Authors: Mark Faghy & Peter Brown. 2015

“Load carriage (LC) exercise in physically demanding occupations is typically characterised by periods of low-intensity steady-state exercise and short duration, high-intensity exercise while carrying an external mass in a backpack; this form of exercise is also known as LC exercise. This induces inspiratory muscle fatigue and reduces whole-body performance. Accordingly we investigated the effect of inspiratory muscle training (IMT, 50% maximal inspiratory muscle pressure (PImax) twice daily for six week) upon running time-trial performance with thoracic LC.”

Conclusion:

“In summary, when wearing a 25 kg backpack, IMT attenuated the cardiovascular and perceptual responses to steady-state exercise and improved high-intensity time-trial performance which we attribute in part to reduced relative work intensity of the inspiratory muscles due to improved inspiratory muscle strength. These findings have real-world implications for occupational contexts.”

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