Powerbreathe trainer, does it work?

terry potter said:

I am interested in increasing my vo2max and was considering purchasing a powerbreathe inspiratory trainer. Has anyone ever used one in there training
program? Cheers Terry

Yes, I have used one in the past. Would you like to buy mine? 😄

Since then I have learned that getting more air into your lungs or getting air faster into your lungs will not affect your VO2max. VO2max "happens" somewhere between your lungs and your muscles. IOW, to increase your VO2max you need to increase your cardiovascular system's ability to deliver oxygen to the muscles. Big strong heart is more important than big lungs.

Here's some good reading:

home.hia.noexphys.htmOpen ↗

I use it since 6 weeks now and I have seen improvement especially in climbing

Piotr said:

Big strong heart is more important than big lungs.

That gives me an idea. What about using compressive cuffs to restrict blood flow through selected arteries? Resistance training for the heart!

Has anyone had success using this approach to increase VO2Max? 😄

orbeaonyx said:

I use it since 6 weeks now and I have seen improvement especially in climbing

Are you sure it wasn't the climbing you did during those 6 weeks that improved your climbing? 😄

frenchyge said:

That gives me an idea. What about using compressive cuffs to restrict blood flow through selected arteries? Resistance training for the heart!

Has anyone had success using this approach to increase VO2Max? 😄

That would be great for those with money to burn (I'm sure there's a niche market), but for us po folk holding breath will have to do. 😄 I train my VO2max by going to my LBS and look at prices of decent TT bikes. :eek: It always restricts my blood flow. 🙂

Piotr said:

Since then I have learned that getting more air into your lungs or getting air faster into your lungs will not affect your VO2max.

I saw a paper on an actual study where they used one of these on test subjects. If I recall correctly, after using it as a "training tool", there was an increase in ventiallation rate (the amount of air that the athlete exchanges in/out of lungs) but no change in VO2max. It's available on PubMed somewhere but I'm too lazy and uninterested to dig it up.

Piotr said:

Here's some good reading:

home.hia.noexphys.htmOpen ↗

From that:

Quoted post said:

Is ventilation volume a limiting factor to maximal endurance?
Sometimes you hear people say "I ran out of wind." Is that really possible? Can we reach a point in exercise when ventilation just can't keep up with demand? The answer is no, assuming you don't have acute asthma or some other severe pulmonary dysfunction. We can measure a person's maximal voluntary ventilation (MVV), the maximal volume of air they can breath in and out while at rest, and compare it with their maximal ventilation during exercise. What we see is that untrained people only use about 60 to 85% of their maximum ventilatory capacity even at maximal exercise. For example the MVV for an average male might be nearly 200 l/min. However, during a treadmill VO2 max test, they reach a peak ventilation of only 140 l/min. Highly trained athletes use more of their capacity, perhaps over 90%, but ventilation capacity is still not a limitation on performance. Unlike the story with cardiac output, even during maximal exercise, the ventilatory capacity is not maxed out.

Piotr said:

That would be great for those with money to burn (I'm sure there's a niche market), but for us po folk holding breath will have to do. 😄 I train my VO2max by going to my LBS and look at prices of decent TT bikes. :eek: It always restricts my blood flow. 🙂

I use bacon and egg yolks. 😄

i think of the body a bit like a car, increasing lung function is a lot like improving the air intake. likewise energy drinks are akin to improving the fuel line.

maybe if the engine is already as big as it can be either of those improvements would be worth something, but if it isnt then the bottleneck in terms of power dellivery is more likely the speed at which you can mix fuel and oxygen to generate power.

to me that means a well developed heart and legs is the real key to increasing vo2 max.

Mister Donuts does it for me.😉

Steve_B said:

I saw a paper on an actual study where they used one of these on test subjects. If I recall correctly, after using it as a "training tool", there was an increase in ventiallation rate (the amount of air that the athlete exchanges in/out of lungs) but no change in VO2max. It's available on PubMed somewhere but I'm too lazy and uninterested to dig it up.

From that:

I was always (OK, not always :o) of the opinion that to increase the amount of oxygen inhaled you don't need bigger lungs, you just need to breathe faster.🙂 Lungs have a tendency to provide more oxygen than you can handle. It seems to me that that is why when we struggle on some big climb we hyperventilate, but do not increase speed. The bottleneck is elsewhere to be found.

What organs make up the "engine" we all talk about?

frenchyge said:

That gives me an idea. What about using compressive cuffs to restrict blood flow through selected arteries? Resistance training for the heart!

Has anyone had success using this approach to increase VO2Max? 😄

My first cheap saddle restricted blood flow and caused numbness.
Not sure about my VO2Max but my speed increased as I rushed home to make sure things still worked.

I was a smoker for fifteen years and quit about two years ago and bought a bike. Climbs were hard but I didn't notice it too much until I started getting into triathlons and was really struggling to keep my breathing under control and regulated. My coach suggested I buy one of the powerbreathe machiney things three weeks ago. I've used ut since then and I didn't think it was doing much the first week but after that I felt like someone had taken a lid off my lungs. I am able to keep going without having those short sharp breaths. I would recommend it highly if that makes a difference.

hanniehoo said:

I was a smoker for fifteen years and quit about two years ago and bought a bike. Climbs were hard but I didn't notice it too much until I started getting into triathlons and was really struggling to keep my breathing under control and regulated. My coach suggested I buy one of the powerbreathe machiney things three weeks ago. I've used ut since then and I didn't think it was doing much the first week but after that I felt like someone had taken a lid off my lungs. I am able to keep going without having those short sharp breaths. I would recommend it highly if that makes a difference.

It looks odd to me when a new person shows up here and their very first post is a product promotion.........

I love a bit of healthy scepticism. I'm a long time reader and have never really had anything useful to say, so have never bothered to register.

hanniehoo said:

I love a bit of healthy scepticism. I'm a long time reader and have never really had anything useful to say, so have never bothered to register.

Sure.....like I haven`t heard that one before.

My lungs always give up long before my legs. I was considering one of these until I went to an ENT specialist last week. A quick look up the nostril with an endoscope revealed a heavily deviated septum severely restricting airflow on one side. "You hardly get any breath through your left nostril" he told me and now I'm down for a surgical consult in January. Yehaw! I've been trying to get something done about this for years. Maybe now I won't sound like I'm about to explode on the big climbs. I'll see how this goes but would still consider a powerbreathe as I too was a smoker years ago. I know you can't undo the damage but if it can help I'll give it a go.

Good luck with your surgery, I had similar surgery years ago as a kid and would like to say I remember it fondly, but......... 🙄

Yonni said:

My lungs always give up long before my legs. I was considering one of these until I went to an ENT specialist last week. A quick look up the nostril with an endoscope revealed a heavily deviated septum severely restricting airflow on one side. "You hardly get any breath through your left nostril" he told me and now I'm down for a surgical consult in January. Yehaw! I've been trying to get something done about this for years. Maybe now I won't sound like I'm about to explode on the big climbs. I'll see how this goes but would still consider a powerbreathe as I too was a smoker years ago. I know you can't undo the damage but if it can help I'll give it a go.

Just breathe out of your mouth? Besides in combat sports where breathing with your mouth open can leave you very suseptable to a KO,I see no reason to not just breath out of your mouth.My nose was shattered when I was 12 years old,and is even physically altered.I cant breath properly out of my nose so I am a "mouth breather"when I run/cycle,but I suppose if I had the money I might get it fixed,lol