This question of the effect of RMT on sports performance is discussed in many sport actually. Reading this thread is funny cos it is not easy for a non specialist to recognize how qualifyed is the author of a message.
So on when I read "Elite athletes and the general UWH community already are training these muscles so the improvement would be nowhere near the 33% the article claims"
or
Quote:
Originally Posted by Duck  But what sort of training were they doing before that to help with their breathing? I would guess none, or very close to it, so of course they are going to improve. And when you use the right tool you get the job done faster so with the resistence training they reached a higher level faster. The Elite UWH players I know do sprint underwaters, duration underwaters, drops where you go down and push everything out so that you are standing on the bottom as fully exhaled as you can, use diaphragm breathing with slow and full inhales and exhales, and also play games |
I have doubt on the physiological background of the coach.
So on, the point of all those studies is to sort out the effect of an improvement of the Inspiratory muscle strenght (IMS) on the performance. It is well recognized now that RMT improves this factor if the stimulation is important enough.
What is sure is that UWH player so as Elite athletes can improve their IMS because they don't train this quality in their activity. Duck, when you sprint underwater you don't use your scalene or your scm.
so on, recent studies showed a very little improvement in the performance in sport like rowing, cyclism or running without behing able to understand why. (also many expriences show no improvement at all)
a good option for explanation is the decrease of dyspnae.
the question now is : is dyspnae a limitating factor in uwh perf?