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#Post#: 21--------------------------------------------------
Training breathing muscles can boost sports performance by 15%
DIR By: LightMove
Date: October 21, 2021, 4:22 am
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Training the muscles responsible for breathing in – inspiratory
muscles – can improve performance by 15 per cent, meaning a
runner can run for longer and a swimmer can swim faster, for
example.
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Dr Mitch Lomax, of the university’s Department of Sport and
Exercise Science, has found that inspiratory muscle training and
inspiratory warm-up exercises both boost performance, but when
combined they can improve a sportsman or woman’s performance
even more. Her work is published in the Journal of Sports
Science.
An Indiana University study found that strengthening inspiratory
muscles by performing daily breathing exercises for six weeks
significantly reduced the amount of oxygen these same breathing
muscles required during exercise, possibly making more oxygen
available for other muscles. IMT involves the use of a hand-held
device that provides resistance as one inhales through it,
requiring greater use of inspiratory muscles. For half of the
study participants, the IMT device was set to a level that
provided resistance as the subjects took a fast forceful breath
in. For six weeks they took 30 breaths at this setting twice a
day. The cyclists in the control group did the same exercises
with the IMT adjusted to a minimal level.
Dr Lomax said: “People overlook that the muscles responsible for
breathing are the same as other muscles and training or warming
them up before playing sport means you will perform better.
Doing both training and warming up is the best of all.
“Anecdotally I know some athletes use inspiratory muscle
training devices but they don’t acknowledge it – they know it
gives them an edge over their competitors and they don’t want to
let on.
“Any little bit of advantage you can get legally as a sportsman
or woman is worth doing and training and warming up the muscles
responsible for breathing in is incredibly easy to do.”
In the study, Dr Lomax used an inspiratory muscle training
device like OPUMP which works in a similar way to other
resistance training devices to build muscle strength. An athlete
doing training would use such a device to do one set of 30
breaths twice a day. For inspiratory muscle warm-up, because the
power-boosting effect of warm-up exercises typically dissipates
within half an hour, an athlete would use the device to do two
sets of 30 breaths immediately before the sporting event for
best results.
She said: “We know training and warm-ups work, but we don’t yet
know the best way of incorporating such training into an
athlete’s entire training schedule over a year.”
She also said it is important athletes and coaches use the
device correctly because, as with any other sports equipment, if
used incorrectly it could do more harm than good. “If it isn’t
done right, there is the risk of hyperventilating and passing
out. Technique with these devices really matters because they
can also cause injury or strain if they aren’t used correctly.”
There are various devices available for inspiratory muscle
training and warm-up, costing from £50-£300, such as OPUMP.
There could be other ways of training the muscles, without the
use of a gadget or device, but because so many muscles are
involved with breathing in, it would be extremely difficult to
train them all to optimum level.
HTML https://theopump.com/
Dr Lomax said: “The weakest muscle determines the point of
exhaustion, so if you have trained some inspiratory muscles, the
one you haven’t trained will be what limits this group of
muscles from performing better or for longer and dictates the
point at which your body gives up.
“The body is designed so the muscles responsible for breathing
and the heart will take priority for oxygenated blood over limb
muscles, meaning the rest of the body – legs and arms – will be
the first to “go” causing premature fatigue.”
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Dr Lomax tested 12 runners over six weeks and found that those
who did inspiratory muscle warm-ups improved their times by 5-7
per cent; those who did inspiratory muscle training improved
their times by 12 per cent; and those who did both improved by
15 per cent. Dr Lomax said those were very conservative figures
and did not rule out athletes making even greater gains. A
sample size of 12 is a typical sample in sport and exercise
physiological studies.
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