Vigx blog

Gears for Your Legs: Feeling Exoskeleton Torque in Action

Why do mountain bikes have gears, but our legs don’t?  Think about it. When your road or mountain bike hits a steep hill, you downshift to keep up your pace. You’re still pedaling. Shifting just equalizes the resistance so that you don’t get gassed before the end of your ride. But when you're hiking? Walking? Running? You get what you get. It’s your legs. If the hill looks too brutal, you just don’t do it. There is no shifting down. There is no “dial it back a little.” Until now, apparently. The Bonking Problem  You know the feeling if you’ve ever been on a hike. Just when you’ve hit your stride, you turn a bend and look up at what feels like Mount Everest. “I can’t let this hill win,” you tell yourself, and so you start heading up, keeping your pace. Halfway up, your legs are on fire, and your pace slows. You're breathing hard…too hard. And then, a nagging voice tells you that if you keep going, you might just be burning through all your energy reserves, and you won’t have enough to make it back. “You've gone far enough. Nobody would judge you,” it says.  That’s what bonking is like. It's the wall. It’s the moment when your body says “enough,” and your mind starts building escape plans.  I’ve turned around on more hikes than I’d prefer to admit because of this. And turning around isn’t crazy. It's a reasonable calculation. It's also kind of a bummer, yes, but can be the best option.  But the VIGX π Plus may have changed the equation. It’s an AI-powered exoskeleton that provides up to 15 newton meters of torque, which means you’re using roughly 30 percent less overall effort. The AI adapts automatically based on how you move, how you walk, how you run. It learns your gait, which means it doesn’t feel like something is pushing you while you hike. It just makes the hike that much easier.  Importantly, you can adjust the amount of assistance based on the situation. The belt has a plus minus button that allows for easy adjustment. You can dial the support up or down depending on what you’re facing. You remain in control. Walking on flat terrain? Maybe you keep it low. Level 3 or 4. A little something to lengthen your stride, but still keeps your legs fresh.  You’re staring down a monster hill with your heavy pack. Crank it up. Picking whatever you need to get up that thing without killing yourself is going to make the rest of the climb feel a lot nicer, and importantly, it increases your overall endurance, allowing you to go up the next hill, the next, and the next.  At the top of the hill, the trail levels out, and you can dial it back down and settle into a new pace. It's gears. For your legs.  Feeling the Difference  On a recent hike, I tried this out, attacking the sort of trail that usually makes me question all of my life choices. On top of that, there was snow and ice on the ground. Over the course of the hike, I felt consistently fresh, even though I was still working up a sweat, still getting a great workout. At the end of my hour-long hike, I felt energized and excited for future hikes. It made me realize the important psychological aspect of using the VIGX π. Knowing that the risk of bonking is low, and knowing that long-term endurance improves, there is a sense of confidence. And that means it’s easier to be more active overall. On days when you might decide not to bother going out because you just aren’t feeling it, you have something that says, “Yes, you can. I’ll help.” And that makes a big difference.  Another thing that might be a source of worry is battery life. Having to think about charging batteries, or losing batteries in the middle of a hike, or run, is no fun. But with this exoskeleton, the battery life is incredible. You can go around 24,000 steps on a charge. On top of that, the batteries are hot-swappable, so you can swap in new batteries with a simple click, and never lose momentum.  Once you start thinking about hiking with this device, it’s hard to go back to your old ways. At least, that has been true in my case. You're not cheating. You're not skipping the workout. Energy is being managed more efficiently, so you're not just slogging through. “Next time” becomes “right now.” Quick Specs For the gear nerds who want the details: Torque: Up to 15 Nm (roughly 30% effort reduction) Assistance levels: Adjustable from 1 to 15 Weight: ~4.6 lbs (2.1 kg Including batteries) Battery life: Up to 24,000 steps with both batteries Hot-swappable batteries: Switch without powering down Controls: Plus/minus buttons on the belt, plus app control Sustainable Power  For longer adventures, I preferred medium assistance. There’s enough support to help you go farther, but you don’t feel like you’re being carried. You still have to earn the fresh air and the deep satisfaction of covering ground under your own power.  When a long climb or a pack that suddenly feels much heavier slows you down, you step on the gas and recover. It's not about making hiking easy. It's about making hiking sustainable. This means that you’ve paced yourself from the outset of the trail.  Part of that endurance is in overall load reduction. The heavy pack starts to weigh you down after a while, everything starts to feel heavier, and you start thinking, “I’m getting too old for this.” But when your lower body is being supported by the VIGX π, there is noticeably less overall tiredness, particularly for your lower body. That also helps going downhill. The impact of each step becomes less of a problem, and more about recovery before the next push.  The Hills Don't Win Anymore  I’ve been testing the VIGX π Plus for a while now, and it has become simply part of the way I stay active. Whether I’m going on a walk through heavy snow, a long hike, or a run, this thing keeps me going.  There’s no more “Can I make it? Is it worth it? Would I have enough energy to get back?”  That dynamic has shifted. Now, I just say, “OK, here we go. Let’s do this.” Explore the VIGX π series at vigx.ai.