
Skulpt Aim: Device to measure muscle fitness with one touch - minusfive
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/skulpt-aim-world-s-first-device-to-measure-muscle-fitness-with-one-touch
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jose-skulpt
@wil421 The Skulpt Aim is actually unlike any other device on the market. It
uses a technique called Electrical Impedance Myography that my co-founder Dr.
Seward Rutkove began developing over a decade ago at Harvard Medical School.
Four years ago we combined his background in neurology with my engineering
background to refine this technology and develop a system that not only gives
you information about your fat content, but also your muscle quality. The
first system we developed is medical in nature and is being used by
pharmaceutical companies and academic researchers at some of the top hospitals
across the US. The Skulpt Aim leverages all of the knowledge we have gained
over the last decade to provide consumers with a tool that gives them fat
percentage and muscle quality for individual muscles. The device uses patent-
pending sensors and algorithms licensed from Harvard and MIT and others
developed internally to calculate accurate indices of muscle fitness. Because
the device is placed directly on the muscle you measure, it gives you very
accurate data on that specific muscle. I'm curious, when you say "sensors like
these", what in particular are you referring to? Regarding your second
question, this first generation embodiment is a stand alone device, but we are
certainly looking at other implementations for down the line.

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jcl
Please use the "reply" link under each comment to reply. It is otherwise very
difficult to follow conversations.

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jose-skulpt
Hi everyone. I'm the CEO of Skulpt and happy to answer your questions:

@bcbrown The Skulpt Aim is "aimed" at anyone who wants to improve or maintain
their fitness. Prior to developing this consumer device, we developed a
medical one that uses some of the same core technology and is actually being
used at more than 30 of the nation's top hospitals in clinical research. The
Skulpt Aim, however, is not intended to diagnose any medical condition. It's
the first device on the market that will allow you to measure your fat
percentage and muscle quality on any part of your body.

Regarding your second question, muscle quality (MQ) is a measure of strength
and definition. There is a high correlation between MQ and normalized strength
(i.e. strength over weight), meaning that someone smaller with strong muscles
for their size can have a similar MQ to someone larger with stronger muscles,
but two people who are about the same size and strength will have similar MQs.
Also, similar to your IQ, the average person has an MQ of 100 for each muscle
and a pretty fit person will have MQ scores of 120-140 or even higher.

~~~
bcbrown
It's a lot easier to track conversations if you use the "reply" link below a
question to answer it.

I want to "improve or maintain" my fitness. I'm a powerlifter who occasionally
competes. I'm receptive to this device, but I simply don't understand how I
would use it. I care about absolute strength. I can test my absolute strength
by lifting something heavy. What does this device tell me, that I would find
useful, that I can't find out by lifting something heavy? An abstract score
isn't useful.

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bretthopper
This seems like it exists just because it can. It basically does 2 things:

1\. Fat % of a area/muscle group

2\. Muscle "quality"

To address each:

1\. One of the most accepted truths in health is that you can't spot reduce
fat. There's no point in determining the fat % in a part of the body instead
of overall since you can't just reduce the fat in one area. You can only
reduce your TOTAL body fat.

2\. I'm not sure how muscle quality is any better than just knowing how much
weight you can lift. For example, if you really want to know the "quality" of
your biceps, just track and measure how much you can curl. Of course everyone
who lifts already does this.

~~~
kennu
I don't know if this device works or not, but I certainly see the value in
being able to take quantitive measurements and automatically store them in a
database.

It'd be like measuring your weight with a scale that submits the data
automatically online, instead of having to go to a website to enter the
numbers manually every time.

It would be particularly interesting to follow how much your muscles are
decaying during a period of non-training (thus not knowing how much you can
still lift).

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jose-skulpt
@biscarch All great questions. Muscle quality (MQ) is a measure of your
muscle's strength and definition. Leaner, stronger muscles are characterized
by having larger muscle fibers with less fatty tissue infiltrated. MQ
correlates strongly to weight-normalized strength and as you exercise and get
stronger and leaner, you'll see your MQ go up. At this moment, we can't tease
out the differences between different types of muscle fibers, but as we gather
more data we believe there is a good chance we will be able to. We think this
product will be extremely useful to high-level athletes since it will allow
you to optimize your training by quantitatively measuring and tracking the
impact of different exercise regiments on your muscles. You'll be able to see
when you're plateauing, for example, so you know it's time to incorporate some
muscle confusion. We have compared the fat measurements to underwater
(hydrostatic) weighing (the gold standard), Bodpods, skinfold calipers and
bioimpedance scales and found that our errors were much lower than skinfold
calipers and bioimpedance scales by about 3-4x. And on top of that, you get
data on individual muscles in a fast, easy, and private way. As far as the
availability of "raw" data, we're playing that by ear right now and it will
depend on user feedback. We'll certainly consider it if there is a lot of
demand. Thanks for all of your interest!

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foobarqux
> We think this product will be extremely useful to high-level athletes since
> it will allow you to optimize your training by quantitatively measuring and
> tracking the impact of different exercise regiments on your muscles. You'll
> be able to see when you're plateauing, for example, so you know it's time to
> incorporate some muscle confusion.

You know literally nothing about strength training.

~~~
bcbrown
Agreed. I would recommend bringing on board someone who's worked as a strength
coach, or has some sort of expertise around long-term training regimens.
Specifically, "muscle confusion" isn't a real thing. Have you spoken with any
high-level athletes?

And it's easy to see if you're plateauing. That's when your performance
plateaus. If there's any published research showing that this device has
predictive power, that's a different matter. But I imagine that tracking
cortisol/testosterone levels over the long term, plus the immediate hormonal
response to an exercise stimulus (over the 0-48 hour window), would be much
more effective than any sort of impedance-based approach. Plateaus and
overtraining are more hormonal than muscular.

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robertfw
I have a neurological condition that results in me having high muscle tone -
very tight muscles, tendons etc. Would this device be able to give me feedback
about how tight a muscle is? I would consider that invaluable to evaluating
different techniques I'm using to manage my condition!

~~~
minusfive
I'm passing these questions on to my cousin. I know he's in a meeting right
now, but will try to get an answer for you ASAP.

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bcbrown
Who is this product aimed at? People with medical conditions, or "fitness
enthusiasts"? What's the relation between "muscle quality" and strength? Are
there any use cases for powerlifters, for example?

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jose-skulpt
@robertfw thanks for your thoughtful question. My co-founder, Dr. Seward
Rutkove, is actually a neurology professor at Harvard Medical School who
specializes in neuromuscular disorders and the core technology we use was born
out of his frustration that there were no good tools for measuring muscle
health and fitness. As I mentioned previously, we have developed a medical
version of this technology that is being used in clinical research, but the
Skulpt Aim is intended to be used to track your muscle fitness.

~~~
mdesq
Translation: @robertfw, no, that is not an intended use of this product.

I understand the reason for the marketing speak, but vague non-answers like
that really turn me off.

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jose-skulpt
@chadly That's a great question. The device allows for up to 6 users and a
really cool feature is that the light ring is personalized for each profile.
So when you turn it on, you will be able to immediately tell who's profile
it's set to (e.g. blue for you, violet for your wife) and you can easily
select a different user with the side buttons. You'll each have separate
profiles so you can track your progress and get tailored advice.

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georgemcbay
I'm not sure what's worse, the infomercial quality says-nothing marketing
speak about what this thing is and does (both on the site and here -- "muscle
quality"? ORLY?), or the insistence on trying to treat HN threads like twitter
with top level @whoever responses.

Either way (and I appreciate my response to this may be a bit over the top),
I've never wanted to downvote an HN front page story as much as I want to
downvote this one.

~~~
bcbrown
The top-level @replies are just a symptom of someone new to the community who
doesn't understand how to use this site. The content-free marketing speak is
less forgiveable.

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krapht
I'm not sure how I feel about flexible funding campaigns. I really don't want
to give them my money unless I know for sure they'll have enough capital to be
able to do a manufacturing run, which precludes flex funding. Conversely, if
they don't need the capital, I'd rather wait until the device is released and
reviewed before plunking down the money.

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wil421
In my experience sensors like this are inaccurate compared to calipers or a
hydrostatic body testing (if you can find a place or mobile van to do this).

How would your method differ, and how would it produce more accurate results?

Edit: Does it need to be a standalone device or could it be an attachment like
a case on an iPhone?

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minusfive
Disclaimer: Jose (CEO) is my cousin. I'm extremely happy and proud to finally
see him turn years of effort into a great product.

Any questions you have I can forward to him, and/or will try to get him to
join the conversation.

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ScottWhigham
Looks awesome -
[http://www.skulpt.me/about.html](http://www.skulpt.me/about.html)

I'm in, and I'll share as well. Good luck to the team - seems pretty great.

~~~
minusfive
Awesome, thanks! Will pass this on to them. I'm hoping to get them to join the
conversation at some point.

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ronaldx
The 'average' guy in the definition of MQ looks like someone who goes to the
gym only 4-5 times per week rather than 7-8 times.

I find it slightly offputting to show that as the baseline.

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chadly
This seems like a really cool idea. Would it work with multiple users? e.g. if
I wanted to share one device with my spouse - would it be able to keep track
of multiple people?

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joshdance
Muscle quality. What quality are you aiming to optimize?

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jose-skukpt
Thanks cuz! Happy to answer any questions that come up.

~~~
biscarch
Hey Jose, I've already backed your project and I have a few questions.

What does "Muscle Quality" mean and what do you mean by "Muscle Fitness"?

Does MQ give me any information about type 1/2a/2b fibers?

Is this product in any way useful for someone training for high level
athletics?

Can you compare the bodyfat accuracy of the product with other methods (such
as calipers)?

Will I be able to access the raw data instead of the MQ reading?

