The idea that you can improve your fitness by sleeping in an oxygen tent or doing a few breathing exercises in front of Eastenders has always seemed a little too good to be true. However, evidence indicates that improving your breathing ability may be more important than previously thought, and that endurance athletes can improve simply by paying attention to their breathing off the bike.
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Breathing is about taking in oxygen, a key ingredient in the chemical reactions that power your muscles, and getting carbon dioxide out. Crucially though, there are two parts to this process.
- Firstly there’s the role played by the lungs, which expand to take in oxygen and contract to expel carbon dioxide.
- Secondly, there’s the role played by the blood, which transports the oxygen from the lungs to the muscles and then carries carbon dioxide back to be expired.
This distinction is crucial because exercise physiology has placed enormous importance on the second part – oxygen transport – and has sometimes guilty of ignoring the former – the lungs.
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The reason is simple. Exercise physiologists showed that training does not alter lung size or capacity and even at maximal intensity humans have considerable breathing reserve. So scientists concluded that the lungs place no limitation on performance and any training that focuses on them solely – as many of the newer breathing exercises do – is ineffectual.
Instead scientists concentrated on oxygen transport, which clearly did benefit from training, and this led to the development of now familiar concepts like VO² max and lactate threshold and the training techniques widely in evidence today.
Altitude training also relates to the oxygen transport system so may have been viewed more favourably by the scientific community were it not for the fact that while some studies seemed to show a benefit, many simply did not.
Training breathing muscles – the theory
Training breathing muscles – the evidence
The training and equipment
Altitude training – the theory
Altitude training – the evidence
The training and equipment
Yoga and pilates – the theory
Yoga and pilates – the evidence
The training
Consulting the althletes
Pro Pilates: Helen Gorman, Time-trialler and former GB swimmer
High Flier: Justin Shevlin, Triathlete
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