Rest and recovery—two essential components to an athlete’s performance on the pitch—are now being monitored and analyzed by the Colorado Rapids through Oura Ring in partnership with UCHealth.
"UCHealth provides innovative care, each and every day, to improve lives in the communities we serve," says UCHealth Chief Marketing, Experience and Customer Officer Manny Rodriguez. "As the official health care partner of the Colorado Rapids, we're excited to help their players improve their overall health and support their drive to a second MLS Cup title."
Felix Proessl, Senior Director of Sport and Data Science, and Kyle Porter, Strength and Conditioning Coach, have been utilizing the rings through the players to monitor sleep, readiness and factors to recovery in the remaining weeks of the MLS postseason.
"The Oura Ring is an interesting piece of technology because it looks pretty simple, but it's actually pretty complex," said Proessl. "It uses a technology called photoplethysmography. It shines a light into your skin, and based on the absorption of that, can detect your heart rate and blood volume changes and even skin temperature. So that's really helpful for us, because those are measures that are closely related to sleep. We can not only measure how rested athletes are, we can get a good indication of your health status on a day-by-day basis...Some of the key metrics that we're looking at are the resting heart rate, which is essentially the lowest heart rate obtained throughout the night. Every person has a sort of individual threshold. But by monitoring the same athlete over time, it gives us a good gauge of where they are."
Oura Rings boast a myriad of biometrics, including resting heart rate, blood oxygen levels, respiration and heart rate variability and more. Their ability to gather accurate readings—without compromising the comfort of the players—is something thoroughly welcomed by players and staff alike.
As the Rapids compete in the playoffs, the Oura Rings are essential to tracking the players’ recovery for the most effective approaches to training, games and rest days. If players lie awake at night, analyzing their game, wound up from nerves, tending to familial responsibilities, the rings are able to measure how much—or how little—rest they get. Those metrics are then analyzed by Proessl, Porter and the rest of the technical staff to appropriately utilize players in a game or training.
The players are also able to see their own metrics and educate themselves on aspects of their recovery they didn’t realize prior to the partnership with Oura Ring. The comfortable, non-invasive ring holds the power to not only collect important data but instruct these professional athletes and coaches on proper rest practices while they’re off the pitch.
The Colorado Rapids are more prepared than ever to perform at optimal levels of fitness, mental health and readiness during the Audi 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs, thanks to the progress achieved with UCHealth and Oura Ring.
"We know the demands are going to be high, the guys are going to put everything out there on the field, and sleep is going to be one main component to recovery," said Proessl. "So thank you to UCHealth for helping us push the boundaries here and letting the guys be in the best shape possible for these important games coming up."
