Scientists studying the health benefits of certain high-resistance breathing training have published a new study demonstrating how it can enhance our athletic performance. This technique has also been shown to improve certain aspects of metabolism when practiced daily, and researchers suggest that it may help move people towards a more active lifestyle.
The technology at the heart of this study, known as High Resistance Inspiratory Strength Training (IMST), emerged in the 1980s as a way to treat patients with respiratory illness. The idea is to create resistance that strengthens the user’s diaphragm and other respiratory muscles by inhaling briefly through a handheld device that inhales air in the opposite direction.
Previously it was a 30-minute session, but last year we obtained some promising results from a survey of just a 5-minute session. The study shows that, when practiced daily, these short breathing exercises can lead to a sharp drop in blood pressure and improved cardiovascular health, with some benefits persisting after the training program is over. I did.
This new study by researchers in the same group explored ways to use IMST to improve exercise tolerance in middle-aged and older people. Scientists enrolled 35 adults over the age of 50 and placed them in either a high resistance training group or a low resistance control group. Both groups were tasked with using the respiratory system for about 5 minutes a day for 6 weeks.
After the program was completed, the high resistance group showed a 12% improvement in time to treadmill wear test, but the performance of the low resistance control group did not change. According to Kaitlin Freeberg, a principal investigator at the University of Colorado at Boulder, scientists also observed changes in the levels of 18 different metabolites in the highly resistant group.
Scientists see IMST’s daily 5-minute session as a potential way to make exercise more attractive and ultimately to promote a healthier lifestyle among middle-aged and older adults. ..
“Developing new forms of physical training that enhances adherence and improves physical function is the key to reducing the risk of chronic aging-related illnesses,” says Freenerg. “Highly tolerant IMST may be one such strategy to promote adherence in middle-aged and elderly people and improve multiple factors of health.”
Researchers are presenting their work at the American Physiological Society’s annual Experimental Biology 2022 Conference this week.
Source: American Physiological Society
