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#Post#: 18--------------------------------------------------
Improve Your Endurance with Inspiratory Muscle Training
DIR By: LightMove
Date: October 19, 2021, 1:56 am
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In most cases, an athlete’s ability to exercise is limited by
the heart’s ability to pump blood to the muscles – not the
lung’s ability to deliver oxygen to the heart. Despite this,
breathlessness can often limit exercise performance. This
breathlessness doesn’t relate to problems with air transport,
but instead to fatigue of the respiratory muscles themselves –
the diaphragm, intercostal muscles and the accessory muscles
around the neck which assist with chest wall expansion during
breathing. When we breathe, our airways generate airflow
resistance that our breathing pump must work to overcome. The
stronger the pump, the easier it is to overcome this air
resistance and the easier the sensation of breathing is.
The demands on the lungs increase significantly during exercise
– particularly in late stages of exercise when the body is
producing more lactic acid since lactic acid is converted to
water and carbon dioxide – the latter being eliminated through
ventilation. When we do exercise testing on patients in our
office, it is not unusual to see an increase from about 7.5-10
liters of air breathed/minute at rest, to 150-200 liters/minute
during maximal exercise. Rarely, elite athletes can increase
their ventilation to 300 liters/minute! Obviously, this places
a significant stress on the muscles responsible for respiration,
and these muscles are prone to fatigue just like other muscles
in the body. The harder the lungs work, the more blood flow
they require, “robbing” blood from working limbs. It has been
estimated that in late exercise, about 16% of oxygen consumption
is used in order to power breathing. Research has shown that to
effectively train respiratory muscles to better adapt to these
higher ventilation levels, a training load that approximates
ventilation during intense exercise needs to be imposed. Makes
sense, doesn’t it?
So what does training of the respiratory muscles accomplish?
First of all, strength training results in measurable structural
changes. Ultrasound-based measurements of the diaphragm before
and after 4-8 weeks of training show, on average, a 12% increase
in thickness. After four and eight weeks of training,
inspiratory muscle strength improved by 24% and 41%,
respectively. Peak inspiratory flow rates and maximal power of
the lungs have been shown to improve as well.
But what does this mean for performance? Multiple studies have
measured the effect of inspiratory muscle training (IMT) on
performance in various endurance sports. Those in cycling have
shown average improvements of 2.6-4.6% in time trial events
ranging from 20 to 40 km in length. To translate this into real
world numbers, I went to the 2012 results of the Hy-Vee
Triathlon, men’s elite division. Factoring in a 4.6% reduction
in cycle time would have improved Aussie John Amberger’s 6th
place finishing time by 2 minutes and 41 seconds and put him
into 1st place.
Similar studies looking at changes in performance:
Cycling: 2.6-4.6% improvements in 20-40K time trials
Running: 2% improvement in 5K split time
Rowing: 1.9-2.7% improvement in 6-20 minute time trials
Soccer-specific performance test: 17% improvement
Swimming: 1.5-1.7% improvement in 100-200 m swim performance.
Altitude-sports:
25% reduction in the breathing requirement of exercise
14% reduction in the cardiac output requirement of exercise
Reduction of symptoms of exercise-induced asthma or vocal cord
dysfunction.
Triathlon: See above for component improvements. In addition,
the work of breathing is lessened when:
Swimming in wetsuits
Riding in aero position
So, IMT unquestionably can help improve endurance performance.
Studies looking at the effect of IMT on other sports are also
encouraging. Two studies looking at performance on a yo-yo
sprint test (designed as a soccer-specific test, but also
applicable to football, rugby, basketball, and tennis) before
and after IMT, showed improvements of 17% over baseline.
Finally, IMT clearly improves exercise tolerance at altitude.
Four weeks of IMT improved the breathing requirement of exercise
at 12,000 feet by 25% and reduced the oxygen requirement 8-12%.
Here’s where things get more interesting. Because the
inspiratory muscles have extensive attachments around the spine,
strengthening them also improves core stability significantly.
Thus, the potential benefits of IMT also include:
Reduction of side stitches with running.
Reduction of low back pain in cyclists and runners.
Improved breathing efficiency in the aero position during
cycling.
Improved power production for rowers and swimmers.
Improved maintenance of core stability late in gameplay (ex:
tennis, basketball, soccer, football).
Reduced risk of back injury in late exercise when an athlete is
most fatigued.
Because of the effect of IMT on the core, IMT can be
progressively moved from exercises performed in a standing
posture to being incorporated into more sport-specific
functional exercises. This also has implications for therapy in
patients with low back pain or lower extremity overuse problems
that can be attributed to core instability. Integrating IMT
into a monitored physical therapy program can pay dividends both
in terms of injury recovery and ultimately performance
improvement.
Finally, IMT has been shown to significantly improve symptoms
associated with conditions that affect breathing, such as vocal
cord dysfunction, exercise-induced asthma, and cystic fibrosis.
Incorporating IMT into the exercise routines of these patients
can dramatically improve overall exercise capacity.
OPUMP has the latest IMT technology, which can measure the
improvement of individual lung function before and after
respiratory training. Training can be focused on a goal of
strength improvement or endurance improvement. We also have the
ability to help user incorporate IMT into their regular workout
sessions, and can incorporate IMT into standard athletic
rehabilitation when applicable.
HTML https://theopump.com/
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