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Boosting lung power - the key to athletic success

August 05, 2002

As the England team celebrates success in the Commonwealth Games, UK scientists are developing new technologies that could further boost athletes' performances by training their breathing muscles.

The muscles that draw air into our lungs are crucial to ensuring that the rest of the body receives a good supply of oxygen-rich blood - yet these muscles are largely ignored in training programmes.

The research is led by Dr Mike Caine, a Sports Technology Lecturer at Loughborough University, with funding from the Swindon based Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

One of the prototype devices invented by the team was used by a trialist for the UK swimming team for the Commonwealth Games with positive results.

"Athletes preparing for big performances currently cannot train their breathing muscles as best they might," says Dr Caine. "If the breathing muscles start to fatigue, this has a knock-on effect on the muscles of the legs or arms."

The main muscles responsible for drawing air into the lungs are the diaphragm and the intercostal muscles between the ribs. To make these more powerful they need to be loaded in some way. One technique is an adaptation of a method used for patients who have breathing problems. The user breathes through a hand-held device with a mouthpiece and valve, which provides resistance upon inhalation.

"While it is possible to increase the strength of the inspiratory muscles by 30 or 40 per cent in this way, it is not ideal for training an athlete," says Dr Caine. "It is important that the loading on the breathing muscles is applied while the actual exercise - swimming, or running or rowing, for example - is taking place. For this reason a hand-held device cannot be used."

The Loughborough team has taken two approaches to the problem. The first is to directly load the chest muscles. The team has invented what they are calling a 'RespiVest' - a garment that the athlete wears around the chest. The vest has a number of elasticated arms, which squeeze the chest, restricting its expansion.

The second device fits over the athlete's mouth and has an automatically controllable valve to apply variable resistance upon inhalation, depending on the 'strength' of the breath. While this is more finely tailored to the user's own breathing patterns than the vest, it needs to be packaged in such a way to make it easy for the training athlete to wear.

"Hopefully by the end of the project we will have developed devices which will be able to improve the performance of athletes," says Dr Caine. "And who knows - by the next Commonwealth Games we might win even more gold medals!"

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)