Benefits For Uniformed Services

POWERbreathe Inspiratory Muscle Training (IMT) can help with breathing issues in the workplace. These may include the challenges placed on the breathing muscles by breathing apparatus, such as that used by people in the Fire Service or in certain other occupations where breathing apparatus may be required. Furthermore, POWERbreathe IMT can reduce the breathing effort required when wearing protective clothing such as that used by the Police Force.

Research 2000 – 2020

• Where respiratory muscle fatigue is prevalent in activities that necessitate load carriage such as trekking, mountaineering and occupational tasks, as found following load carriage in cold-hypoxic environments, IMT programmes can be implemented to improve the absolute strength of the inspiratory muscles. (2019. Used POWERbreathe Classic.)
• Functional training of the inspiratory muscles improves load carriage performance. (2019)
• Research found that soldier load carriage caused an inefficient breathing pattern, respiratory muscle fatigue and expiratory flow limitation during marching. (2019)
• Inspiratory muscle training improves exercise capacity with thoracic load carriage. (2018)
• Training the inspiratory muscles improves running performance when carrying a 25 kg thoracic load in a backpack. (2015)
• Thoracic load carriage-induced respiratory muscle fatigue. (2014)

Research 1990 – 2000

• Research has shown that the metabolic demands of exercise increase when increased loads are carried: Study 1 (1978); Study 2 (1982)
• Inspiratory muscle training (IMT), can reduce air use during SCBA wear exercise by approximately 9% (Donovan K., and McConnell A., (1999), “Fire-fighters’ Self-contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA): The Effects of Inspiratory Muscle Training (IMT) during Fire- Fighting Simulations in the Laboratory,” Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Ergonomics Society, M.A. Hanson (Ed), 7th-9th April, Leicester, UK.)
• IMT improved breathing conditions in people with physically demanding occupational situations where breathing demand is raised or where breathing apparatus is used, such as the Armed Forces, Police Force and Fire Service (Donovan K., and McConnell A., 1999)
• IMT Improved inspiratory muscle strength by 31.2% (1998)
• IMT Improved inspiratory muscle endurance by 27.8% (1998)
• IMT reduced heart rate (Donovan K., and McConnell A., 1999)
• IMT reduced the rate of air use from the breathing cylinder used by firefighters (increasing wear time by around 1.5 min from a 15 min cylinder) (Donovan K., and McConnell A., 1999)
• IMT increased time to exhaustion during a standard laboratory treadmill test