Why Didn't We Think Of That Before? Training Your Breathing Muscles
Since the 1970s, researchers have been studying respiratory muscle training. The varied types of training, such as pressure-threshold training, voluntary hyperventilation, and hypercapnic (increased CO2) hyperventilation, as well as the range of outcome measures utilised, are most likely to blame for the discrepancies....... Because of these contradictory findings, it's unclear whether respiratory muscle training improves exercise performance. Many technologies, such as Powerlung, Powerbreathe, and Expand-a-lung, are now on the market, all promising to cut your marathon time or boost your sense of comfort during exercises. With technological advancements and a better understanding of science, the current consensus is that respiratory muscle training improves exercise performance in both healthy and clinical populations.
The mechanism of this effect seems to be two-fold :
1. An altered perception of breathing effort and exercise load, meaning that the exercise feels easier, this psychological effect shouldn't be underestimated in fatiguing exercise!
2. A delayed metaboreflex, meaning that blood is not diverted from the skeletal to the respiratory muscles until higher exercise intensities, allowing exercise at higher intensities to be maintained for longer (Romer & Dempsey, 2006).
Taken together these effects can be as large as a 4% increase in a 40Km cycling time-trial performance, which is substantial.
It has been demonstrated that acute (within 1 training session) vibration stimulation of exercising skeletal muscle enhances skeletal muscle activity and strength performance after 1 session (Mileva et al., 2006), and chronic training with superimposed vibration has been shown to increase strength up to 300% more than conventional strength training (Issurin et al., 1994). Vibration has also been applied to the respiratory musculature with demonstrable increases in respiratory nerve activity, reduced breathlessness in healthy humans, and reduced breathlessness during exercise in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients (COPD; Fujie et al., 2002).
Until recently vibration had never been applied to a training device for the respiratory system, so we applied rapid airway occlusions simulating vibration effects on the respiratory system (you breathe). Preliminary results show that 10 breaths through you breathe acutely augment breathing power by around 15%, compared to no argumentation after 10 breaths of breathing against matched resistance. These results are now published in Respiration Physiology & Neurobiology and further work examining the long-term training benefits of your breathing is underway.
Collaborations are also underway with clinical partners to assess the efficiancy of your breathing in complementing respiratory physiotherapy with your breathing in cystic fibrosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients. We are testing the hypothesis that the percussive effects of your breathing may facilitate the removal of mucus leading to improved respiratory function in these patients.
To summarise, research into respiratory muscle training is gaining traction, although our understanding of vibration training is still in its early stages. Many questions remain unanswered, including the mechanism of action and the best vibration prescription for the desired benefits. Although the potential benefits of respiratory vibration have yet to be thoroughly investigated, scientists, athletes, and patients alike are excited about this new technique.
Dr. Paul Sumners is a neuroscientist at London South Bank University investigating the effects of vibration training in health and disease.
Dr. Paul Sumners is a neurophysiologist at London South Bank University. His expertise is learning and memory of respiratory and skeletal muscle systems, and performance improvement. He is also an inventor of vibration training-related devices whose benefits are being applied to elite athletes and clinical populations.
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