Breathing pattern during load and its change due to the interventional program of breathing exercise

Abstract

Purpose: Correct breathing pattern in resting breathing is connected to the overall physical health, whereas the breathing pattern affects the performance in endurance sports. The prin-ciple of breathing economy consists primarily of the involvement of diaphragm as the main breathing muscle. The paper is engaged in the breathing stereotype in resting breathing and breathing under load. The objective of our paper is to verify whether it is possible to influence breathing stereotype by applying a two-month intervention breathing program. Methods: The paper examines changes in the resting breathing stereotype and the breathing stereotype during load in adolescent, healthy runners. Twenty participants took part in the intervention. They underwent initial and final tests of the breathing stereotype at rest and in submaximal load. Eleven of them were members of an experimental group and the remaining nine constituted a control group. The experimental group included seven boys at the age of 16.1 ± 1.3, with height 173.2 ± 6.5 cm and weight 56.8 ± 4.6 kg, and four girls at the age of 16.5 ± 0.5, with height 161.7 ± 3.1 cm and weight 54.3 ± 2.3 kg. The breathing stereotype was measured using muscle dynamometer MD03 before and during a indirect calorimetry test conducted on a bicycle ergometer. The data obtained were evaluated in terms of sub-stantive (Cohen’s d) and statistical significance (α = 0.05). Results: The breathing intervention resulted in positive changes in the breathing stereotype at rest and under load. At rest, the engagement of the abdominal segment increased by 16.2%, that of the thoracic segment and subclavian segment decreased by 3.6% and 12.6%, respectively, when compared to the initial test. In the submaximal load, the engagement of the abdominal segment increased by 4%, and there was a decrease by 2% for both the tho-racic and subclavian segments in comparison to the initial test. The control group showed no significant changes in the engagement of the individual segments of breathing muscles. Conclusion: Our results has proved that a two-month interventional program of breathing ex-ercises, aimed at activation of the diaphragm and other breathing regions, has a substantial influence on the breathing stereotype both at rest and in the submaximal load.