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Why USA Cycling athletes train with brain stimulating Halo Sport headsets

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Seeing elite cyclists training & warming up pre-race with big over-the-ear headphones got us wondering what was going on. Looking to USA Cycling at least, they aren’t regular headphones, but the neuro-stimulating Halo Sport headset that promise improved training efficiency, greater endurance, and even increased power output. How does it work, or is it just in the riders heads?

Halo Sport headset – muscle movement brain stimulation

Halo Neuroscience – the company behind this neuro-stimulator headset – claims that what the device does is essentially add extra stimulation to your motor cortex during training to improve the brain’s plasticity (its flexibility to react). The technical term for beaming a mild electric current into your brain is “transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)”.

That is said to help your brain more efficiently control repetitive & precise muscle movement, reacting more quickly with less effort for claims of improving power, endurance, and muscle precision.

USA Cycling National Team partnership with Halo Neuroscience

While to the sceptic that may sound like psuedo science, or at last something that can’t actually be quantified (there does seem to be a wealth of peer-reviewed scientific literature supporting the concept), the idea of ‘neuropriming’ during training seems to be enough of a draw to convince USA Cycling.

Across all USA Cycling disciplines including BMX, CX, MTB, road & track, national team athletes have begun using the Halo Sport headsets in training, even getting a primer on the neuroscience itself and working to further scientific research on performance.

Halo says that the neuropriming training shows improvements are just about 10 stimulated training sessions (~2 weeks in). Specifically, USA Cycling athletes Tayler Wiles, Andrew Talansky & coach Greg Henderson are said to have already seen benefits in both endurance & technique with the brain stimulators.

Tech Details

The Halo Sport device itself consists of a headset with series of three gray primers pads made up of a grid of foam spikes that provide contact with the head. Inside the headset is a rechargeable battery pack, the stimulation electronics, and the wireless communication hardware to manage their operation via their smart phone app. The headset also includes speakers and a standard mini jack to connect the Halo Sport to a music player to listen to tunes while you train, or there is an optional Bluetooth adapter for wireless musical accompaniment.

Pricing & Availability

While Halo don’t necessarily claim to improve performance – just to improve the effectiveness of your training – all those extra gains don’t come cheap. A full setup is said to retail for $788, although an early adopter discount currently brings that down to ~$500, with devices shipping now.

The National Team partnership is also set to benefit regular members of USA Cycling as well, who will get an exclusive 15% partnership discount on Halo Sport setups, accessible from your membership page at: USAcycling.org

HaloNeuro.com

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Crash Bandicoot
Crash Bandicoot
5 years ago

788 Doll hairs?! I’ll just stick with some good old fashioned speed gel. In all seriousness at the absolute top level where the difference between first and 40th come down to tiny percentages this is something probably worth pursuing even just for the placebo effect. Also a single double blind trial with 14 participants are hardly a “wealth of peer reviewed scientific literature”.

blahblahblah
blahblahblah
5 years ago

ave would be proud

Crash Bandicoot
Crash Bandicoot
5 years ago
Reply to  blahblahblah

Yes someone got the reference! Life is complete

blahblahblah
blahblahblah
5 years ago

needs an honest boltr

Crash Bandicoot
Crash Bandicoot
5 years ago
Reply to  blahblahblah

I would love to send him a few powermeters and I’ve toyed with sending him an old top of the line Cannondale frame; just to see how much we are under or more likely over-paying for equipment.

blahblahblah
blahblahblah
5 years ago

he would smell the chiniesium from a mile away

JBikes
JBikes
5 years ago

Why?
Well the real reason is they were given to the athletes for free and USA Cycling was given the headphones for free or at a huge discount…pretty cheap marketing tactic

The Dude
The Dude
5 years ago

That’s about 1/2 of a set of used McIntosh headphones and those induce orgasms. I know where I’d spend the money.

Mark
Mark
5 years ago
Reply to  The Dude

Eargasms?

HubStar
HubStar
5 years ago

This is quackery, pure and simple.

> this is something probably worth
> pursuing even just for the placebo effect
>

No. There are an infinite number of things that aren’t effective.

Crash Bandicoot
Crash Bandicoot
5 years ago
Reply to  HubStar

My statement was based on the assumption that those who would even benefit from placebo effects are such a small group of elite riders and that there is no possible way they’d be paying for any of their equipment so at least they’re getting some nice headphones.

All in all I’m still very suspect of their “trial” as small sample size trials are used quite often used by companies trying to sell their non-proven products as though they’re pharmaceuticals or approved medical devices.

blahblahblah
blahblahblah
5 years ago

wana be faster fitter stronger than your genetics allow take drugs its that simple no amount of smoke blown up you know where is going to help, ever!

silverlining
silverlining
5 years ago

Do they need a TUE for these marginal gains?

Bryan
Bryan
5 years ago

This must be why the U.S. produces the best Road, CX, MTB, and Track riders!

Heiko
Heiko
5 years ago
Reply to  Bryan

:-))))

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