No, but I know it has some differences from the Ithlete which is what I use. My boss from my internship used bioforce and had real good feedback from his athletes with it.
No, those are not the only lifting days. At Oregon they would do a neural session similar to what Dan uses with his t&f athletes on Friday - light snatch or jump squat, and throws etc.
My setup with the Ithlete costs only $90. The bioforce unit will cost $200-$280. I do know that with the Bioforce unit that it takes a 2min 30sec measurement vs. with the Ithlete it only takes a 60sec measurement. From what I’ve read on other message boards, people have compared the accuracy of the two units and they give very similar readings, some see no difference in data. The information in general will be different between the two units, the Ithlete recommends you taking a standing measurement (which you don’t have to) while the Bioforce recommends you take a lying measurement. I can tell that the Bioforce gives you a lot more information on how to interpret your data probably because you’re paying a lot more for the unit.
The Ithlete is based in the UK and the Bioforce unit is based in the US. Joel Jamieson, the Bioforce guy is a strength coach for many professional athletes/teams and if I’m not mistaken has spent some time with Charlie from what he told me at a conference this year. That’s about all I know and I chose the Ithlete because it was 1/3rd of the price.
I know originally Joel used some of his experience with Omegawave to add thresholds to identify parasympathetic overtraining. I believe version 2 of ithlete added this feature, so I think at present there is very little different between the two in terms of measurement. ithlete has some extra options to add sleep scores. Bioforce has just been updated and now includes a web based dashboard to display data and weekly/monthly load averages.
Also, the Bioforce package includes Joel’s book on HRV which I’ve heard is very good. I bought the ithlete receiver and Bioforce app when ithlete didn’t have the parasympathetic features.
Like I said, there’s very little difference between the two. I’d recommend both. I’ve used Bioforce for a while and a couple of my athletes use ithlete. I’m a bit biased towards Joel’s stuff because I think the information he puts out is excellent. And there’s a lot of scope for additional functionality in the web based dashboard. There’s no denying that the entry price point is a lot higher however.
There’s Android versions of both if you aren’t an Apple fan.
Your best bet would be to get an Itouch or Ipad and you’re set. You can get an Itouch 2nd generation for under $50 and still download the Ithlete or Bioforce app, etc.
I found this:
Bioforce is similar to Ithlete, but with some advancements in predictive readings, such as the ability to distinguish between stress-caused HRV increases and recovery-caused HRV increases.
It runs off the same basic template as Ithlete, but with several differences such as a 2:30 measurement period instead of one minute, and warnings to prevent erroneous measurements.