Karina Bryant, Bronze Medallist, 2012 Olympics

“POWERbreathe really made the difference to me prior to and during the games and now I have the medal to prove it!”

Judo heavyweight Karina won bronze in her Olympic success at London 2012. Earlier in the year Karina and her coach started looking to see if there was anything they could implement in training that would help clear lactate between fights. They also wondered if there was anything that could help Karina perform at her best during the later stages of her fight, such as improving her breathing stamina.

POWERbreathe offered Karina a POWERbreathe inspiratory muscle training device to incorporate into her training, prior to the Olympics, and here’s her feedback:

“In preparation for the Olympic Games I went through several periods of heavy training. This included developing maximum strength, aerobic capacity, lactate tolerance and accumulating high work loads of Judo. I would always develop my aerobic capacity prior to making large gains in strength. I used the POWERbreathe in order to maintain the gains made in aerobic capacity during periods of heavy strength training. The advantage of this was clearly seen as I was able to maintain my aerobic capacity (measured during testing) throughout this heavy strength period.

When I went to training camps in Japan and South Korea to accumulate a high volume of intensive Judo training, the POWERbreathe was used to train my inspiratory muscles in order to aid recovery from these sessions. The advantages of this were realised during competition when I used the POWERbreathe to assist with the clearance of lactate between fights, aiding myself to recover and win a Bronze medal at the 2012 Olympic Games. There wasn’t a single moment in London that I was concerned about my fitness or lactic acid building up during my fights.

POWERbreathe really made the difference to me prior to and during the games and now I have the medal to prove it!”