Exercising and strengthening the muscles we use to breathe in – the inspiratory muscles – can help boost performance. New research has shown that training these muscles can improve all-round fitness and even maximize the effectiveness of other muscles used in sport.

Using the laboratory-proven POWERbreathe® training system of  30 breaths twice a day, an athlete’s strength and endurance will increase rapidly. POWERbreathe®- an easy-to-use, hand held device, has a controllable load for progressive training and is appropriate for athletes in all types of sports.

The product range is the result of nearly a decade of research, and uses the basic principles of resistance training. Just as you might use weights to strengthen your arm muscles, breathing in through POWERbreathe® for a few minutes twice daily, makes your inspiratory muscles (the muscles we use to breathe in) work harder - thereby increasing their strength and endurance.

BACKED BY YEARS OF RESEARCH

Research has shown that the inspiratory muscles have such a huge task to perform that they can ‘steal’ blood from our exercising limbs to supplement their work (Harms et al., 1998). The effect of this is to limit the performance of those limb muscles – making exercise feel harder and impairing performance. New research has now shown that specific inspiratory muscle training (IMT) improves the efficiency of the inspiratory muscles (Sharpe & McConnell, 1998), with the consequence that performance in laboratory controlled trials is improved by almost 30% (Caine & McConnell, 1998).

Studies have shown that time trial performance improves in elite rowers (Voliantis et al., 2001a) and cyclists (Romer et al., 2001a) by as much as 4.6%! That slashes almost 3 minutes off a 40km cycling time trial, and gives a winning margin of more than 60m in a 2000m rowing race!

 POWERbreathe® is also great for asthmatics, or anyone who suffers from respiratory problems. Numerous research trials have already been conducted, examining breathlessness, respiratory muscle fatigue and sports performance in many groups of people. As a result, many benefits of POWERbreathe^® training have been identified, in terms of wellbeing, general fitness and sports performance.

Who can benefit?

·         Endurance athletes, such as cyclists, runners, triathletes, swimmers, rowers

·         Elite and competitive sports people looking for an edge (endurance performance increased by over 30% in laboratory controlled tests)

·         Those recovering from sports injuries or in rehabilitation

·         Anyone who gets out-of-breath easily

·         Asthmatics and those with respiratory disorders