| Those readers interested in strength training have | | | | More recently preliminary evidence suggests that the |
| surely come across kettle bell training and the other | | | | same effects can be created by utilising a vibrated |
| methods advocated by Pavel Tsatsouline in his many | | | | breathing training device (youbreathe, Exoscience, UK). |
| books. But as a respiratory physiologist the one | | | | 10 powerful breaths through a youbreathe device led |
| method I became interested in was power breathing | | | | to similar hormonal response to that described above |
| that Pavel refers to, citing Professor Zatsiorsky as the | | | | except that cortisol was significantly reduced (which is |
| creator of this breathing method to improve strength. | | | | a very good thing as cortisol is a stress hormone and |
| So I decided to do a bit of searching about to see | | | | too much cortisol can lead to health problems). |
| what scientific basis this method had, and found only 1 | | | | Additionally there were increases in strength seen |
| paper with evidence to support the claims made (as a | | | | after youbreathe use in the small number of subjects |
| side note I have actually tried the power breath | | | | tested. |
| method and found it to be very effective). | | | | Initially this seems to be strange as there would appear |
| The study was carried out by Dr Djarova and | | | | to be no link between the breathing muscles and the |
| colleagues in Bulgaria and they compared | | | | other skeletal muscles, but Turner and colleagues |
| hyperventilation (breathing too deeply and quickly) only, | | | | demonstrated that stimulating the breathing muscles |
| breath holding only and hyperventilation and breath | | | | with a breathing resistance can alter the recruitment of |
| holding combined. The results demonstrate that the | | | | leg and arm muscles. The mechanism of this action |
| breathing maneuvers employed led to and increase in | | | | appears to be communication between the breathing |
| growth hormone by up to 5-fold and an increase in | | | | nerves and the skeletal nerves in the spinal cord. |
| cortisol of up to 2-fold. They attribute this hormonal | | | | If we think more deeply about breathing, we realise it is |
| response to a generalised stress response caused by | | | | fundamental to everything else we do, so it is vitally |
| extreme breathing maneuvers. Imagine choking and | | | | important that breathing is connected at every level of |
| the stress you feel, well this response is similar to that | | | | control to all other actions. Maybe we are only at the |
| and wouldn't be recommended for people with | | | | start of using the breath to increase our performance |
| cardiovascular disease or blood pressure problems. | | | | in everything else we do. |