I was wondering has anyone tried the Powerbreathe the device that claims to strengthing your lungs and surrounding muscles if you dont know what it here is the link… check it out…
I have used a similar device for the last year and I think it has helped my lungs get stronger
Dave
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“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, drug-free, hand held device, has a controllable load for progressive training and is appropriate for athletes in all types of sports.”
I say, blow up half dozen balloons twice a day, or breathe through a coffee stir for 5 min. Same thing isn’t it? 
How does this help you exchange oxygen more efficiently in your lungs ? The total capacity of your lungs in rarely utilized at triathlon aerobic intensities. Even sprint tri is 98% aerobic.
I agree with the poster who said blow up a few balloons or better yet, ride 6 hours a day on 1 bottle and a banana like Eddy Merckx and lose 5 kilos…
After thinking about this, is the limiting factor in our systems really lung strength? I say no. I say we get to a place where our limiting factor is the amount of oxygen our blood can carry. Even if you hyper-ventilate, your blood can only carry so much oxygen. Are lungs or diaphragm are never sore from being challenged by the hardest workout. And our lungs can’t even process 100% of the oxygen breathed in during a normal breath, and we exhale plenty of oxygen that our body didn’t have time to process or didn’t have RBC to attatch it to. So unless this machine will increase your hematocrit, or comes with two free vials of EPO, I say it is hogwash.
Breathing hard enough isn’t the problem. The delivery system is the bottleneck.
how about wearing a similar device such as this or holding your breath for a few seconds at a time while exercising? does anyone know of a technique like that that could increase the body’s efficiency in processing oxygen? is there a way to simulate training in altitudes where the air is thinner?
i was wondering this during training but wouldnt want to try anything that would leave me unconscious on the side of the road…
If your respiratory muscles (inspiratory/expiratory) are weak you might benefit from this device. I suspect few triathletes suffer from weak respiratory muscles. If you have asthma/emphysema/COPD, then the benefit might be marginally greater. I saw a Medline study on a similar device and it did not wax enthusiastic.
Train hard…train smart.
-Robert
Yes, there is a way to do this. It is called normobaric hypoxia. Instead of reducing the atmospheric pressure, you reduce the percentage of oxygen. This is how the altitude tents work. There is no doubt that this can improve performance at altitude. At sea level…not so sure about that one yet.
Mike
I have heard entirely mixed reviews of the effectiveness of this product. It struck me as interesting however.
High altitude mountaineers use a breathing technique at altitude called “pressure breathing” where a climber inhales and then exhales forcefully against pursed lips. This is said to increase the pressure of oxygen in the lungs momentarily. I have no idea if there is any fact to this.
One thing I do know is that any respiration training would make you more aware of your breathing and that certainly can’t hurt.
I figure one of the breathing thinys might increase the strength of your diaphragm to a greater or lesser degree.
Interesting… I guess if they were a home run then everyone would already use them though.
I just bought a powerbreathe, and did a bit of research on it beforehand. They are a fairly new innovation and most of the research connected with their use has been published within the last 4 years (available at www.powerbreathe.com - this might answer Tom’s comment (if they were a home run everyone would be using them) as even the best ideas take some time to catch on.
The piece of research that had most impact on me was the study in which a group of elite cyclists in a controlled trial took an average 3 minutes off their 40k TT time. This was after 12 weeks, but the researchers say that most improvement occurred after 6-8 weeks. Now, this device only cost me £32 (at www.sweatbandfitness.co.uk. If it takes anything like 3 minutes off my 40k PB, and does that by making me fitter, then it will have been one of the best purchases I ever made. At that price it’s at least worth a try.
I’ve used the red ‘sports performance’ model for a day so far - the instructions advise 30 breaths twice a day. I’ve started on the easiest setting which is still quite a challenge for 30 breaths. I tried it at the hard end of the scale and couldn’t even breathe in once, so obviously I have room for improvement. I guess I will just have to wait and see how much my lungs are burning at the end of races next year (or how much quicker I get there!)
High altitude mountaineers use a breathing technique at altitude called “pressure breathing” where a climber inhales and then exhales forcefully against pursed lips. This is said to increase the pressure of oxygen in the lungs momentarily. I have no idea if there is any fact to this.
I figure one of the breathing thinys might increase the strength of your diaphragm to a greater or lesser degree.
Interesting… I guess if they were a home run then everyone would already use them though. Tom, this breathing technique is also called “pursed-lip breathing”. It does increase the intra-alveolar pressure some, therefore resulting in a higher gradient across the alveolar-capillary membrane, so, more oxygen does move into the bloodstream. It’s not much, though. A variation of this is used to drive more oxygen across the alveolar membrane when some people are on ventilators…it’s called PEEP (Positive End Expiratory Pressure). People with emphysema and other lung dysfunctions (that tend to collapse airways) also use this techinque to “prop open” the alveoli/air passages so that air can move out better…it helps their gas exchange for this reason. As far as these devices increasing diaphagm strength…maybe. More likely they could increase accessory muscle strength (intracostals, mostly). However, in normal people, I don’t think the movement of air into and out of the lungs is a limiting factor to exercise. There would be no reason to believe that the lungs themselves are “strengthened” by using this device. For practical air-movement purposes, the lungs are just bags that inflate and deflate due to differences in pressure between the pleural space and the atmospheric pressure. Yes, the lungs are more than this, but, as far as moving air in and out of them, they are very simple devices that don’t get better by being any more stiff (ask any asthmatic) nor any more compliant (ask any emphysemic) than normal. So, saying that the “lungs are getting stronger” is rubbish. I know people feel their lungs “burn” during hard exercise. This is not because the lungs are “working hard”…I was taught that this is a referred reflex “pain” caused by various sensors (Carotid bodies; Receptors that monitor right heart tension, etc.) that are using apparent lung pain as a way of signaling to the body to increase cardiac output and/or oxygenation. Anyway, I don’t think these devices do what they advertise, at least not any more effectively than going out and working hard enough to be forced to breathe deeply and forcefully for an interval session workout, or no better than you’d get for doing the basic training for a long race.
You mean like hypoxic swimming? (breathe every 5 or 7 ro ??? strokes)