SHORTCUTS! We love shortcuts.
Gadgets that promise an increase in Vo2 max, yes please!
Welcome! For those who are new here – I’m Arne, a passionate cyclist and engineer with an interest in AI. I explore how technology, particularly artificial intelligence, is transforming sports – or not – and what it means for athletes, coaches and sport enthusiasts. Be sure to check the social channel as well:
SHORTCUTS! We love shortcuts.
I read a lot of stuff. Most of it is either irrelevant or simply untrue, some things I've known forever, and a lot falls into the "new but useless" category. But occasionally, I stumble across that perfect match of "didn't know this" and "absolutely want to know this." Recently I came across one of these topics and I want to share it with you. It might not be directly AI-related, but it's definitely tech and data related, and completely in line with that article I wrote about fitness trackers. The value proposition: improve your post exercise recovery and even increase your Vo2 max. Curious? Read on!
“Vague” Nerve Stimulation
So what is the shortcut I came across? It is called vagus nerve stimulation (VNS). Rings a bell? In that case, you know more than I do. Nevertheless, you might still want to hang round as I dug into this a bit deeper. The vagus nerve plays a key role in the autonomic nervous system, particularly in the parasympathetic nervous system.
Taking a quick flight back to what I learned in my biology classes: the autonomic nerve system controls the involuntary body actions (heart rate, organ function, breathing etc.). It has two main branches:
The parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nerve system calms the body and conserves energy after stress, it is important for recovery.
Its counterpart, the sympathetic branch, prepares the body for action, stress, or emergencies.
So far for the speed round on biology. The main takeaway here is that the vagus nerve plays an important role in your body's ability to recover from stress. The idea behind vagus nerve stimulation is that it may enhance your body's natural ability to recover.
Stimulation: how so?
The vagus nerve runs from the brainstem down through the neck, chest, and abdomen, branching out to the heart, lungs and digestive organs. There are several ways you can stimulate the vagus nerve:
Indirect stimulation: makes use of an external device that stimulates the nerve. There are multiple methods, but the most common is attaching a device to the ear.
Direct vagus nerve stimulation: involves implanting a pulse generator under the skin in the chest and attaching a small, vitamin-sized device directly on the vagus nerve – Yikes!
Device-free: ‘more everyday’ activities like: meditation, massage, music and cold-water immersion.
The vagus nerve pathway. Picture adapted from Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research.
The implant involves a medical procedure, that is far beyond a shortcut and definitely out of scope of this article. The device-free activities are certainly good practice, but we are looking for a bit ‘more’ here. So let’s dive into the promise of indirect stimulation, with special focus on what it can do for athletes!
The SHORTCUT?!
What can VNS do for athletes? Long story short: it is mostly improved recovery. This study among a group of 90 young individuals showed that 20 min of VNS after a 30min cycling ergometry test helped to decrease fatigue, pain, lactic acid levels and increase parasympathetic HRV activity. So you could use VNS during cool-down or shortly after to ramp up parasympathetic activity – calming heart rate and boosting HRV – which in turn may speed up recovery processes.
This study among a group of 28 individuals found that after 7 days of using VNS Vo2max increased by 3.8% versus no change using a placebo stimulation.
Instant performance gains are unlikely, though. Research shows that a single session of VNS will probably not improve athletic performance. Additionally, this study showed mixed results regarding VNS and HRV. This suggests that the timing, frequency, and exercise load might influence the results.
All in all, VNS is a relatively new technique that has only recently started gaining traction for common use. It won’t replace proper recovery. But science does provide indications that 20 minutes of VNS could mean a faster return to peak performance – and that’s a shortcut worth exploring.
I am explicitly not mentioning any devices that are currently available: evidence is not watertight and differs across different devices. I have never tried it myself. So if triggered, let me know your thoughts and give it a google session yourself!