Garmin recently announced the opening of the Firstbeat Analytics Lab in Jyvaskyla, Finland. We are talking about a cutting-edge facility dedicated to research and testing, a topic that is very close to Garmin's heart, whose history is based on constant innovation.
Inside the Lab, they will be made available to physiologists and data scientists Garmin custom-designed fitness equipment and proprietary tracking technologies. All this will allow us to create even more innovative features for smartwatches, cycle computer and products dedicated to well-beingWe are talking about products for which Garmin is an absolute reference worldwide.
Research at the centre
The relationship between Garmin and Firstbeat Analytics began in 2020 when Garmin itself decided to acquire the Finnish company, a point of reference for the development of analyses and metrics aimed at sports practice, but also fitness and wellness. Firstbeat Analytics is about turning heart rate data from wearables into insights and tips. Essential information for a better experience both in sports and simply taking care of yourself through regular daily physical activity.
The acquisition of Firstbeat Analytics and the subsequent creation of the Lab structure further underscore how essential it is for Garmin to work assiduously on continuous technological development that is increasingly targeted to satisfying its users' requests.
Even more precision
The opening of the Firstbeat Analytics Lab will help make many of Garmin's most popular features even more precise and detailed. Among these, the following are worth mentioning:
BodyBattery: Real-time energy level estimates to help you identify the best times to be active or restful.
Suggested daily workouts that help improve performance or recovery, even in preparation for races that athletes add to their Garmin Connect calendar.
Endurance score: a measure of your ability to sustain prolonged efforts, also taking into account some training data such as VO2 max, short- and long-term training loads and more.
Acclimatization to heat and altitude: shows how the body adapts to different environments.
Hill score: Evaluates how easy it is to run up hills by measuring your strength on steep hills and your running endurance on long climbs, while also estimating your progress over time based on your VO2 max and training history.
HRV Status: Track heart rate variability during sleep to better understand your overall health, recovery and performance.
stamina: value that reflects the energy still available in real time during a run or bike ride.
Recovery time: Shows your recovery time before a training session based on the difficulty of your previous workouts.
Quality of sleep: Helps you better understand how your body is recovering with a personalized sleep score, a breakdown of different sleep stages, Pulse Ox1 and respiration.
VO2 max: metric that represents the maximum volume of oxygen consumed per minute (in milliliters) per kilogram of weight and defines the personal cardiorespiratory and aerobic level.
The Firstbeat Analytics Lab was inaugurated in 2022 and became fully operational in 2023. All that remains now is to wait for the next innovations that Garmin will present in the future, thanks also to the information arriving from its new research center.
