[Closed] Powerbreathe any one use one?

Anyone on the day shift?

http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/forum/general-running/any-one-use-a-powerbreathe/186734.html

There's a few research papers on PubMed. One suggests that it *might* be useful for people with already-weakened respiratory ability, but there's no point in them being used by athletes.

One of the references is to a "paper" written by the woman behind PowerBreathe - discount that one - it's not peer-reviewed. She has no published material that relates to the product.

The second reference is available, in full, [url= http://jap.physiology.org/content/104/3/879.full ]here[/url]. It refers to patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. It also says this:

Studies that have specifically trained the respiratory muscles have reported either an improvement or no change in whole body exercise tolerance. A concern with all of these studies, however, is that endurance performance was evaluated using fixed work-rate tasks sustained to the limit of tolerance. Such tests do not accurately represent competitive endurance performance and are often unreliable. Another concern is that many of these studies have used small sample sizes. Unreliable performance tests, combined with small sample sizes, may explain in part why some studies have found improvements in exercise tolerance but failed to achieve statistical significance. In addition, most of the studies have not used a placebo group, rendering the findings difficult to interpret.

So, probably snake oil then, unless you already have a pre-existing medical condition, in which case see a doctor.

I got suckered into buying one at the London marathon expo once. They are an absolute crock.

I had one, used it a bit then sold it on ebay.

If ever there was a candidate for being sold in Lakeland, which is a shop full of solutions looking for a problem, this is it. Waste of money, just like those nose-expanding clip thingies.

Also see - balance holograms and kinesio tape. Numpties will always buy crap.