For Researchers
StepUp Air is a breathing-based chest strap for sport. It measures respiratory frequency and heart rate during exercise, locates ventilatory thresholds without a laboratory, and gives research groups the raw data behind every session.
What the device measures
Breathing is a physiological signal that coaches have historically only been able to read in a lab. The strap makes it a field measurement: respiratory frequency (fR) is derived from the expansion and contraction of the inspiratory muscles, and heart rate is recorded from the same strap at the same time.
That pairing is the point. fR responds quickly at exercise onset and offset, so it registers effort changes that heart rate alone lags behind — including during intervals and other protocols where intensity moves in steps.
What it can do in a study
Respiratory frequency, measured continuously
The chest strap reads the expansion and contraction of the inspiratory muscles and derives respiratory frequency (fR) from that movement — a strong marker of physical effort that tracks changes in intensity within seconds.
Heart rate from the same strap
An ultra-precise heart-rate sensor runs alongside the breathing measurement, so respiratory and cardiac data share one clock and one recording.
Ventilatory thresholds outside the lab
The first and second ventilatory thresholds (VT1 and VT2) stop being laboratory events. They can be located in field sessions, in intervals, and repeatedly over a season.
Live training zones
From fR the device reports the endurance, threshold and max zones while the session is running, which is what makes it usable for coaching decisions rather than post-hoc review.
Field and indoor use
The strap is light and wireless, so the same protocol can be run on a track, on a bike, in a gym or on a treadmill.
Roughly 40 hours per charge
A full charge covers about 40 hours of intensive use, and the wireless charger refills the device in about 55 minutes. Data moves over Bluetooth only, including long-range Bluetooth — no phone network and no WiFi.
Raw data access
Research groups do not get a dashboard export of averages. We give access to all of the raw data:
- Every recorded session, not a summary of it.
- Respiratory frequency and heart rate as full-resolution, time-stamped streams.
- No downsampling, no smoothing and no pre-computed zones forced on you.
- Exportable so you can analyse it in your own tooling — Python, R, MATLAB, whatever your group already uses.
- Access arranged per study, so the export matches the protocol you are running.
The measurement chain is short and documented: sensor, timestamp, stream. If your protocol needs a different export, a different sampling window or a different file format, say so — that is a conversation about the study, not a feature request.
Working with us
We are interested in validation work, threshold-detection studies, interval and HIIT protocols, and any project that needs respiratory data from real training rather than a treadmill and a mask. Student projects and university collaborations are welcome too.
Tell us the protocol, the population and what you want to measure. We will tell you what the device can and cannot deliver for it.