Hykso (pronounced Hik-soh) is a US based company headquartered in Orange County, CA, founded by Khalil Zahar that produces tracking technology that you slip into your hand wraps and monitors your punching output during training. Hykso sent us a pair (one of the first three thousand produced) and we’ve decided to break down our review into two parts; Our first thoughts, and then a full review after a longer period of training.
Firstly, let’s look at fitting the sensors into your hand wraps, and connecting them to the Hykso app. The sensors are small, and fit into the wrapping around your wrist just behind the joint, and light up either red or blue to show you which wrist to put them on. The positioning is straightforward, but when I was trying to wrap them in the first time I kept dropping them off my wrist as I tried to tighten the wrapping. It’s something which takes a little getting used to, but would be much easier with someone to give you a hand. This is something which Hysko are aware of, and are apparently looking into methods to simplify the process, so don’t let that put you off at all. The trackers connect to your phone via bluetooth and you need to use your phone to set them up, but after this you can store session data without your phone and sync up afterwards.
The Hykso app is very straight-forward to use, you have a feed section which lists your latest training sessions, a train menu where you can select either a quick start option (set round and rest times and your total number of rounds, including an option for infinite rounds so you can just keep going) or you can select advanced training, where you program in specific drills accounting for sparring, heavybag work, shadowboxing, mitts, freestyle training, general training and other training which lets you customise what you’re working on in each session. You can also track your drill sessions and your activity each month. Overall the app works nicely, and definitely looks slick with its red on black colour scheme. I have to admit, the app did crash when I hit ‘end’ on one session, and unfortunately I haven’t been able to recover the data from it. Thankfully, I was checking the app throughout my session so I was still able to get an idea of the data recorded.
The sensors are very clever, you can check the science behind them on the Hykso website, but put simply they record the movement of your hands, while ignoring all the movements that aren’t punches (skipping rope, blocks and parries, kicks and even strength and conditioning work like battle ropes), and then categorises your punches into left and right straight punches (jabs/crosses) and left and right power punches (hooks/uppercuts). The sensor can then tell you your punch count, average speed and gives you an intensity score (based on the volume of punches and the power behind them). All of this data is displayed clearly on the screen, meaning you can check in between rounds and track the progress throughout your training. I found this really useful, as I’m working on throwing faster punches and could see my speed increase, and then it gave me a goal to not let it drop as the rounds went on.
Overall my first impression of the Hysko punch trackers is that I can instantly see how they could be beneficial. The trackers can’t teach you the technique a trainer can, but If you want to work on punching faster, increasing your output per round or increasing the intensity you work at (arguably the three most important factors of training other than the actual technique) then Hykso can help you out. The only drawback was the technical difficulties I had with the app crashing, but Hykso offer free lifetime updates of both their app and the firmware in the sensors, so the technology is only going to improve with time.
This is only my first impressions of the Hykso sensors, I’m going to carry on testing them out, seeing what the different options on the app allow, and also how using them improves my training, so make sure you keep an eye out for the next part of the Hykso review.
Update: Part two of our review is now up! Head this way to see our final thoughts on the Hykso Punch Trackers.