Jean-Yves Mignolet, CEO of Myocene: “There is a need for a tool that will gather all the data and automatically advise on what to do with athletes”

Feeling tired? Probably. But how tired, exactly? That’s what Jean-Yves Mignolet, CEO of Myocene, aims to put into numbers for athletes and their coaches. By measuring muscle fatigue in particular, they can guard against the curse of overtraining and the inevitable injuries that follow.

How does it work? Jean-Yves goes into detail below, including the example of a football player (soccer to our American readers) who had a “fatigue index”, measured by a Myocene device, that “showed for one player the recovery was not good”. On questioning, the coach discovered the player hadn’t followed the usual recovery procedures. “The coach could therefore redirect the player to additional recovery, and the player had the objective data to be convinced of the need for this,” said Jean-Yves.

Prior to becoming CEO of Myocene, Jean-Yves was director of R&D at Cefaly Technology, which developed the first medical device for treatment of migraine. Before this he was project leader at IMEC, the largest micro-electronics research centre in the world.

In short, Jean-Yves is someone worth listening to when it comes to sportstech – and all tech. We couldn’t help but nod in agreement when he said there’s “too much data” for people to usefully analyse. But no rest for the technologically inquisitive: read our full interview below!

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Tell us your elevator pitch

Myocene has developed the first and unique device for the objective measurement of muscle fatigue. The device allows the strength and conditioning coaches to measure the fatigue induced by the different types of training sessions or competitions, and to follow up the recovery of this fatigue for each athlete. This allows them to prevent the accumulation of fatigue, which could create overtraining and injuries, and to schedule the training sessions and the recovery period to ensure that there is no remaining fatigue on the day of the competition.

Though muscle fatigue is a key parameter of sports performance, there is no way to objectivate this fatigue in athletes. Myocene precisely addresses this unmet need. The device has been designed to be used on the field. It is transportable, and the coach and athletes can have it at hand all the time.

It is very fast: it only takes two minutes to obtain an accurate measurement of muscle fatigue. It doesn’t require any voluntary movement from the athlete, so it can be used even after an exhausting effort. Myocene has started his commercialisation in Europe, with several contracts with top European first-division soccer clubs already, and will hit the US market in the course of next year.

What is it about sports tech that excites you? What made you get into this sector?

If I had to use one word, it would be “performance”. The world of sports is made of people who always look to improve themselves. “Citius, Altius, Fortius”:  the Olympic motto (faster, higher, stronger) is really what athletes aim at. They train hard every day with a given objective; they have milestones to reach. They will be using technologies with a positive mindset.

After about ten years of working on helping migraine sufferers improve their lives with a medical device treating their illness, it was a drastic change. But it is still a challenge, with some similarities: where doctors and patients had to be convinced of the efficacy and safety of the treatment, athletes and their coaches need to be convinced of the added value of measuring muscle fatigue and be supported in the use of this important data.

This is performed thanks to a close collaboration on data analysis and informed decisions for the training plan and the recovery of the athletes.

And to achieve this, you first need to get into this network: identifying and reaching the right people, who will introduce you to the clubs and performance staff. From then on, you discover and learn a lot, making this journey very exciting.

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What sports does your tech apply to? And have you been surprised by its use? 

The Myocene device targets the quadriceps. Any sport involving an important exertion of the leg will therefore benefit from using the device. This encompasses individual sports, like running, cycling, skiing and team sports (think of football, soccer, basketball, volleyball etc).

The quad is indeed the most important muscle of the leg (and of the body). The Myocene measurement will therefore be representative of the muscle fatigue generated by the exertion performed by the athletes during their training or competition.

What we discover regularly on the use of the device is how various it can be.

The first approach is fatigue quantification: how much fatigue is induced during a training session. This is key to evaluate if the training is intense enough to enable in the long run a performance improvement of the athlete. Also if it is not too intense, preventing the athlete from recovering. It allows therefore an individualization of the training load.

In clubs, during the regular season, when there is a fixed pattern of training from one match to the next one, there is much more emphasis put on recovery: the staff wants to know if the players do not accumulate fatigue, if they recover enough from the matches and if they should adapt their recovery modalities (skip an on-field training session for instance).

Interestingly as well, the Myocene technology can be used to identify unbalanced resistance to fatigue between the two legs. This is frequently observed in post-injury return-to-play.

Can you give an example of a complex problem in sports that you – or your company – have been involved in tackling with technology?

Training load and risk of overtraining is a key issue, and a complex problem, for the strength and conditioning coaches. They need to set up the correct training plan to get the athlete ready and performant for the next competition. For this, recovery from the training sessions is of course critical.

We have testimonials from our clients on how the device helped them prepare their players. In one soccer club, for instance, the strength and conditioning coach measures every week, with the Myocene device, the recovery of the fatigue generated by the match, on the day after the match. On one of these measurements, the fatigue index showed for one player the recovery was not good. By questioning the player, the coach realised the player skipped the usual recovery modalities. The coach could therefore redirect the player to additional recovery, and the player had the objective data to be convinced of the need for this.

At another soccer club, a strength and conditioning coach observed residual fatigue three days after a match, the day after a day off. He discovered from the player that instead of resting on that day off, the player had a three-hour padel session. Measuring the fatigue index with our Myocene technology prevented the player from risking overtraining by taking to the most intense training session planned that day.

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What do you believe is the biggest opportunity in sports tech right now?

There is an increase in data collection in sports today. For instance, you can measure speed (average, instantaneous), number of kilometres covered, acceleration (number, values) and so on with the use of GPS. You can also measure heart rate variability, CK concentration and force developed in different movements.

However, all these measurements need to be analysed, the impact of each of them should be understood, and the consequences on the athlete should be assessed. Once this is all done, a conclusion should be drawn on what the athlete should do (train more, train less, use specific recovery modalities).

This is a huge and complex task since there’s too much data. In my opinion, there is an unmet need for a tool that will gather all the data and automatically advise on what to do with athletes. To achieve this, there are probably some missing pieces of scientific knowledge on all those measurements and how they influence the performance and recovery of an athlete. One unique tool that leads to one unique conclusion is more like a utopia. But the added value for tools that give conclusions on a subset of those measurements would be already huge.

We got for instance multiple times the feedback from national team staff that they would love to be able to assess quickly the state of fitness of the players that join for a competition, since they come from different clubs where they have trained and played very differently from each other.

What advice do you have for those wanting to start a career in sports tech, or those wanting to launch a startup in the space?

There are a lot of gadgets around, that could resemble sports tech. If you want to launch a startup in that space, you should first provide a technology that is scientifically backed up. Beyond a rationale, there should be published data that support your claim and that help you demonstrate the added value of your technology. This allows you to quickly answer sports scientists who question your innovation (don’t forget: many technologies come to them, and only very few will end up being used). And this allows you to differentiate from those gadgets.

You should also never forget that, despite what your technology can bring, if it does not solve an issue or address an unmet need, it will hardly hit the market. Identifying what you can solve will also help you evaluate your product.

The next step is to reach your target market. Sports is a world where you can hardly enter by yourself. You should find business introducers who will put you in contact with the right person, and bring directly some credibility to you and your solution. You should go on the field, demonstrate your technology, hear the feedback and validate your added value. This will help you grow and finally become a success story!