It’s no secret that the mind is directly connected to the body. This is commonly referred to as the mind-body connection, which is vital for athletes, as one’s mental state can have a direct impact on their athletic performance. While athletes regularly focus on improving different physical abilities such as their strength, speed, stamina, and overall technique, optimizing brain function can significantly enhance their abilities on the field. That’s why it is crucial for athletes to build a stronger mind-body connection, and that especially for athletes competing at the highest levels. By training the brain athletes can more easily have a clear mind and stay mentally focused while they’re competing, thus allowing them to achieve peak performance when it really matters. Meet alphabeats, a revolutionary wearable device that offers top-level sports athletes a new way to train their brain and improve their mental focus and consequently, their physical performance.
The alphabeats is an app-enabled brain-training wearable electroencephalogram (EEG) headband which is equipped with strategically placed dry EEG sensors that make it capable of accurately measuring a user’s alpha brainwave activity in real-time by leveraging patented music-driven neurofeedback technology to help elevate a user’s mental performance, focus, and recovery, as well as improve sleep and alleviate stress. The alphabeats headband also boasts up to 12 hours of battery and Bluetooth LE connectivity for pairing it with the alphabeats App, through which you can pick from a selection of music from different genres for focusing during workouts, plus science-backed functional music for meditation, relaxation, and sleep. The app also offers you brainwave feedback in real-time through a multiple modality approach that combines auditory, visual, and cognitive elements, for which you’re shown visual cues that respond to a user’s alpha brainwave activity, offering you an immersive, interactive feedback loop that helps to reinforce positive mental states. Users can also integrate brief cognitive training modules consisting of brain-training exercises that focus on the cognitive skills essential for high-level athletic performance, such as reaction speed and working memory. The app also gives you access to personalized and actionable insights that can help you understand your progress.
Designed for the rigorous demands of elite athletes, this wearable EEG headband and its brain-training app bring a novel approach to mental conditioning that’s bound to set new standards in sports training and wellness. With it, athletes and fitness enthusiasts are able to elevate the mental-training aspect of their fitness routine to the highest level.
Here’s our comprehensive review of the alphabeats headband, where we explain exactly how this app-enabled brain-training wearable EEG headband is designed to work, and also go over the wide range of brain-training options provided by its companion app.
DESIGN & SPECS
Starting with the alphabeats headband, this is a lightweight and ergonomic wearable electroencephalogram (EEG) headband that’s designed for easy and comfortable daily use.
The headband is built of a high-quality flexible and stretchy fabric that makes it very comfortable to wear, even if worn for somewhat long periods of time. Plus, it also comes equipped with an adjustable strap integrated at the back side that allows users to adjust its size to achieve a secure and comfortable fit.
Moving on to the headband’s main components. For performing its precise brainwave readings, the alphabeats headband comes equipped with strategically placed dry electrodes in the form of spring-loaded gilded medical-grade electroencephalogram biosensors, which make it capable of accurately measuring a user’s alpha brainwave activity in real-time by leveraging the power of patented music-driven neurofeedback technology to bring precise and reliable insight on their brain electrical activity produced by the cortical regions of the brain.
In order to achieve that, the headband integrates two dry electrodes that are placed on the temporal lobe regions and two other electrodes that are placed on the occipital lobe regions (T3, T4, O1, O2), along with a gilded flat reference sensor is positioned directly on a user’s forehead.
It’s also worth mentioning that thanks to their spring-loaded gilded design, the headband’s medical-grade EEG biosensors allow for EEG recording through hair of any thickness without needing to use gel, as dry electrode technology does not require it. Thanks to that, users can experience the highest level of comfort when using this app-enabled brain-training wearable (EEG) headband.
Note that alpha brainwaves are the type of brain activity waves that the brain produces when you are relaxed. The alphabeats headband measures a user’s alpha brainwave activity through 4 separate EEG channels with a differentiation of myographic (EMG) and oculographic (EOG) components, for which those channels are rated to work at a channel sampling rate of 250Hz, thus ensuring accurate brain activity readings, which is recorded as raw EEG data.
That collected EEG data is then analyzed and used by the alphabeats App to help elevate a user’s mental performance, focus, and recovery, as well as improve their sleep and even alleviate stress.
Finally, know that this wearable EEG headband was designed by BrainBit. The device was created by a team of scientists that accounted with more than 25 years of experience in professional medical equipment engineering.
CONNECTIVITY
For establishing a wireless connection with its mobile app, the alphabeats headband utilizes Bluetooth Low Energy connectivity.
BATTERY & BATTERY LIFE
For powering its medical-grade EEG biosensors, the alphabeats headband comes equipped with an integrated electronic module and a rechargeable battery that can offer users up to 12 hours of battery life.
THE SMARTPHONE COMPANION APP – The alphabeats App
For analyzing the headband’s collected EEG data, users simply have to install the alphabeats App on their smartphone, which is available to download for free for both iOS and Android devices.
Via the alphabeats App, users can pick from a selection of music from different genres like hip-hop, pop, classic rock, and more to help them stay focused during workouts, plus science-backed functional music that’s carefully curated for promoting focus, meditation, relaxation, and sleep, all of which is powered by Feed.fm (a third-party music licensing and music streaming API integration service).
Furthermore, the app also offers you brainwave feedback in real-time through a multiple modality approach that combines auditory, visual, and cognitive elements, for which you’re shown visual cues such as an organic bulb and firefly animations that respond to a user’s alpha brainwave activity, offering you an immersive, interactive feedback loop that helps to reinforce positive mental states.
The alphabeats App also offers users different brain-training programs that are designed for different purposes, including Recovery and Relaxation, Building Focus, Fundamentals, among others. These brain-training sessions vary in length from a quick eight-minute focus boost to a thorough 12-minute training program that’s suited for recovery.
Users can also schedule their personal usage of the app and other daily activities which can then be visualized in the form of custom daily plan. This can be edited at any time through the app’s digital calendar.
In addition, the app also features brief cognitive training modules consisting of brain-training exercises that focus on the cognitive skills essential for high-level athletic performance, such as reaction speed and working memory. Users can integrate these brain-training exercises in their usage of the app for deepening the headband’s mind boosting impact.
Lastly, the app also gives you access to personalized and actionable daily insights that can help you understand your progress.
PRICING & AVAILABILITY
By incorporation this brain-training wearable EEG headband into their daily fitness routine, high-level athletes can unlock optimal results in their physical performance, not only during training but especially on the field.
If you’re interested in purchasing the alphabeats headband, know that each unit is currently priced at $499 for a limited time (discounted from its future retailing price of $689, saving you $190), for which each purchase includes a 12-month complimentary subscription to the alphabeats platform. You can order yours online directly from alphabeats’ official shopping page.
After subscribing via the alphabeats website, users gain access to personalized brain-training sessions designed to fit their schedules and needs.
The alphabeats annual membership can be set to renew annually. Those that opt in are offered a discount from its standard price of $190 down to $149 (saves you $41).
For professional sports teams in particular, the company also has a tailored package available for team or coach purchases, which includes 10 user licenses and 10 EEG headbands, as well as access to four hours of monthly guidance from an alphabeats neuro coach. This support is designed to help coaches interpret data and make informed decisions for their athletes’ training programs.
