When training with your POWERbreathe Inspiratory Muscle Training (IMT) Classic or Plus device, you will notice that you have to work harder to breathe in. This is the effect of resistance training acting on the muscles you use to inhale – primarily the diaphragm and rib cage muscles. However, when breathing out, there is no resistance and you can exhale normally, allowing the chest and breathing muscles to relax, naturally pushing the air from your lungs. IMT – A Complementary Breathing Exercise You may be aware of certain breathing techniques, such as those practised in yoga, that promote the use of nasal breathing. Although POWERbreathe IMT requires you to breathe in through your mouth as opposed to your nose, it follows similar principles and will allow additional improvements in breathing strength and control. POWERbreathe IMT, therefore, complements these breathing techniques. POWERbreathe IMT Breathing Training Protocol The laboratory-proven POWERbreathe inspiratory muscle training regime of 30 breaths, twice a day, takes only a few minutes. To make sure you get the most from your training, it is worth taking the time to get used to the breathing technique, as well as, finding the right training level for you. The Inhale Standing or sitting upright, with your POWERbreathe IMT device in your mouth, breathe out as much as you can. Then, take a fast, forceful breath in through your mouth. Take in as much air as you can, as quickly as you can, straightening your back and expanding your chest. Watch this demonstration for How To Perform The Correct Breathing Technique For POWERbreathe IMT. The Exhale Next, breathe out slowly and passively through your mouth until your lungs are empty, letting the muscles in your chest and shoulders relax. Pause until you feel the urge to breathe again. Repeat this exercise until you feel confident about breathing through the POWERbreathe IMT device. Make sure not to pant – if you do, you may start to feel light-headed. If this does happen, slow down and pause at the end of your breath out. Using The Nose Clip The nose clip will help you to breathe through your mouth rather than your nose. However, it is not essential and some people find it more comfortable to train without the nose clip. Put the nose clip on so that it pushes your nostrils together. Now, with the nose clip on, practise taking a forceful breath in, followed by breathing out slowly and fully. When you are comfortable with the breathing technique, you can start to find the right training level for you. Finding Your Correct Training Level Before finding your correct training level, try to complete 30 breaths at level 0, using the breathing method described above. Don’t worry if you’re unable to complete 30 breaths in one attempt, immediately. Everyone is different, and building up your breathing muscles can take time. This will help you to achieve the best breathing technique for getting the most from your inspiratory muscle training. Take a quick, deep breath in through the device on the lowest setting. If this is easy, increase the resistance by half a turn on the dial, using the load adjustment. If you can still manage to take a good, strong inhalation, increase the resistance by half a turn again. When you reach a point where you cannot open the valve to breathe in through the device, then the load on your inhalation is too much and you need to reduce the resistance. You have reached the point of failure. At this point, reduce the load with a half-turn of the load adjustment and start your 30-breath training session at that level. Aim to complete 30 breaths, twice a day – once in the morning and once in the evening, leaving about 6 hours between each training session for recovery. When you can easily manage 30 breaths at that level, use the load adjustment to increase the load by a quarter turn. This improvement is a result of your inspiratory muscles becoming stronger. Find out more about How the POWERbreathe IMT device works. How To Find Your Correct Training Level On The POWERbreathe Plus How To Find Your Correct Training Level On The POWERbreathe Classic Maintaining Your Breathing Strength & Stamina After four to six weeks of training, your breathing muscles should have improved substantially and you should feel less breathless during activity. At this stage, you will not need to use your POWERbreathe IMT device every day to maintain your improved breathing. Instead, using your POWERbreathe IMT device twice every other day will be sufficient to continue to enjoy reduced breathlessness and improved exercise performance. When you are entirely comfortable with the POWERbreathe training technique, you could try combining the benefits of POWERbreathe IMT with exercise in an ActiBreathe workout. ActiBreathe Mini Workout Monitor Your Progress An easy way of tracking your training progress is to keep a Training Diary. By comparing your training load at the start of your training with subsequent training sessions, you will see how well you’re progressing. The difference in load setting is an indication of how much stronger your breathing muscles are.
Hi, The video is for exhaling into the device but all the other information states it’s for practising inhaling. Which is it? Many thanks Reply
The Classic and Plus series of IMT devices are inspiratory muscle training devices, so the training effect takes place on the inhale, as demonstrated in the videos. We only refer to the exhale, to demonstrate how you should simply exhale through the device as normal. Reply
Hi, I have seen a couple of people ask similar questions above, but I’ve not yet seen a really clear / definitive response to this yet – I’m hoping you can clarify what the breath should ‘look like’ when setting the resistance. When you take the fast breath in, should it be: 1. A ‘full breath’, meaning that it’s absolutely impossible to take in any more air? 2. A ‘meaningful breath’ in which you feel that your lungs have inflated, but it may still be possible to take in a little more air at a slower pace? Like another commenter states, above, at some settings it’s possible to breathe in fast and feel that your lungs are almost full, but then continue breathing in at a much reduced rate. Is this a good level to stay it, or does it indicate that the level should be reduced slightly? Thanks, Reply
Hi Zesty, and thank you for getting in touch. The idea is to breathe in as much air as you can. It should be a full-to-the-brim breath in so that you feel like you cannot breathe in anymore. There’s a short demonstration of this by my colleague here. We are actually in the process of filming some new demonstrations; one of which is how to breathe in correctly for inspiratory muscle training. It’s being filmed this month, so it will probably be available sometime in August, on our YouTube channel. Regarding training levels, it does sound like you may need to go down a level, because it is better to get the breathing technique right, to elicit the benefits, rather than use a poor technique that won’t be as effective. It’s like like other forms of weight training. If you feel the breathing load you’ve set (i.e. the ‘weight’ you are lifting) is compromising your technique (for example, you start to use the accessory muscles in your neck or raise your shoulders while breathing in through your device), then you need to lower your resistance/training level. When you feel you’re no longer compromising your breathing technique, ask yourself if you could perform more repetitions of inspirations. If the answer is no, continue training at that level. If you could continue for a few more than 30 inspirations, then increase the resistance by a quarter turn. It’s this progressive overload with a good technique where you’ll achieve gains in your breathing strength and stamina. Reply
I would like to know what is the meaning of 100 cmH2O. which power breath device offers this amount of resistance. Reply
Thank you for your enquiry Fozan. cmH2O is short for ‘centimeters of water’. This is the unit of pressure most commonly used to measure breathing on respirators and ventilators. It is also used for monitoring athletic performance and controlling respiratory conditions in medical and physiological applications. You can find out more about this, and the levels for each of the POWERbreathe Classic and Plus models here. The POWERbreathe Classic Medium Resistance (MR) has a variable load setting of 10 – 170 cmH2O and the POWERbreathe Plus Medium Resistance (MR) has a variable load setting range: 23 – 186 cmH2O. Reply
I’ve been using the PowerBreathe for a week now and I’ve noticed that at the very end of an inhalation it slows down sharply and I can’t quite fill my lungs without straining and it goes very slowly. Is this normal? Should I strive to finish or should I just exhale and proceed with the next breath when I reach that point? Reply
Hi Chris and thank you for your enquiry. Please could you send an email explaining your problem and letting us know which model of POWERbreathe you have, as this will help to determine what’s going on. The email address is [email protected] Many thanks. Reply
Hello Kip and thank you for your enquiry. Because we recommend using the nose clip when performing your inspiratory muscle training (to ensure you don’t partially breathe in through your nose when breathing in through the device), breathing out through your mouth is the best way, as you don’t need to keep removing the nose clip. However, if you prefer not to wear the nose clip, then you can breathe out through either your nose or mouth, with the device in your mouth or without (to reduce saliva build-up). Because the Classic and Plus are inspiratory muscle training devices, the most important thing is how you breathe in. So you can breathe out in the way that is most comfortable for you. But, in order to take a deep breath in, you do need to fully breathe out first, and this is best done by breathing out through your mouth 😉 We hope this is helpful Kip. Reply
“With each training session, continue to increase the load until a setting is achieved that allows you to complete only 30 breaths.” “Eventually, you will reach a point where it may be possible to open the valve, but not possible to take a meaningful breath. Stop at this point, as this is your training level.” I do not understand these, seemingly conflicting, instructions. Am I supposed to find a setting at which I can just, barely, reach 30 and train at that setting until 30 gets easy? Or, am I supposed to find a setting where I reach the point of not being able to take a breath at some point less than 30 and work my way up to 30 from there? I think I have also read elsewhere that the time to move up a level is when I can easily reach 33. Reply
Hmm, yes, I see what you mean. I think we’ll need to re-word this. I think the best way of finding your starting level, is to take a deep, quick inhalation on a level and if you can do it, move up a whole level. If you can still manage a good inhalation, move up another level. If at this point you cannot open the valve to breathe in through the device, then the load is too much. At this point, reduce the load by a half-turn of the load adjuster knob and start there. Then, when you can easily manage 30 breaths at that level, turn the load adjuster know a quarter turn to slightly increase the load. Reply
Do I have to leave the power breathe in my mouth throughout the 30 in and out breaths or can I briefly remove it from my mouth. Reply
Hi Megan. It’s personal preference really. You can leave it in your mouth as you exhale, but some people prefer to remove it while they breathe out as it produces less saliva. Reply
I think that this blog gives a nicer explanation than the instructions that come with the PowerBreathe. If I recall, the instructions say you must be able to do 30 full breathes. This is a bit confusing since a “full breath” can be interpreted differently. When I am doing static apnea (full lungs breathhold) training, I have to inhale as much as possible, to the point it’s not possible to get any more air into the lungs (unless using “packing”). To me, a “full breath” is something like this. However, I doubt it would be possible to have such a full breath through PowerBreathe Classic/Plus even at moderate resistance. It’s also clear from the comparison of the K-series and the Classic/Plus devices. On the latter, the valve closes before a “full breath” can be performed, while the K-series gradually reduces the load, allowing to inhale further. So this blog posts confirms my suspicion, that with PB Classic/Plus we are looking to achieve “meaningful, fast and strong breaths in” (quite well put) rather than “full lung breaths”. The level I’m training at, I’m able to inhale some significant amount of air fast and strong. If I then remove the device from my mouth, I can breathe in quite a bit more, so that breath was not the maximum volume my lungs can hold, but it’s still a meaningful breath. I can use this amount of air to, for example, inflate a balloon to some significant level. Reply
Oh my goodness that’s so well put Gene, and thank you for your comments regarding the instructions in this blog. We thought this might be helpful as it’s not possible to include so much detail in a user manual that needs to serve so many different languages at the same time. Your comments will be helpful I’m sure to many people. Thank you! Reply
How do I know what the right setting is? For instance, if I use a setting where I can fully inflate my lungs, is that too easy? For now I am using a setting a bit beyond that and I can’t quite get a full breath using the Plus. Reply
Hello Orieri and thank you for your comment. I have edited the blog in order to explain this better, so I hope it is more helpful now. Basically, if the first training session felt very easy, increase the load by one level for the second training session of the day. With each training session, continue to increase the load until a setting is achieved that allows you to complete only 30 breaths. Remember, you must inhale as fast as possible against the load, and exhale in a slow and relaxed manner. Eventually, you will reach a point where it may be possible to open the valve, but not possible to take a meaningful breath. Stop at this point, as this is your training level. Continue training at this level until you can easily complete 30 breaths again. I hope this helps. Reply
Vanessa 17th Apr 2024 POWERbreathe IMT Training Protocol The POWERbreathe IMT training protocol for Inspiratory Muscle Training is backed by solid science from both sports and clinical fields. […] Read More Guides and Tips
Vanessa 19th Mar 2024 Why Train Your Breathing: The Key to Unlocking Athletic Performance Re-worked from the original article, written by Duncan Kerr, 2017 Breathing. It’s automatic, fundamental, and often overlooked. But why should […] Read More Fitness and Sport | Guides and Tips
Vanessa 05th Feb 2024 Breathing Training – Back to Basics A holistic approach to health and fitness continues to grow, year after year. And in 2024, high on the list […] Read More Guides and Tips
