Long COVID Recovery Includes POWERbreathe IMT

Because COVID-19 is a new infection, long-term research has yet to be conducted. However, this article highlights a link between inspiratory muscle performance and COVID-19.

The Risk Reduction Model in the article suggests home-based respiratory muscle training (RMT), such as POWERbreathe Inspiratory Muscle Training (IMT), could be prescribed to patients with impaired respiratory performance. RMT is shown to be effective early on and therefore might help to prevent disease in at-risk patients if IMT is used at the outbreak of a viral pandemic.

This clinical trial into rehabilitation for people with COVID in ICU, sees participants starting respiratory training, including ‘cautious inspiratory muscle training’, immediately.

Recovery From COVID

As many COVID patients suffer with breathing problems, possibly leading to a stay in ICU and on a ventilator, existing research is being drawn upon to prevent at-risk patients becoming susceptible in the first place. It suggests that RMT could help to speed up recovery and consequently discharge home.

In fact, ‘Physiotherapy Management for COVID-19’ in the Acute Hospital Setting recommends the use of IMT as part of the weaning process in their Recommendations to guide clinical practice.

Although patients recovering from COVID are likely to experience extreme respiratory muscle weakness, this low baseline means that they are also likely to receive the greatest benefit from respiratory muscle training (RMT), such as with POWERbreathe IMT.

Long COVID Recovery

Patients recovering from ‘long COVID’ or ‘post-COVID-19 syndrome’ often experience extreme shortness of breath and researchers believe a key contributing factor may be diaphragm muscle dysfunction. Therefore, it seems reasonable to assume that training the diaphragm to become stronger and less prone to fatigue may be beneficial.

This 2022 Review Article concludes that IMT may represent an important home-based COVID-19 rehabilitation strategy. And this 2023 study shows that inspiratory muscle training may be an important adjunct after COVID-19.

POWERbreathe IMT targets your main breathing muscle, the diaphragm. It uses the principles of resistance training to improve the strength and stamina of your inspiratory muscles, reducing fatigue. This is why it is often referred to as the ‘dumbbell for your diaphragm’. It is drug-free, scientifically-proven and has no side effects or drug interactions. And because the cardiovascular strain of POWERbreathe IMT is very low, it’s suitable for even the most physically compromised patients.

Furthermore, a recommendation from the World Health Organization (WHO) for COVID recovery in the clinical management of COVID includes increasing exercise and fitness with Inspiratory Muscle Training (IMT), specifically mentioning POWERbreathe.