Recovery you can see at the muscle
Wrist wearables show HRV and sleep. Inara shows which muscle is still under-firing — the signal HRV cannot read.
The gap most recovery wearables cannot fill
Recovery wearables measure your body. They measure how well you slept, how variable your heart rate was, and whether your nervous system has settled.
None of them measure the muscle directly. They cannot tell you whether the muscle that was injured is firing as hard as the other side, whether it is firing in the right order, or whether it gave up halfway through the set.
That signal lives in EMG — the electrical activity a muscle produces when it contracts. Inara reads it directly, on the muscle, in real time.
What Inara measures during recovery
Three things become measurable that were not before. None of them require a lab.
Activation asymmetry
Side-by-side amplitude on left vs right during the same movement. The number that tells you whether the recovering side is pulling its weight.
Onset timing
Which muscle fires first in a coordinated movement. Sequencing breaks after injury — Inara shows it directly.
Fatigue pattern
How activation changes across sets. Tells you when the recovering muscle has stopped doing its share and the compensators have taken over.
Where this fits in a recovery workflow
Post-injury asymmetry tracking
Bridge variants, step-downs, scapular work. Session-over-session change as the gap closes.
→ See PT workflowsNeuromuscular re-education
Live biofeedback during movement re-patterning. The patient sees what the cue is asking for.
→ See PT workflowsReturn-to-training decisions
Objective in-room data to support clinical judgment about load progression.
→ See PT workflowsFatigue-based set termination
End the set when the targeted muscle drops below a clean-activation threshold, not at a fixed rep count.
→ See PT workflowsHow it works
The sensor sits on the muscle you care about. Surface electrodes pick up the electrical activity the muscle produces when it contracts. The signal streams to the Inara iOS app over Bluetooth, where you see the activation curve live and the session is stored for later comparison.
Setup is a couple of minutes. Read the full technical breakdown of the sensor if you want the hardware detail.
Who this is for
For US physical therapists
Objective, in-room muscle feedback for neuromuscular re-education and return-to-training work.
See PT use casesFor trainers and coaches
Spot weak-link asymmetry before it becomes injury. Show clients measurable progress.
See trainer use casesThe honest limits
Surface EMG is not a diagnostic tool. It does not treat, cure, or prevent any condition. It is a measurement of muscle activation in the moment — a number that depends on electrode placement, skin condition, and motion. Within-session comparisons are more reliable than absolute reads. Asymmetry trends are more reliable than single-session absolutes.
What it is, reliably: a fast, objective measurement of which muscle is doing the work and how that picture changes as the body recovers.
Frequently asked questions
What does an EMG biofeedback wearable measure during recovery?
EMG measures the electrical activity a muscle produces when it contracts. During recovery work, that signal reveals three things HRV and sleep scores cannot: which muscle is firing, how strongly it is firing relative to its counterpart on the other side, and whether the firing pattern degrades as the muscle fatigues.
How is EMG different from HRV for tracking recovery?
HRV measures the variability of your heart rate as a proxy for nervous-system recovery — a whole-body signal. EMG measures a specific muscle's electrical activity during a specific contraction. The two answer different questions: HRV tells you whether to train hard today; EMG tells you whether the recovering muscle is actually doing the work.
Can a wearable replace clinical assessment?
No. EMG wearables provide objective measurement of muscle activation in the moment. They do not diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any condition. They sit alongside clinical judgment, not in place of it.
How does a PT use EMG biofeedback in a session?
Common patterns include side-by-side asymmetry tracking on unilateral exercises, live activation feedback during movement re-education sets, fatigue-based set termination, and session-over-session comparison to show recovery trends to the patient.
What is neuromuscular re-education?
Neuromuscular re-education is the process of restoring proper firing patterns, timing, and strength between muscles after injury, surgery, or neurological insult. EMG biofeedback supports the work by making the firing pattern visible in real time.
Is Inara a medical device?
Inara is positioned for training and coaching feedback. US physical therapists may use it within their licensed scope of practice. Inara is not currently marketed as a medical device in Australia (TGA) or as a diagnostic/therapeutic device in the US (FDA).
See what your muscles
are actually doing
Use it on yourself first. If it has a place in your clinic workflow, you will know.
Buy a sensor — A$169.99Single sensor, single user. No clinic license, no multi-pack.
or read the long version first →See It In Action
Book a live demo and see exactly how muscle activation data changes the conversation with your clients.
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