Train Your Breathing Muscles to Improve Athletic Performance

An article by Shelagh Haynes    Comments Off on Train Your Breathing Muscles to Improve Athletic Performance

Turns out that my last post about breathing properly not only affects posture and alignment, but also athletic performance.
Dr. Mitch Lomax at the University of Porstmouth in the UK has determined that inspiratory muscle training (i.e. working out the muscles that help you to breathe in) improves sports performance [1]. Twelve runners were tested to determine the effects of:

1) inspiratory muscle warm-ups: 2 sets of 30 breaths at 40% max inspiratory mouth pressure just prior to running
2) inspiratory muscle training: 30 breaths, 2x/day at 50% max inspiratory mouth pressure
Here’s an example of a device used for inspiratory muscle training:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhtEwWtimDM

… on distance covered when running to exhaustion.

The results showed that:
– with inspiratory muscle warm-ups, max inspiratory mouth pressure increased by 11%, and distance to exhaustion increased by 5-7% (without any inspiratory muscle training)
– max inspiratory mouth pressure increased by 20% in the runners who underwent inspiratory muscle training for 4 weeks, and 27% when the training and warm-up were combined
– distance to exhaustion increased by 12% after 4 weeks of inspiratory muscle training, and by 15% when the warm-up was combined with 4 weeks of inspiratory muscle training

Essentially, these findings can be explained by the fact that if the  muscles that allow your heart and lungs to access oxygenated blood are more efficient, there will be more oxygenated blood available for the muscles of your limbs (the ones helping you to run/swim/bike/etc.), putting off the fatigue of those muscles.
In summary, if you train your inspiratory muscles daily, and complete a warm-up of these muscles prior to an athletic endeavour, chances are your performance will improve. Who needs blood doping?!

–  Your Ottawa Wellness Team at OC3*

*Ottawa Collaborative Care Centre (OC3) is a multidisciplinary, integrative health clinic in downtown Ottawa. We are committed to providing Ottawa and the surrounding area with high quality injury, wellness, and sport performance care by strategically blending Chiropractic, Physiotherapy, Naturopathic Medicine, Active Release Techniques (ART), Acupuncture, Trigger Point Dry Needling, and Massage Therapy services to reduce pain and improve function.*

1. Lomax, M., Grant, I., Corbett, J. (2011). Inspiratory muscle warm-up and inspiratory muscle training: Separate and combined effects on intermittent running to exhaustion. Journal of Sports Sciences 29(6): 563-569.