POWERbreathe – Improves Swimming, Cycling & Running Performance

• Increased swimming performance by up to 3.5%
• Improved cycling time trial performance by 4.6% - equivalent to slashing 3-minutes off a 40k time trial
• Enabled participants to cycle for 33% longer and with lower sense of effort
• Accelerated recovery during repeated sprints by up to 7%
• Improved inspiratory muscle strength by 31.2%
• Improved inspiratory muscle endurance by 27.8%
• Reduced whole body effort during exercise

POWERbreathe Inspiratory Muscle Training & Triathlons

Swim

Competitive swimming is one of the ultimate challenges for breathing, as swimmers have to inhale as much as possible in the shortest time possible, so that they can return their bodies to the optimal position for generating propulsive force. This creates an enormous strain on the inspiratory muscles (muscles used to inhale) and it is no surprise to find that swimmers experience significant fatigue of these muscles.

Bike

The hunched position adopted during cycling can create breathing problems. The contents of your abdomen (mainly your liver and gut) become compressed and pushed up against your main breathing muscle, the diaphragm. This restricts its normal movement and can make breathing feel much harder.

Run

When running, the breathing muscles not only enable breathing, they also work to stabilise the upper body (especially during the foot strike when large destabilising forces are transmitted up the body). Breathing during running can therefore be substantial and its no wonder breathing muscles fatigue after bouts of intense running, marathons or triathlons.

In the case of breathing, fatigue occurs almost exclusively in the inspiratory muscles (those used to inhale) and results in laboured, uncomfortable breathing and intense breathlessness. In addition, recent research shows that fatigue of the breathing muscles may result in diversion of blood away from other working muscles, such as the arms and legs. This means that the supply of oxygen to these other muscles is reduced and performance is impaired”.

Disciplined breathing technique will improve breathing comfort during swimming, cycling and running, and POWERbreathe training specifically targets the breathing muscles, strengthening them by around 30-50%, significantly improving performance and helping to eliminate breathing fatigue.

Train smarter, not harder, to perform better.

Resources:

• Series of articles on Breathing & Exercise for Ironman and Iron Girl
• How Training The Inspiratory Muscles Can Improve Swimming Performance
• How Training The Inspiratory Muscles Can Improve Cycling Performance
• How Training The Inspiratory Muscles Can Improve Running Performance
• SwimForTri Tips for Improved Swim Performance

Research:

Links to research papers, published in peer-reviewed, high quality scientific journals. As well as original studies, we have also included some articles that review IMT; these have been written by experts in this field of research.

Inspiratory Muscle Training

Swim

• Inspiratory muscle training improves 100 and 200 m swimming performance
• Respiratory muscle training improves swimming endurance in divers.
• Resistive respiratory muscle training improves and maintains endurance swimming performance in divers.
• Respiratory muscle training improves swimming endurance at depth.

Bike

• Effects of inspiratory muscle training upon time trial performance in trained cyclists.
• Inspiratory muscle fatigue in trained cyclists: effects of inspiratory muscle training.
• Inspiratory muscle training improves cycling time-trial performance and anaerobic work capacity but not critical power.
• Effect of high-intensity inspiratory muscle training on lung volumes, diaphragm thickness, and exercise capacity in subjects who are healthy.
• The effects of different inspiratory muscle training intensities on exercising heart rate and perceived exertion.
• Inspiratory resistive loading improves cycling capacity: a placebo controlled trial.
• Effects of Inspiratory Muscle Training on Whole Body Exercise Performance in Males.

Run

• Oxygen uptake kinetics and maximal aerobic power are unaffected by inspiratory muscle training in healthy subjects where time to exhaustion is extended.
• Inspiratory muscle training improves shuttle run performance in healthy subjects.
• Concurrent inspiratory muscle and cardiovascular training differentially improves both perceptions of effort and 5000-m running performance compared to cardiovascular training alone.
• The effect of inspiratory muscle training on high-intensity, intermittent running performance to exhaustion.

Warm-up and Cool-down

• Inspiratory resistive loading after all-out exercise improves subsequent performance.
• Effect of specific inspiratory muscle warm-up on intense intermittent run to exhaustion.
• Blood lactate during recovery from intense exercise: impact of inspiratory loading.
• Inspiratory muscle training reduces blood lactate concentration during volitional hyperpnoea.

Exercise-induced Inspiratory Muscle Fatigue

• Contribution of respiratory muscle blood flow to exercise-induced diaphragmatic fatigue in trained cyclists.
• Changes in respiratory muscle and lung function following marathon running in man.
• Alterations in maximal inspiratory mouth pressure during a 400-m maximum effort front-crawl swimming trial.
• Influence of different breathing frequencies on the severity of inspiratory muscle fatigue induced by high-intensity front crawl swimming.
• Inspiratory muscle fatigue in swimmers after a single 200 m swim.
• Inspiratory muscle fatigue in trained cyclists: effects of inspiratory muscle training.
• Influence of environmental temperature on exercise-induced inspiratory muscle fatigue.
• Aerobic fitness effects on exercise-induced low-frequency diaphragm fatigue.
• Exercise-induced diaphragmatic fatigue in healthy humans.
• The effect of exercise modality on respiratory muscle performance in triathletes.
• A comparison of inspiratory muscle fatigue following maximal exercise in moderately trained males and females.
• Inspiratory muscles experience fatigue faster than the calf muscles during treadmill marching.

Miscellaneous

• Inspiratory muscle training enhances pulmonary O2 uptake kinetics and high-intensity exercise tolerance in humans
• Development of respiratory muscle contractile fatigue in the course of hyperpnoea.
• Inspiratory muscle training attenuates the human respiratory muscle metaboreflex.
• Development and evaluation of a pressure threshold inspiratory muscle trainer for use in the context of sports performance.
• Specificity and reversibility of inspiratory muscle training.
• Inspiratory muscle training: a simple cost-effective treatment for inspiratory stridor.
• Inspiratory resistive loading after all-out exercise improves subsequent performance.

Review Articles

• Inspiratory muscle training and endurance: a central metabolic control perspective.
• Does training of respiratory muscles affect exercise performance in healthy subjects?
• Respiratory muscle energetics during exercise in healthy subjects and patients with COPD.
• Respiratory muscle training in healthy humans: resolving the controversy.