’t do it anymore!” are coming to an end.