Author Archives: Vanessa

It's been quite a while since I last wrote a blog post for POWERbreathe. The truth is, I've been so busy that I simply haven't had time to sit down and put it all down on paper. I've posted a number of my greatest moments from the current indoor season on POWERbreathe's Facebook page, so some of you may recognise bits and pieces here and there. I hope you enjoy reading this anyway. Happy reading everybody.

Since I last blogged, a lot has happened. For starters, I was out with a shin injury for two weeks after a failed jump exercises at the track mid December. The cut was deep, so the wound required 2...

Since my last blog I have been continuing with the Powerbreathe 30 breaths. Having started with the resistance at the lowest level and struggling initially to complete the full 30, I have seen progress in that I now can manage 30 with the resistance up to level 2.

So how has this affected training? I have been repeating breathing training sessions I did in the build up to the Crash-Bs last year and have found that I wasn’t feeling as wheezy if I didn’t use my inhaler. But the real test would be rowing at the Agganis Arena in Boston on race day.

Last year I had real problems with the dry atmosphere of the arena and couldn’t perform as well as I...

Hello, my name is Anthony Mayatt and I am a personal trainer  and owner of  BreatheFitness. I was approached by POWERbreathe who asked me if I would be interested in trialling one of their POWERbreathe devices for a period of one month to see if my respiratory strength, stamina and endurance improves.  The model given to me was the POWERbreathe Plus Medium Resistance.

As part of my trial I have agreed to provide blogs of my training so all of the POWERbreathe followers are able to read about my experience using the POWERbreathe. This is my first blog.

As a personal trainer I am (or would like to think I am) extremely fit and most of you...

Exercising on a regular basis is critical for fitness. Regular aerobic exercise is essential for cardiovascular fitness as the exercise reduces the amount of work the lungs need to do. However, you cannot increase your lung capacity with regular exercise and if you suffer from lung disorders such as COPD, asthma or emphysema regular exercise will not improve lung function.

Regular physical activity will help strengthen your limb muscles  and help to reduce shortness of breath symptoms and increase your stamina.

The respiratory system is made up of the nose,...

If you are someone who suffers from shortness of breath, have trouble breathing or find you have to put in more effort to breathe, then you probably have a respiratory illness or some form of lung disease such as emphysema, COPD or asthma.  Whether you are resting, exercising or simply lying flat, you can suffer breathing difficulty symptoms.  If you can pinpoint the triggers that cause these breathing problems then you can find out what the underlying cause is.

So what are the symptoms? If you have severe breathing problems then the most common symptoms are rapid respiratory rate, continuous wheezing...

Indoor air can be just as polluted as outdoor air. Even more so. For those who suffer from COPD and other respiratory illnesses, spending time indoors is not by choice. This is why it is important that the quality of the indoor air is as pollution free as possible.

To help improve the quality of air indoors, here are some top tips which will help anyone who suffers from COPD, asthma or any other respiratory illness.

Over anything else you need to take charge of your home if you want to improve the quality of the indoor air you...

A rather sad update this week with the harrowing news that I ended up getting ill at the back end of last week and it has taken the week to get over. It all happened because of this rubbish cold weather we are enduring. I know the cold affects people in different ways but it freezes my chin, turns my lips blue and my speech starts to resemble an inebriated embarrassing father at a wedding (slurred and fairly incomprehensible). I also struggle with the ability to pick up a virus rather easily, a combination of poor genetics (thanks parents) and this running lark I do.

From the limited research that has been done, especially for marathon runners,...

My day job as a nurse is in teaching patients with Growth Hormone deficiency how to use their fancy electronic device that gives them daily injections of Growth Hormone.  A lot of my patients are children and the new gadget is great fun for the first few weeks but then the novelty wears off.  A big part of the job is keeping them on treatment long enough for it to do its job.

I am that child!  I’m 7 weeks into using my POWERbreathe and have found that I’m not practising as often as I need to be so I’m not feeling the benefit...which means I don’t practise so much as I’m not getting the positive feedback from my running that practice gives me.  And so the cycle...

Here is a short video of our Duncan demonstrating how to correctly use the POWERbreathe.  He has also provided his top tips so read on to find out what Duncan's secrets are to using the POWERbreathe effectively.

Make sure the load is correctly set as you need to maximize the volume of each breath you take. If it is too high then you will struggle. When using for the first time, always start on the lowest load setting and get used to doing 30 breaths twice a day. When you can easily maintain a powerful breath for 30 breaths then you can start to increase the load.  If you have one of the POWERbreathe K Series units this is done automatically. As you...

A couple of weeks into the POWERbreathe training now. The big news is that I broke 200 on my test score. That was very exciting for me! My S-index was 205.1. It was a bit of a shock when I did the test and that score came up but obviously the training is doing something. One of the great features of the unit is that is provides you with targets and numbers to improve on and this certainly provides me with plenty of motivation for my training.

I know that I have only just started using the unit but I already think it is helping with the running. I did a hill session a few days ago, it was 3 x10 minutes Kenyan Hills uphill. What this means is that I have to run up a hill for...