Why do some people love to do sports and to exercise, while others don't? Is it talent, passion—or something deeper in our biology? Eco de Geus, professor of Biological Psychology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, specializes in exercise physiology and the relationship with stress.
In podcast Stress Navigation, we explore the physiological stress response, looking at genetics and ambulatory assessments.
In the episode titled ‘Eco de Geus on exercise physiology and measuring it outside the lab’ (release date: 26th May 2025), we explore Eco de Geus' research on exercise, physiology, twins and stress. Physiology is the field in science that studies the human body. How does the body operate under normal and abnormal circumstances? In relation to exercise: what happens to people when they start to be physically active? Individuals differ greatly in their ability to - and fun for - exercise. To explain this difference, Eco and colleagues have been studying twins in the Netherlands Twin Register (NTR), for more than 20 years. Twins are very interesting to study because of their (partially) shared genetics and their shared family environment. Twin studies have shown us that exercise ability in people is for 60% determined by heritability. Genes have determined whether we are good at sports, which kind of determines whether we like to exercise.
In the Stress in Action-project, Eco and colleagues focus on measuring stress in daily life. What does the complex relationship between stress and exercise entail? Eco explains: “if you’re very stressed it’s harder to find the discipline to go exercise. (...) if you’re very stressed, exercise can be a way to sort of unwind and reduce stress levels. So it probably works both ways.”
Measuring stress in daily life (ambulatory stress assessment) can hopefully tell us more about our physiological stress response. Eco and his team will measure this stress response using wearables. Which wearable is the best fit for these assessments is yet to be determined. This is why researchers at VU Amsterdam and University of Twente are currently working on validating wearables and their ability to measure stress in everyday life.
Stress in Action is a research project where seven Dutch universities and UMC's collaborate in a 10-year research project on stress. Stress is complex and multifaceted, and we all experience it in our daily lives. Using novel measurement technologies and analyses, the consortium aims to measure the emotional, cognitive, biological and behavioural stress responses.
Stress in Action received the Gravitation Grant of the Dutch Research Council (NWO). In 2023, Stress in Action started building their consortium and launching their research to accomplish their ambitious goals in the coming 10 years. 90+ consortium members working on various themes and projects. In large-scale population studies, we investigate which environmental and personal factors influence stress and how stress can lead to mental and cardio metabolic diseases. With the new knowledge, methods are being developed to monitor and reduce stress in daily life and thus prevent the onset of stress-related diseases.
The podcast Stress Navigation is an initiative of Stress in Action. We publish episodes in Dutch and English. The English episodes are hosted by Marcos Ross, PhD candidate in the department of Psychiatry at Amsterdam UMC.
The episode ‘Eco de Geus on exercise physiology and measuring it outside the lab’ is released on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Youtube. More information on Stress in Action can be found here.