Frequently Asked Questions – Tyme Wear™
  1. TymeWear User Guide
  2. Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

Check out our common questions here!
FAQ
The Smart Shirt
How does the Smart Shirt work?
The Tyme Wear Smart Shirt measures your unique metabolic thresholds and training load from your breathing, along with your running power, force production, ground contact time, and cadence from sensors embedded in the shirt. A 15 minute threshold test determines your Fitness Profile by measuring your aerobic threshold, anaerobic threshold, and V02max. The shirt also tracks your effort level, efficiency, and biomechanics during workouts.
What types of workouts can I track with Tyme Wear?
You can collect data from most endurance sports but the data analysis and lab validations have been optimized for cycling and running.
How often should I track my workouts with Tyme Wear?
It is not necessary to track every workout, but the more you wear and record your data from your Tyme Wear shirt, the more we can help you improve as an athlete.
What material is the shirt?
The fabric in the shirt is a synthetic polyester/nylon blend. Highly stretchable, sweat wicking, quick-dry, anti-microbial, and machine washable.
Can I wash it?
Yes! Wash warm, hang dry.
Will the shirt fit?
The shirt is made from form fitting, sweat-wicking, and highly stretchable fabric. We offer different sizes (S, M, L, XL) for male and (XS, S, M,L) for female athletes.
Can I own more than one smart shirt?
Yes! You can own and use multiple Tyme Wear smart shirts that will interface with your Pod.
What do the Tyme Wear sensors measure?
The Smart Shirt measures your Tidal Volume, Breathing Rate and Minute Ventilation from a sensor that tracks the expansion and contraction of your chest cavity. The Pod measures your Running Power, Ground Contact Time, Air Time, Cadence, and Elevation Change from a built-in IMU that measures accceleration, angular velocity, orientation, in addition to an altimeter for elevation change.
How accurate is the Tyme Wear breathing sensor?
The smart shirt measures breathing from the expansion and contraction of the chest cavity. The sensor has been compared to a gold standard metabolic cart and it measures Breathing Rate 97%, Tidal Volume 85%, and Minute Ventilation 95% as accurately.
The App
How does the App connect to the Smart Shirt?
The Smart Shirt connects to the App via Bluetooth Low-Energy.
Is the App available on iOS and Android?
The App is available on Apple iOS and Android devices. Risk free returns if your android device has connectivity issues with Tyme Wear.
Using Tyme Wear
How does Tyme Wear help me?
Tyme Wear measures your unique thresholds, and dials in your training to them. By targeting your 3 thresholds you can optimally improve your endurance. As your body adapts, your thresholds will improve. With Tyme Wear, we keep you on track throughout your training cycle.
How often should I track my workouts with Tyme Wear?
It is not necessary to track every workout, but the more you wear and record your data from your Tyme Wear shirt, the more we can help you improve as an athlete.
How Is Tyme Wear Different From Other Devices?
Tyme Wear helps dial in your workouts by measuring your true metabolic thresholds from your breathing. And gives you insights into your workouts, what intensity is optimal for you to target for a given training adaptation like fat utilization or lactate tolerance, and makes sure you stay on track with the right intensity as you improve throughout a training cycle.
Why is knowing my Thresholds important?
A randomized control trial (source) compared the effectiveness of training with accurate thresholds vs. standard heart rate formulas and found that only 40% of athletes improved when using the heart rate formula despite training for 12 weeks. In the group using their actual thresholds, all 12 subjects improved their endurance and they improved 2.5x more on average.
How Do I Use Thresholds In My Training?
Your thresholds represent key effort levels, for example a pace, power, or heart rate, that target each of your unique energy systems. Training at your correct threshold intensities allows you to improve your ability to output more work at those key levels. This doesn’t mean that you have to race at those paces or power levels but training at them is the best way to improve your race pace.
What is the Tyme Wear threshold test like?
A test takes about 10-15 mins. After warming up on your bike or run, there will be a ramp from a low effort up to a hard effort. The last 2-3 mins are considered a hard effort. Our users report that this test is significantly less taxing than traditional FTP tests or time trials and in many cases is completed as a warmup for another workout.
Will my zones change over time?
YES! As your body adapts to your training, your thresholds will occur at higher intensities. As your thresholds improve, so too will the zones at which you train. With Tyme Wear, we are able to detect these changes and update your zones.
Why does Tyme Wear have three thresholds, when most other training systems and wearables only have one?
Measuring your actual thresholds has only been available in labs. Because of this, training has often relied on one known intensity, for example your FTP, Critical Power, or HRmax, that is then used to estimate the remaining zones. In reality, the result of an all out 20-30 min time trial is not reflective of your fat burning (VT1) or your VO2max ability. That is why Tyme Wear measures each of your thresholds separately. Each zone is specifically measured for you and your unique physiology.
All About Thresholds
What are my ventilatory thresholds?
Ventilatory thresholds are reflective of how your body uses energy to produce work. Traditional zone models estimate where your thresholds are to create the traditional 5 or more zones. Tyme Wear measures your actual thresholds and builds your zones from them. Each threshold is unique to only you! Every workout you do should be specific to your thresholds.
How do my thresholds improve my training?
To improve endurance, there is no short cut for building volume. But how you adjust your intensity, can mean the difference between a PR and injury. Your 3 thresholds define key intensity targets to improve your endurance. By knowing how to target them, your training becomes more efficient and dialed in to your unique fitness level. By spending your training time targeting the right intensity you optimize a critical aspect of training: maximizing improvement, while minimizing the amount of work required.
How Does Tyme Wear Measure My Thresholds?
Tyme Wear measures your breathing during a 15 minute ramp protocol and identifies your thresholds as inflection points in your breathing data. Tyme Wear then provides you with your threshold metrics that you can use in your training. These include Pace, Power, and Heart Rate along with Breathing Rate, Tidal Volume and Minute Ventilation from the Tyme Wear shirt.
Why Is Heart Rate Not Accurate At Estimating Zones?
Heart rate formulas rely on population averages and do not account for individual differences within the population. This results in an error margin of ~29% (source), ~15% above and ~15% below the average. This means that a formula like HRreserve might say your zone 2 is at 130bpm, when in reality, it can be anywhere between 110 and 150bpm. Furthermore, standard formulas assume our thresholds are correlated with one another. In reality, they are independent. This is why some individuals can outperform others during a marathon, but not at shorter distances, and vice versa. Our individual differences are the reason measuring your true thresholds with breathing, either in a lab or with Tyme Wear, is so important for dialing in your unique training zones.
Is Tyme Wear better than going to a lab and getting my zones from a metabolic cart?
A metabolic cart is the gold standard for establishing training zones. Tyme Wear’s threshold detection method has been validated with a metabolic cart and was found to correlate very well, within 7 bpm for VT1 and 6bpm for VT2 across 200 tests. However, with lab testing you only receive a snapshot of your results on the day of the test. With Tyme Wear, we continuously build upon your threshold results during every workout that you track.
Payment & Subscription
When will my credit card be charged?
Your card will be charged approximately one hour after completing checkout. Changes made after that time can be requested by contacting Customer Support at support@tymewear.com and we will do our best to accommodate all requests.
Is my credit card secure?
Yes. We use the same secure, 256-bit encrypted payment gateway tristed by FitBit, Kickstarter, Lyft, Twitter and more. They store your credit card information and are fully PCI-compliant.
How can I view my order status?
We’ll email you to keep you up to date on your order and you can return to the site at anytime, sign in and view the status of your order.
Other
I still have questions.
We’re happy to help. Please email support@tymewear.com
Do you offer wholesale discounts?
Yes. If interested in learning more, please email arnar@tymewear.com