Method and system for sensing activity and measuring work performed by an individual

Systems and methods providing for the determination of an individual's rate of oxygen consumption, in order to determine the amount of work that is performed by the individual's body. A heart monitor measures the heart rate of the individual and an accelerometer measures the acceleration of the body. The heart rate and acceleration outputs are stored locally on a storage device. The outputs can be downloaded to a local base station, that in turn transmits the outputs to a central clearinghouse. The clearinghouse receives and stores the output on a central mass storage device. At the clearinghouse the raw data is processed into a usable form and the rate of oxygen consumption is mathematically determined in order to determine the amount of work that is performed on the individual's body. The processing includes separating the static and dynamic acceleration components, calculating the dynamic acceleration magnitude, calculating the maximum change in acceleration, filtering the dynamic acceleration component, and graphing the resulting filtered dynamic acceleration with respect to time.