Marathon man benefits from aerosure!

Olympian Dan Robinson has been using his aerosure vibrated breathing training device and this is what he has found:

Since using aerosure, the improvements in my lung function have been significant and I have found it a really useful and important training aid. As an endurance athlete, I am continually looking for ways to improve my racing and training performance and the aerosure has enabled me to get the maximum benefit from my training sessions. Regular use of aerosure has meant that when I get to the start line I am confident that I have covered all bases in training and will race well. I thoroughly recommend aerosure. All the best, Dan.

We have no doubt that Dan is the first of many elite performers who will benefit from regular aerosure training.

Low-cost Portable Altitude Simulator Nearly Here!

Coming soon, from London South Bank University, a low cost portable altitude simulator called Hybreathe. A small device that can be used at rest or during exercise, Hybreathe will bring al the benefits of altitude training to anyone who wants it, and not only the elite and wealthy.

Currently a market research survey is under way and prizes can be won by lucky respondents. Please visit www.hybreathe.com for a chance to win one of several youbreathes (a vibration respiratory training device), one of several Flexi-bar vibration training devices or Code13 t-shirts and hoodies.

To participate click here:

www.hybreathe.com

Respiratory muscle training

Respiratory Vibration Training

We have just had a research paper accepted this week, so everyone is on a bit of a high. The paper basically shows how youbreathe can increase respiratory muscle performance by 15% after just 10 breaths.

Here I have also included another article I have written about respiratory muscle training. Enjoy.

Respiratory Muscle Training

Research into respiratory muscle training has been ongoing since the 1970’s. However, results are conflicting most likely due to the different forms of training such as pressure-threshold training, voluntary hyperventilation and hypercapnic (increased CO2) hyperventilation; and the variety of outcome measures used……. These conflicting results have led to confusion as to whether there is any benefit to exercise performance from respiratory muscle training. There are now many devices on the market all promising to reduce your marathon time or increase your feelings of comfort during exercise such as Powerlung, Powerbreathe and Expand-a-lung. However, with technological advances and our increased scientific understanding, the current consensus of opinion is that respiratory muscle training does indeed help with exercise performance in healthy and clinical populations.

The mechanism of this effect seems to be two-fold :

1. An altered perception of breathing effort and exercise load, meaning that the exercise feels easier, this psychological effect shouldn’t be underestimated in fatiguing exercise!
2. A delayed metaboreflex, meaning that blood is not diverted from the skeletal to the respiratory muscles until higher exercise intesnities, allowing exercise at higher intensities to be maintained for longer (Romer & Dempsey, 2006).

Taken together these effects can be as large as a 4% increase in a 40Km cycling time-trial performance, which is substantial.

It has been demonstrated that acute (within 1 training session) vibration stimulation of exercising skeletal muscle enhances skeletal muscle activity and strength performance after 1 session (Mileva et al., 2006) and chronic training with superimposed vibration has been shown to increase strength up to 300% more than conventional strength training (Issurin et al., 1994). Vibration has also been applied to the respiratory musculature with demonstrable increases in respiratory nerve activity, reduced breathlessness in healthy humans and reduced breathlessness during exercise in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients (COPD; Fujie et al., 2002).

Until recently vibration had never been applied to a training device for the respiratory system, so we developed youbreathe, a hand-held device that applies rapid airway occlusions simulating vibration effects on the respiratory system. Preliminary results show that 10 breaths through youbreathe acutely augment breathing power by around 15%, compared to no augmentation after 10 breaths of breathing against matched resistance. These studies are under peer review currently and further work examining the long term training affect of continued use is under way.

Collaborations are also under way with clinical partners to assess the efficacy of youbreathe in complementing respiratory physiotherapy with youbreathe in cystic fibrosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients. We are testing the hypothesis that the percussive effects of youbreathe may facilitate the removal of mucus leading to improved respiratory function in these patients.

In summary, research into respiratory muscle training is now gaining real credibility, but we are still at the dawn of our understanding of vibration training. Many issue remain to be resolved such as the mechanism of action and appropriate vibration prescription for desired effects. The potential benefits of respiratory vibration have not yet been fully explored, however this new intervention offers exciting potential to scientists, athletes and patients alike. For more information on youbreathe please visit http://www.youbreathe.com/.

Click here for a deeper discussion of inspiratory and expiratory muscle training for coaches and athletes.

Click here for a discussion of breathing training in the tour de france.

Also click here for an excellent review of respiratory muscle training in COPD patients.

Vibration training slimming and weight loss

Hi,

This week I have done google searches for the effect of vibration training on slimming and weight (fat) loss and found hundreds of responses from all sorts of different companies promising slimming miracles if you go to their gym and stand on this platform for 10 minutes. Claims such as these are some of the promises made:

Helps Reduce Cellulite
Clears Lymph glands
Exercises & Oxygenates the entire body
Slims, Tones, and increases flexibility
Stimulates Human Growth Hormones
Reverse Osteoporosis
Feels Wonderful, Like a Deep Massage
Stimulates Serotonin (Happy Hormone)
Gently re-aligns organs
Clears Lymph glands
Reduces cortisol
Increases circulation

But no-one ever backs up their claims with results.

Lets look at the evidence for vibration and slimming. Well as far as I can see there are only two studies that have examined the effects of whole body vibration training and fat loss, and the results are contradictory. The first study was conducted in non-active females. This study compared whole body vibration with conventional training and found vibration to be slightly superior in terms of strength. There was also a slight increase lean mass (fat-free mass) with the vibration training. But there was no effects of any of the training on fat loss (which is a little strange and needs repeating I think). The other study was conducted in physically active men and compared squatting with and without vibration. The results from this suggest that adding vibration did increase the energy demand of the exercise, which seems reasonable to me as recruitment muscle patterns would change and efficiency would be reduced with vibration.


Vibrex from Exoscience


So far we have discussed the potential benefits of whole body vibration on slimming, but vibration has been applied to the respiratory system also, and preliminary results suggest that youbreathe reduces cortisol and increases growth hormone. Further studies are underway to examine these effects as they could promote fat loss.

So, vibration does look to have potential for slimming, but the studies have not been done properly or in enough volume to draw conclusions. I hope we can change this at London South Bank where we are now investigating the physics, biomechanics, physiology and neuroscience of whole body and targeted vibration training.
Of course the key to slimming and fat loss is increasing metabolic rate and controlling diet. Now if vibration training helps users to keep going to the gym then that can only be a good thing.

One more thing we need to add to this discussion is the effects of growth hormone release on fat loss, but I can save that for next time.

Vibration training support

Hi,

This week I have been continuing my work into the effects of youbreathe on respiratory strength and power, the results are looking ever more exciting with gains of about 15% after just 10 breaths of youbreathe use vs no increase with 10 breaths of resistance. We will be continuing these studies and I will update you when they are finished.

Also we are continuing our research into how youbreathe can be applied to respiratory therapy in conditions such as cystic fibrosis or any condition where excess mucus is a problem. Because youbreathe provides pulses to the respiratory system we believe that it can be used to release excess mucus that would normally require chest physiotherapy. When we start getting the full results through I will keep you updated.

Another thing more generally I would like to talk about is to talk about personal trainers. Lots of personal trainers are now jumping on the vibration training bandwagon before we have a full understanding of the effects of vibration training on performance. But I recommend if you want to include vibration training in your training programme, you sould find someone who knows their stuff. There are still no independent qualifications for personal trainers to take, so I would advise contacting a University who research vibration training such as the Human Performance Centre at London South Bank University or a personal training company like Home Health Fitness (http://www.homehealthfitness.com) who are all University graduates and are applying vibration training in a controlled manner supported by University Research.