Tag Archives: IMT

In the final miles of a long run or triathlon run, your leg muscles become very tired. But your hamstrings, quadriceps and calves are not the only muscles that become fatigued during a hard run.

Your respiratory muscles may also become tired during the workout that you are giving them. As it is these muscles which fatigue first it is the fatigue of these muscles that limit your performance. As these muscles fatigue signals are sent to your nervous system telling it to redirect oxygen from the muscles of your limbs to those of your diaphragm to keep them going. Therefore, during the running the reason your legs may begin...

"Effects of respiratory muscle training on performance in athletes: a systematic review with meta-analyses"

Hajghanbari B, Yamabayashi C, Buna T, Coelho J, Freedman K, Morton T, Palmer S, Toy M, Walsh C, Sheel AW, Reid WD.

More research recently published (July 25th 2012) to determine if respiratory muscle training (RMT) improves sport performance, and respiratory muscle strength and endurance.

The conclusion revealed that RMT can improve sport performance. Inspiratory muscle strength and endurance improved in most studies, which in part, was dependent on the type of RMT employed.

Read the Abstract online at The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research

Deep breathing exercises are often referred to as pranayama in yoga, an ancient system of holistic health. Regular practice of deep breathing exercises can help tone the intercostal muscles, a group of muscles that form the chest wall, and the diaphragm, a thin muscle located under the lungs.

Deep chest breathing requires two yoga blocks. You need to sit on the floor and place the blocks behind you - one in a flat position and the other at the medium position. You need to lay your shoulder blades on the flat block and your head on the other. Then relax your arms out to each side with palms faced upwards. Next...

The London Evening Standard reported on 25th July 2012 that a quarter of Team GB suffer from exercise-induced asthma, including swimmers Rebecca Adlington and Jo Jackson, Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins, marathon runner Paula Radcliffe, defending Olympic rowing champions Pete Reed and Tom James, and footballer Craig Bellamy, according to charity Asthma UK.

Asthma UK recommends people with asthma participate in exercise as it improves lung function and can help manage the symptoms.

Cher Piddock, lead asthma nurse at the charity, said:

“We'd encourage anyone with asthma who is struggling with their symptoms to speak to...

A new Clinical Study, published in the Journal of Obesity (Volume 2012, Article ID 918202), examined whether a programme of inspiratory muscle training (IMT), using POWERbreathe, improves accumulative distance of self-paced walking in overweight and obese adults.

Fifteen overweight and obese adults were randomised into experimental and placebo groups. Lung function, inspiratory muscle performance, 6-minute walking test, and predicted VO2 max were assessed prior to and following the 4-week IMT intervention.

Both groups performed 30 inspiratory breaths, twice daily using POWERbreathe.

They concluded the study by suggesting that...

Our bodies respond to exercise in a variety of ways to increase efficiency. One key factor that contributes to you exercising less is the efficiency of your respiratory health. Regular exercise can improve your fitness by strengthening these respiratory muscles as these are the muscles that aid you in breathing. Not only will regular exercise strengthen your muscles, your lungs will also change to increase your endurance and energy production.

Exercising to increase the strength of your respiratory muscles is beneficiary to you as you are then able to increase your respiratory volumes. it is these volumes that...

The Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation & Prevention published the following clinical trial to evaluate the effect of inspiratory muscle training (IMT) on cardiac autonomic modulation and on peripheral nerve sympathetic activity in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF).

The Clinical Trial:

Inspiratory Muscle Training Reduces Sympathetic Nervous Activity and Improves Inspiratory Muscle Weakness and Quality of Life in Patients With Chronic Heart Failure: A CLINICAL TRIAL

METHODS:

Functional capacity, low-frequency (LF) and high-frequency (HF) components of heart rate...

A systematic review and meta-analysis was performed in order to determine the factors that affect the change in endurance performance after RMT (Respiratory Muscle Training) in healthy subjects.

The conclusion was that RMT improves endurance exercise performance in healthy individuals with greater improvements in less fit individuals and in sports of longer durations (rowing, running, swimming and cycling).

Read the Abstract for this meta-analysis recently published on PubMed: ‘Effect of Respiratory Muscle Training on Exercise Performance in Healthy Individuals: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis’.

Read more about POWERbreathe respiratory muscle training for rowing, running, swimming and cycling.

This year we exhibited at the 10th Triathlon Show. what a show it was and more to the point a successful show for POWERbreathe. Our Duncan, Lee and Mary Ann all attended the event to spread the word about POWERbreathe.

We tested over 250 individuals, sold numerous Plus units and our biggest achievement was selling three  POWERbreathe K5  units which was just uh-mayzing.  However, the biggest success of the show was POWERbreathe awareness. IT seems our education campaign is growing all the time creating greater awareness of POWERbreathe breathing training.  One of the POWERbreathe K5 purchasers had never ever heard...

I’ve had an interesting few weeks actually.  I’ve reduced the amount of cardio training I’ve been doing and mainly focused on strength work. This includes weight lifting rather than weight training as such, so; squats, deadlift, cleans etc.  Mixing it up to reduce the boredom factor!  Some time ago I sat one of the UKSCA weight lifting courses and since then I’ve tried to practice what they taught me (often unsuccessfully I’m sure!).   Anyway, usually when I do work that puts a compressive force through my spine, my thoracic spine doesn’t like it.  In previous blogs I’ve mentioned about rib issues I have and I also have an old crush fracture of...