POWERbreathe is soon to launch the Kinetic series, the latest in their line of inspiratory muscle training devices, and the world's first portable electronic inspiratory muscle training and monitoring system. In the late 1990s, Professor Alison McConnell of Brunel University recognized that the inspiratory or breathing muscles, like any other muscle in the body, were subject to fatigue and therefore limiters of exercise performance. She found however, that the breathing muscles responded well to resistance training, quickly increasing their strength, power and endurance. Based on her positive research findings, Professor McConnell created a company to commercialize her POWERbreathe inspiratory muscle training device and launched the first Classic series in 2001.
POWERbreathe has been nicknamed dumbbells for the diaphragm since it makes the breathing muscles work harder to improve their strength and endurance. Inspiratory muscle training is the effect of resistance training acting on the muscles used to inhale, making you work harder to breath in. Called Pressure Threshold Training, breathing through the device involves inhaling against a pressure load and has been shown to be more effective than simple flow resistive training (breathing through a tiny hole).
The POWERbreathe Kinetic series uses the patented Auto-Optimizing Technology to automatically adapt to increases in inspiratory muscles strength. The training resistance is specifically adjusted to match the dynamic changes in breathing muscle strength throughout the breath as well as the increases in inspiratory muscle strength at the start of each new session. The Kinetic series uses an LCD menu system for navigating between different settings and viewing of your inspiratory muscle training results.
I would love to chat with Professor McDonnell or anyone studying inspiratory muscle training about correlations with altitude and particularly HAPE. I got HAPE while climbing Kilimanjaro last summer and am a slow acclimatizer generally. The question is- by using POWERbreathe as part of a workout routine, would inspiratory muscle training help climbers or anyone heading to altitude in acclimatizing better?
