Monthly Archives: March 2012

The most common question in the tri-athlete world about swimming efficiently usually involves something to do with breathing and inspiratory muscle training. In freestyle, the first step is to get your body position right. Then, for many, you throw in breathing and everything goes haywire! This has to do with lack of balance, using your head instead of your core to breathe, and a few other factors.

Here are the top five challenges in learning effective breathing in freestyle swimming, along with the remedies on overcoming these challenges:

Typically this happens in freestyle a lot and there are a...

I have to correct my mile estimation from last week, it was actually more like ½ mile but still very impressive for me.

My overall POWERbreathe breathing results dipped slightly this month, the reason being I developed a real stinker of a head cold, which has set me back a bit. But, the beauty of the POWERbreathe is I know that I can get back on stream again fairly quickly and without absolutely exhausting myself. So onwards and upwards and I look forward to next month’s results showing me back on track. That’s why I like the POWERbreathe K3 - you can constantly measure...

Professor Alison McConnell, author of Breathe Strong, Perform Better, has written an article, Every Breath You Take, for the April edition of Running Fitness Magazine.

Writing about breathing muscle training (inspiratory muscle training), once viewed with scepticism, she explains why it is now seen as one of the ‘quickest and easiest’ routes to improved performance.

“Intense breathing muscle work activates the (vascular) reflex, causing limb blood flow to be restricted, impairing delivery of oxygen and removal of muscle metabolites. The good news is that breathing muscle training increases the intensity of breathing work required to...

Whether you're looking to get fitter, breathe better or save some money, quitting smoking is a life-changing decision with numerous benefits, especially for your health. Your breathing technique will improve once you have quit the nicotine.

It isn't easy and it isn't fun, but once you're motivated to stop smoking, the positives outweigh the negatives - here are some top tips on how to quit smoking cigarettes.

Make a list of reasons to quit

It is always useful to make a list of reasons why you need to stub out that...

You would be so impressed with what POWERbreathe has done for me… A friend came round on Friday and we decided to go for a walk - and it wasn’t short: just under a mile with much chatting as we went. The good news is I wasn’t out of breath at all! Having started using my POWERbreathe in August 2010, I really haven’t looked back.

I do suffer from poor balance, tremors and fatigue with my MS (multiple sclerosis), but the POWERbreathe has helped eliminate another potential symptom i.e. being out of breath all the time.

Thank you POWERbreathe!

Madeline

If you would like to leave a message for...

I have now completed six weeks of POWERbreathe training   and it is now time to move to a once every other day training schedule as my initial training period is over. Alison McConnell in her book 'Breathe Strong Perform Better" mentions that research suggests that minimal improvements can be made after a 6 week training block, and a maintenance schedule is all that is then required.

So, a bit of an overview of the POWERbreathe training so far:

Everything has improved quite dramatically over the past few weeks, here is the training in numbers:

•Test 1 Sindex - 177

•Final Test Sindex - 233

That is a 32% improvement in my...

I have realised that this will be my last week using the basic 2 times a day training, then it will be onto bigger and brighter things!!

I have done a couple of new things this week to try and get the most out of the POWERbreathe, along with testing the Warm-Up/Cool Down features.

One strategy that I have done is to get onto the POWERbreathe straight after I have finished a session. This has been a real eye opener, and every time I do this I can feel a huge difference between the load I am using and also the quality of the session, it deteriorates a lot quicker. After a really good 20 mile long run in Richmond...

Here Anthony Mayatt personal trainer demonstrates the use of the POWERbreathe while exercising. Anthony has chosen an explosive movement exercise which is done in conjunction with the forced inhalation using the POWERbreathe.  Anthony chose two different types of push ups as the exercise in this video.

Thanks Anthony - BreatheFitness

If you found this video useful, please do leave a comment.

Check out other videos from Anthony:

Respiratory training with the POWERbreathe

For many years, Majorca (Mallorca) has been the place to go for winter and early spring cycling. Countless professionals and cycling enthusiasts flock to this beautiful island off the Mediterranean Coast of Spain. Long a favorite among European cyclists,  over the last years the island has seen more and more North American cyclists.

This year our Czech POWERbreathe distributor Aleš Zárybnický went to the training camp and demnonstrated the POWERbreathe device and showed the riders just how effective POWERbreathe is for inspiratory muscle training. Here are some photos of POWERbreathe users at the recent Mallorca Training...

It’s been a quiet week on the exercise front this week, but that’s mainly because I had guests for two days and some paperwork that needed to be done.  It’s funny how a change of routine just throws everything up in the air. I need to get back on stream again PDQ with my Pilates and POWERbreathe.

However, it has done me a favour in a way, as I have decided not to see my friend in Italy until September/October, and that’s if I am feeling fit.  As you can tell from my previous blog posts,  because of Multiple Sclerosis I’m not good with stress or changes to my routine, but I  am slowly learning and recognising when I need to take...