Before you spend all your free time running, doing yoga, strength training, and taking in all the other healthy habits we’re told we should do to keep our aging bodies healthy, it’s time to train in a different way. I was there. I used to go kickboxing four times a week wearing heavy 14-pound gloves.
It took a toll on my hips, shins, and knees (repeated head impacts are also probably not good for my brain in the long run), but I was a lithe 21-year-old and in the best shape of my life. I was convinced that I would live like this forever.
Of course, now whenever you wear gloves, it’s a lot harder. First of all, I’m 11 years older, my physical strength is declining, and I can hardly practice. For another, even the best smartwatches can prove to be inconvenient. I was recently testing out a chunky running watch during a boxercise class, and it kept accidentally pausing my tracked workout on the inside of my wrist.
Smart rings are one solution, but they’re not suitable for everyone. If you practice martial arts such as jiu-jitsu or rugby, wearing jewelry is out of the question. As I swapped my gloves for pads and unpaused my sixth workout, I thought there might be a better wearable I could use to track my health during martial arts. The Orb Sport Smart Mouthguard is exactly what I was looking for. .
(Image credit: Orb Innovations)
A smart mouthguard is a traditional mouthguard that hides a series of sensors designed to monitor your movement as well as your heart rate and calorie burn. Like the best smart rings, it’s based on a “set it and forget it” style of tracking. Just plug it in after setup and you’re ready to use. As with any smart ring, you’ll need to size it up a bit beforehand to make sure it’s comfortable. This involves biting down and feeding a traditional soft mouthguard so that the Orb Sport smart mouthguard molds to the mold of your teeth. .
Smart mouthguards can also estimate statistics such as stride length using a combination of height and a metric called “movement strength.” The app can also estimate the force of an impact on the mouthguard by tracking G-forces in three dimensions across the X, Y, and Z axes. This is very important. A high impact score may indicate the need for additional rest, recovery, or even hospital treatment.
According to Orb Sport’s website, the Impacts feature is in beta, but uses several key metrics, including the aforementioned graph, to estimate the force of an impact. The impact area calculation also shows the percentage of impact on the left and right side of the head detected by the mouthguard. For sports with high concussion rates, such as American football and rugby, this could be a game-changing indicator.
The Orb Sport Smart Mouthguard costs $349.99 (approximately £270 / AU$530) and is available from the Orb Sport website. Currently shipping only to the United States.
