GO2 breathing devices, increase VO2 max and endurance?

Triathlon Forum
1

Has anyone else been seeing this used by pros they follow on instagram and targeted ads on social media: https://go2devices.com/

There are some pretty bold claims that it:
Increases VO² Max by 4.1%Increases Endurance by 5.8%*
I was surprised to find that Angela Naeth has been using it during her most recent races.

Link to their whitepaper: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0065/8253/4197/files/Test_2_-_GO2_vs._Nothing_Test_Results.pdf?1747

What does Slowtwitch think of the science behind this? I don’t think I’d ever use one since seems quite difficult to drink/eat and also quite uncomfortable.

2

Garbage
.

3

Has anyone else been seeing this used by pros they follow on instagram and targeted ads on social media: https://go2devices.com/

There are some pretty bold claims that it:
Increases VO² Max by 4.1%Increases Endurance by 5.8%*
**I was surprised to find that Angela Naeth has been using it during her most recent races. **

Link to their whitepaper: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0065/8253/4197/files/Test_2_-_GO2_vs._Nothing_Test_Results.pdf?1747

What does Slowtwitch think of the science behind this? I don’t think I’d ever use one since seems quite difficult to drink/eat and also quite uncomfortable.

Which races? She wasn’t using it at Chatt or Santa Cruz 70.3. For Los Cabos, she wasn’t using it on the bike (DNF’d before the run, so we don’t know if she planned to use it).

Personal thought…needs holograms!

4

Has anyone else been seeing this used by pros they follow on instagram and targeted ads on social media: https://go2devices.com/

There are some pretty bold claims that it:
Increases VO² Max by 4.1%Increases Endurance by 5.8%*
**I was surprised to find that Angela Naeth has been using it during her most recent races. **

Link to their whitepaper: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0065/8253/4197/files/Test_2_-_GO2_vs._Nothing_Test_Results.pdf?1747

What does Slowtwitch think of the science behind this? I don’t think I’d ever use one since seems quite difficult to drink/eat and also quite uncomfortable.

Which races? She wasn’t using it at Chatt or Santa Cruz 70.3. For Los Cabos, she wasn’t using it on the bike (DNF’d before the run, so we don’t know if she planned to use it).

Personal thought…needs holograms!

There are some weird phrases in their white paper like “significant difference” as opposed to what you would see in research “statistically significant”

The white paper looks like it is trying to be presented as research…

Maurice

5

They don’t actually test VO2 max they just approximate it basically. I’d completely disregard any of their findings

6

In her instagram she said she used it at IM Chattanooga on the bike and run: https://www.instagram.com/p/B4QTlj5JcgT/.

7

In her instagram she said she used it at IM Chattanooga on the bike and run: https://www.instagram.com/p/B4QTlj5JcgT/

Possibly she used it intermittently, but every shot on fininsherpix shows her without it: https://www.finisherpix.com/gallery/photos/en/usd/3102/30
.

8

That’s good detective work. I would think if it really does what they claim she would want to use it as much as possible, unless it’s just super uncomfortable to wear for longer periods.

9

So basically this thing makes it harder to breath out, and that is supposed to increase VO2 max and tte?

10

So basically this thing makes it harder to breath out, and that is supposed to increase VO2 max and tte?
Sounds like it lets everyone know what it feels like to an asthmatic. Why people buy this rubbish is beyond me.

11

Garbage

Agree. My test on the whole breathing device this is incredible simple:

If it actually worked, then every single pro athlete in every single discipline would be using one - not just sponsored athletes. 5% gains is massive if sustained long term (permanently).

5% gains for a pro athlete is top of the podium for most sports. And again, if these were real - then we’d see them on every pro athlete, sponsored or not.

But we don’t

12

How does that product stack up to:

https://www.airofit.com/ for example?

That is not a tool to increase VO2max but rather improve lung function which would then lead to improved performance?

13

You’d get better performance gains from AeroFit, my bike fitting company than the snake oil…

How does that product stack up to:

https://www.airofit.com/ for example?

That is not a tool to increase VO2max but rather improve lung function which would then lead to improved performance?

14

this is by far the dumbest device to ever hit the market. This device is made to take money from the naive, and provide them with a pacifier looking thing afterwards. And lost a little respect to angela, for promoting such a bullshit device for some money, although understandable.

15

Agree. My test on the whole breathing device this is incredible simple:

If it actually worked, then every single pro athlete in every single discipline would be using one - not just sponsored athletes. 5% gains is massive if sustained long term (permanently).

5% gains for a pro athlete is top of the podium for most sports. And again, if these were real - then we’d see them on every pro athlete, sponsored or not.

But we don’t

This device does have a few pro users, https://www.spirotiger.net/en/home. There is even a good review on here done many many years ago but it’s not a magical tool and it’s expensive. It’s a very focused breathing exercise device and it gives you modest improvements, more so if breathing is your limiter, which for most of us on slowtwitch is not the case. Echoing your sentiment, as all the other breathing devices are way inferior to the spirotiger in their mechanism, their results will be so modest as not to be significant.

Intermittent Hypoxic training would seem to be a far more effective choice for a breathing device, as opposed to sleeping in an altitude tent, to increase red blood cell count. However that doesn’t seem financially viable either as the Scottish company stopped producing theirs a few years back after much fanfare. It was based on replaceable cartridges, much like the Altolab. A German company, HypoxieFit, has a patent using some other medical grade oxygen removing material. This might turn into a commercial product, and if it can be had in the €500 range, with cost effective cartridges, then it might be viable. I don’t see anything else of interest in the “breathing device that gives you wings” space.

16

Pay somebody something, shoot, even just buy them a beer or dinner and you’re likely to get a promotion sometimes.

Let’s say it DOES do something for a second. (It’s snake oil, let’s just have some fun…) That doesn’t mean that you’ve been able to handle the training required to increase mitochondrial densities or to shuttle lactate in such a way that you’d actually perform better in a meaningful way.

Kind of like, you could use an altitude tent all you want when you sleep. When you work. Shoot, take it with you to your cubicle at work and set one up. Wouldn’t do squat if you don’t train in a way to use it (or have the God given genetic gifts to use it).

17

Has anyone else been seeing this used by pros they follow on instagram and targeted ads on social media: https://go2devices.com/

There are some pretty bold claims that it:
Increases VO² Max by 4.1%Increases Endurance by 5.8%*
I was surprised to find that Angela Naeth has been using it during her most recent races.

Link to their whitepaper: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0065/8253/4197/files/Test_2_-_GO2_vs._Nothing_Test_Results.pdf?1747

What does Slowtwitch think of the science behind this? I don’t think I’d ever use one since seems quite difficult to drink/eat and also quite uncomfortable.

If ventilation was a limiting factor of VO2 max, then it would be plausible. We know it’s not, because at VO2 max, healthy humans do not reach maximal ventilation. Cardiac output is the primary limiting factor in humans. In horses, however, ventilation does appear to be the limiting factor.
This device could make your inspiratory and expiratory muscles stronger, but you don’t need them to be.

18

How does that product stack up to:

https://www.airofit.com/ for example?

That is not a tool to increase VO2max but rather improve lung function which would then lead to improved performance?

Yes, it’s basically a resistance training device for inspiratory and expiratory muscles. They’ve been used successfully with individuals that have been relegated to mechanical ventilators for extended periods (i.e., where there’s massive atrophy of those muscles). However, in any reasonably healthy human, lung function is not a limiting factor in endurance performance.

Edit: but if they wanted to pay me a lot of money, I’d definitely be willing to discover that it improved my performance.

19

How does that product stack up to:

https://www.airofit.com/ for example?

That is not a tool to increase VO2max but rather improve lung function which would then lead to improved performance?

Yes, it’s basically a resistance training device for inspiratory and expiratory muscles. They’ve been used successfully with individuals that have been relegated to mechanical ventilators for extended periods (i.e., where there’s massive atrophy of those muscles). However, in any reasonably healthy human, lung function is not a limiting factor in endurance performance.

Edit: but if they wanted to pay me a lot of money, I’d definitely be willing to discover that it improved my performance.

I see. Some of their claims also argues that many people chest breath instead of belly. I for one does this sometimes, and tgen take some deeper breaths to get back on track. But i guess that would still not be the limitimg factor as that would be the heart? But if the lungs couæd oxygenate more blood wouæd that not help too?

20

How does that product stack up to:

https://www.airofit.com/ for example?

That is not a tool to increase VO2max but rather improve lung function which would then lead to improved performance?

Yes, it’s basically a resistance training device for inspiratory and expiratory muscles. They’ve been used successfully with individuals that have been relegated to mechanical ventilators for extended periods (i.e., where there’s massive atrophy of those muscles). However, in any reasonably healthy human, lung function is not a limiting factor in endurance performance.

Edit: but if they wanted to pay me a lot of money, I’d definitely be willing to discover that it improved my performance.

I see. Some of their claims also argues that many people chest breath instead of belly. I for one does this sometimes, and tgen take some deeper breaths to get back on track. But i guess that would still not be the limitimg factor as that would be the heart? But if the lungs couæd oxygenate more blood wouæd that not help too?

Well, first, more robust inspiratory and expiratory muscles would not contribute to increased blood oxygenation, unless we literally could not move air in and out fast enough. And that doesn’t appear to be the case at all (in normal healthy humans), insofar as performance or arterial blood oxygenation is concerned. However, if arterial oxygenation was a limiting factor (i.e., in low oxygen-pressure systems at maximal exercise, which are really only experimental conditions), lung variables of interest would be oxygen diffusion capacity and blood transit time in the alveolar capillary system. Neither of those would be influenced by more highly trained inspiratory/expiratory muscles. But yeah, in the real world of healthy humans, we don’t think that arterial oxygen saturation limits performance, and ventilatory capacity certainly does not.

Edit: as long as nothing has changed in the last 10 years, the consensus among exercise physiologists is still that VO2 max is primarily limited by cardiac output. That is, the maximal amount of blood that your heart can move in a given amount of time. And that’s usually expressed in liters per minute.