Review: The Airofit Pro Breathing Trainer Has Potential, But It Isn't Perfect

Jun 1, 2022
by Matt Wragg  
St Laurent de Touet France 2021. Photo by Matt Wragg.


We all know how important breathing is. Try holding your breath for five minutes if you need a reminder of its importance. Yet how many of us take time to actually think about our breathing when we exercise?

As children, breathing is the first thing we work out how to do when we play sports. I still clearly remember my first cross country run at primary school. Nobody had ever explained to me about managing my effort and halfway around I got a stitch; my body was demanding more air than my lungs could take in, resulting in a burning pain in my side. I can’t have been more than 8 or 9 years old, but the memory of being the only kid who had to walk half the race stays with me.
Airofit Details
• Only takes 5-10 minutes per day
• 45 day moneyback guarantee
• 2 year warranty
• Made in Denmark
• MSRP: 299 Euros
airofit.com

Modern athletes are familiar with splitting training down into specific blocks - maybe they lift weight for strength or head out on long rides for endurance - it is so common it hardly needs explaining. Yet how often do you hear people talking about the most fundamental part of your performance? How many of us train our breathing?

A quick Google search for “breathing training” mainly brings up results for dealing with anxiety and stress, or lung conditions like COPD, with little mention of sports. Which is odd, especially as there is emerging science that shows breathing exercises alone can help boost not only your athletic performance, but your general health too.

Description

Airofit are one of the first companies to recognise the potential of breath training, and created this eponymous device.

At its most basic, the Airofit is a T-shaped assembly with a mouthpiece attached to a small barrel with vents at either end. On each of the vents is a bevelled wheel that lets you increase or decrease the resistance for the passing air.

When you breathe into the Airofit the small computer mounted on the barrel controls which of the vents opens and relays information about the volume and speed of the air to its app. The idea is that by opening and closing the vents to restrict airflow you are making the lungs work harder and therefore training them.

When you switch the device on, the app takes you through a lung test to measure the force and volume you can inhale and exhale with. It then selects a training session based on those numbers and your recent training. Airofit make a big deal of how convenient it is - at present it is setting me a 30-second lung test, a 3-minute inhale exercise and a 3-4 minute secondary exercise to complement that. They say that you should be able to fit it into your day in 3-10 minutes.

St Laurent de Touet France 2021. Photo by Matt Wragg.

Using the Airofit

Before we go too deep into this review, it needs to be said up front that I believe that the Airofit does exactly what they claim it does. I would go as far as to describe its results as impressive, after just a couple of weeks of use I could feel improvements in my lung performance and have the data to support what I felt. It does offer a level of performance enhancement above and beyond what I have found until now - I have been doing the Wim Hof breathing exercises since January and I would say that the gains from the Airofit are more definite.

Opening the box, my first impression of the Airofit was actually one of disappointment. I have tested a few performance-enhancing devices recently - like the similarly priced Oura ring - and it is not manufactured to the same standard. Oura have clearly invested a lot of time and effort to make their rings desirable, while the Airofit feels functional. That is not to say it feels cheap or poorly-made, but by setting themselves a €300 price tag they are creating expectations that they are not matching for me. If the device sold for €50, then this paragraph would read very differently.

My sensitivity to the device cost was heightened when I realised that part of the app requires a supplemental subscription - another €6 per month. Maybe it is my personal sensibilities, but I tend to feel that you can either do a subscription service or a high unit price, not both. Although, maybe if they unlocked the advanced data fields in the app and rebranded the service as personalised training, then it might feel better.


photo
Before training each day the app runs a lung test to calibrate the difficulty of the session.
photo
Progress from training is easy to see in the data and feel on the bike.


Loading the app for the first time, again the experience was not fantastic - it feels basic and a little low quality next to the other apps I use regularly for training and health. The explanation videos felt rather jarring and not fully integrated into the app and the programme of exercises a little disorientating. The part I find consistently off-putting is the “compliance” score in the top right. Even though I am trying my hardest to follow the exercise, the score frustratingly drops every time. For a lab experiment, compliance may well be a precise term, but for a consumer product, it feels rather harsh.

The exercises themselves are quite intense. The beginner level exercises I was prescribed feel like I have been working, even after just a couple of minutes of restricted airflow. Curiosity lead me to try an intermediate workout and I could not finish it, it was just brutal. Don’t get me wrong, brutal can have its place in a training programme, but it needs to be thought through. For the past few months I have been following Wim Hof’s breathing exercises consistently, and it can get brutal at times with the long breath holds, but he understood that there needs to be some payoff - after finishing Wims exercises I feel wonderful. The Airofit doesn’t seem to have any kind of payback - it is just hard work.

Then there is the final kicker - convenience. Training is not an elegant affair - the device comes out of your mouth covered in saliva, it is reasonably gross. The problem is what do you do with the device after training? It arrives in a mesh sack, which is not an ideal material for keeping saliva inside. I would take the idea of convenience to mean that you can train where and when suits you, but how can you do that if you cannot easily carry it with you? A hard, plastic carry case would have solved all this, and for the €300 asking price, I find it unforgivable that they have not addressed this issue.

Airofit's Reponse
bigquotesThe Airofit PRO device is manufactured in Denmark and produced from medically approved plastic, which follows strict quality regulations in terms of its processing and coating. Therefore, the final design of the breathing trainer gets a robust and functional appearance.

In the app we have had most focus on the functions and the results. The average users are able to get 90+ % compliance in most training sessions after 4 to 8 weeks and may not ever be at 100%. The training will also be adjusted to your current lung function and the difficulty level will be re-adjusted as you get stronger. We have many people feeling multiple levels of payback from using the Airofit, a quick look at the reviews on Trustpilot will show that it’s individual - but sometimes it’s just hard :-). We are working on adjusting the sessions and programs in all our updates and finding the right balance between maintaining motivation, pushing for results and showing benefits.

As a young scale-up company with 2 years in the market, at Airofit we are sure that the next few years and plenty of customer feedback, will help us make Breathing Training an integrated part of a healthy lifestyle for all - but we can always improve. All things aside - Airofit PRO is the first smart breathing trainer of its kind and both the Breathing Trainer and App are in their first and second generation - so we see endless opportunities to make it better along the journey that we have in front of us.”
.



Pros

+ Relatively quick and impressive results
+ Huge potential for changing general health, not just sport
+ Discrete
+ Hard training sessions

Cons

- Expensive - high initial cost and subscription
- App feels a little basic
- Messy
- Hard training sessions




Pinkbike's Take

bigquotes
The idea and the technology behind Airofit are fantastic - my results suggest that restricting your airflow can yield noticeable performance benefits quickly. Yet this poses a deeper question: is pure performance enough in a device like this? I would argue no. In the end, I found myself using the Airofit way less than I should have because I did not enjoy using it. Certainly it does not feel like great value for money, the exercises are frustrating and I end up with saliva all over the place. Airofit need to think about how they present their technology, because I do believe the potential is there. If they refine the product or rethink their pricing structure I will be at the front of the queue for version 2.0. 
Matt Wragg


Author Info:
mattwragg avatar

Member since Oct 29, 2006
753 articles

139 Comments
  • 296 1
 Can you get a leather strap to hold it in place? Asking for a friend.
  • 31 0
 ...that app can remotely control "exercise intensity", right?....
  • 97 0
 The exercises were supposed to take 3-10 minutes but I finished them in less than 30 seconds
  • 9 2
 ... and a (Product)Red version of it with the leather strap?
  • 7 9
 And comment of the year goes to...
  • 9 0
 We need more photos. I couldn't see where the amyl nitrate goes.
  • 23 1
 just wait til the fart training version comes out.
  • 2 0
 Different versions based on level of experience with this form of training?
  • 2 0
 lmao....priceless. thank you
  • 3 0
 send pics...
  • 3 2
 Toooooooooo funny! Pictures of pulp fiction from this comment. Bring in the gimp!
  • 1 0
 @enduroelite: hahaha, savage af.
  • 58 0
 Re this bit: "I could feel improvements in my lung performance and have the data to support what I felt"

That data would really add to this review. E.g. did you do FTP tests before and after and what sort of change did you see? How did it alter your times on repeatable Zwift segments say? How did you control for other training gains?

I know the Airofit app will show its own metrics, but if you aren't actually changing your riding performance then to a degree what's the point? I'm always wary of things where the only metric is a change to something with no proven actual real-world benefit (a lot of more esoteric metrics in the sleep apps feel like that).
  • 24 0
 I have to think of these "cool" looking traing masks that claim to imitate altitude training. From what I could gather, these only strenghten your diaphragm, but dont actually cause adaptation of your lung, since the partial pressure of O2 in your lung doesnt change. The diaphragm isnt the VO2max limiting factor for healthy people so this device seems useless to me.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26356482

Feel free to correct me, if you have evidence pointing in the other direction.
  • 5 0
 @endoplasmicreticulum: I agree. The notion that diaphragm training would increase aerobic performance is strange to me. The proven way to get performance gains here is the live high/train low concept. This wouldn't seem to create the same sort of adaptation.
  • 1 0
 @endoplasmicreticulum: interesting point and good research, wonder if using this while riding up the hill would be good though, there is a 1500 m elevation gain trail nearby, would love to try that.
  • 3 0
 @endoplasmicreticulum: the only way this kind of training would be functional would be to live and sleep in reduced o2, then remove the mask to train (or perform). Its been debunked over and over in the fitness industry, now they are just moving the bs to another market.

The only "data" anyone needs is that this is a simple idea that has been around for decades and ZERO elite athletes use it in their training. Only for the sponsored photo ops.
  • 2 1
 @RonSauce @arandomJohn @endoplasmicreticulum

There is actually quite substantial accumulating evidence that is confirming the long-debated effects of inspiratory muscle training on athletic performance. The proposed mechanisms have nothing to do with replicating hypoxic training, but rather increasing respiratory muscle fatigue resistance.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1466853X18301652

We wrote a paper about this, "Breath Tools", showing how this could be used to improve running performance (section "Strength") www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2022.813243
  • 1 1
 Accumulating evidence doesn't mean anything. If it was actually useful it would be used by every elite athlete.
Cardio, used by every successful athlete
Weight/resistance training, used by every successful athlete
Nutrition, used by every successful athlete
Fastidious recovery and sleep monitoring, used by every successful athlete

Breath training, used by paid athletes when paid to do so, and never elite current athletes.

Restricted breathing just limits your stimulus workload and artificially increases RPE. Introduce a $300 ballgag into your training and get back to me. Like I said before, this gimmick had made its rounds plenty of other places for many years, if it worked we would all know about it by now.
  • 1 1
 @RonSauce: A friend of mine was a part of the British Cycling performance programme in the early 00s and when I told him about the Airofit his reply was "I've already got that covered." The programme he was part of was the precursor to Team Sky and marginal gains, and it is something they had them all done all the way back then. After all - from the outside, how much do we actually get to see about the lengths the teams go to prepare their athlete? Certainly in pro road cycling secrecy is a big part of the game. Athletes do many things that they don't talk about, like the rally driver-style reaction training that I know a few of the really fast DH and enduro guys do, but have never seen talk about in the media. But my friend was secretive about the breath training, he's offered me a bunch of his training tools in the past, but he didn't want to offer more details for this, so just because you have not heard of it used does not mean it's not common.
  • 1 1
 @mattwragg: once again, this theory has been around since at least early 2000s. If it was effective we would all be on board by now. The "secret" has been out, its been marketed since mtb handlebars were 500mm.

You got behind the curtain, so you and everyone you know who takes fitness seriously use these?
  • 49 5
 Know who's never frustrated with saliva all over the place? Dick Pound.
  • 44 0
 Breathe in
Breathe out
Repeat
That’ll be $275 sir
  • 24 0
 It's a breathe new world.
  • 12 0
 Can you ship yourself to my house for the PB review please?
  • 39 12
 This rubbish again? Another one to file alongside magnetic bracelets and harmonic resonance dampeners.

You know what's good for "breath training? Breathing hard when you're doing exercise.
  • 24 1
 I mean, just learning how to breathe "through your ass" will go further than anything this thing can do for you.
  • 6 0
 @m47h13u: I have work colleagues who can talk out of theirs so it can't be impossible.
  • 4 0
 @fatduke: I get the humour in the expression. That said, breathing out your ass so to speak is actually a tip given by coaches to describe the feeling of diaphram breathing.

In the quest to educate kids, we've severely hampered some basic physical functions by having them sit in a chair until adult age. A lot of adults don't know it but they're basically breathing incorrectly...
  • 2 0
 @m47h13u: is this the same as blowing out of ones arse? Which is what I feel like on long climbs?
  • 3 0
 @m47h13u: underrated bit of info... and not only the diaphragm breathing is lost... but most importantly the nose breathing... lots of people get complete atrophy of that little part of the body.. for breathing..
  • 29 6
 If I want to suffocate, I can just put a plastic bag over my head. Of course, they can be hard to come by and cost an eye watering .10 at my lgs (local grocery store). Ahhh, screw it, I'll just go back to wearing masks... We all know it's impossible to breath with one of those things on anyway. Wink
  • 24 0
 Using a bong greatly expands your lung capacity.
  • 14 1
 Yes, but @brianpark won't let me review one (and it's not entirely legal here in France).
  • 1 0
 and its more fun than this thing
  • 2 0
 @brianpark Can we get a Quinny and Levy bikepark bong field test?
  • 16 0
 We had this minus the electronics in Hospital for Lung patients, costs about three fiddy
  • 3 0
 Link please?
  • 1 0
 I was going to say, a buddy of mine collapsed a lung and they gave him a similar contraption to breathe into and gauge their output. seemed super inexpensive and effective
  • 1 0
 Yea, my PT "gave" me one after a long time in the hospital, they work great. Also, they're only $20 on amazon.
  • 1 0
 You can say the same thing about bicycles…
  • 1 0
 they use them for pre and post op for lots of thorax surgeries, first time 1 saw one was around 30 years ago when an uncle of mine had a bypass
  • 2 0
 @steflund: I used something very similar recovering form a collapsed lung last year simple cheap and works well. The electronics and app on this thing is pretty much pointless all you need is a pencil and a bit of paper to write down your results so you can see how your improving over a period of time.
  • 1 1
 With dealer markups it's about 69,420
  • 1 0
 @mattwragg: Just search 'PEP Therapy '
  • 9 0
 @mattwragg I'm guessing the thing that most people would be interested in is whether not it had any effects on your on-bike performance. Obviously not something you can measure scientifically on just yourself, but even your subjective impression would be nice to hear.

I mean, it doesn't really surprise me that doing breathing exercises makes you better at breathing exercises, you know? If doing this thing for 10 minutes per day could make a meaningful difference to my biking or general endurance I might be interested (even if it makes less of a difference than just going and riding my bike for 10 minutes, it could still be attractive because you can just do it sitting at home on the sofa).
  • 3 1
 I was going through a phase of rebuilding after some illness and I'm certain that I was able to go harder sooner than I expected. But... it's hard to gauge my fitness this year as we bought a house last year and I now have more brush clearance and gardening to do than I know what to do with - so as I'm splitting my time I can't really compare it with previous experiences.
  • 1 0
 @mattwragg: fair enough, thanks for the response. I googled for some other reviews and the general consensus seems to be that it can improve vo2max a bit, which is cool, but it still seems like a lot of money for what it is.
  • 1 0
 It did help me before, when diaphragm strength was my limiting factor.
In the past, when I worked hard. My abs sore as the diaphragm fatigue and give out then I can't breath effectively.
Using this thing make that issue vanished. And my limiting factor move to something else.

Past that point, I see no further benefit from stronger diaphragm.
So, how do you fatigue out? If it's the diaphragm/abs. Then this might help. If it's something else, skip it.
  • 13 1
 snake oil
  • 4 0
 "Quick and impressive results". Wich ones ?
  • 7 0
 I agree with Matt. If you're going to sell me a device for 300€, I really don't want to have to pay a monthly fee on top, for the corresponding app. Seems rather expensive for a device that monitors and supports excercises that can be done without any equipment.
  • 7 1
 "Yet how often do you hear people talking about the most fundamental part of your performance? How many of us train our breathing?"

Isn't high altitude training a fairly standard exercise for top athletes?
  • 4 1
 Not quite the same thing - high altitude increases your red blood cell count, so you can deliver more blood to your muscles, but it has no direct effect on lung capacity afaik.
  • 9 1
 Or you could just ride your bike and train your legs and lungs at the same time....
  • 11 0
 Or you train with this 5 times a week and wonder why your riding doesn‘t improve
  • 8 0
 Wait, can I get that as a subscription model?
  • 12 1
 @bashhard: You absolutely can. Just send me $10/month, or $160/year for the unlimited riding plan - ride as hard as you like, as often as you like. Don't forget to tag all your rides #oneborneveryminute on your socials.
  • 4 0
 I'm a swimmer. It helps with biking considerably. I regulate the difficulty of breathing by sticking my head underwater and swimming fast. Not really sure why this product exists.
  • 4 0
 Doesn’t your bike get rusty?
  • 2 0
 On intense climbs, I always focus on breathing and only breathing through my nose. Because that’s actually how you get sufficient oxygen to your lungs. Mouth breathing is useless when trying to have enough oxygen for your body.
  • 1 0
 This contradicts my life experience.
  • 3 1
 Funny thing is that most people don't know how to breathe.I thought I did, until I didn't following a rib injury. I spent months with a kinesiologist relearning the different phases of breath and how to maintain that through movement. Now my breathing seems way more efficient than it used to be and that involved reinforcing patterns most of us have no idea about.
  • 4 0
 What a load of BS this device is. Advice:start running, train hard, push yourself to your limits. Then if you desire start epo.
  • 3 0
 In a healthy, athletic individual the lungs and specifically the strength of inspiratory muscles are so far from being the limiting factor in exercise, don't waste your time or money on this!
  • 1 0
 I find that when you have a drink of water, hold some liquid in your mouth, and you have no choice but to breathe through your nostrils, and for some reason its a lot easier than just closing your mouth on its own, and it takes away your brains subconscious decision to open your cake hole. Works for me, by the way I have had covid twice and didn't even know, and I smoke a train and drink vodka etc quite regularly Good luck all
  • 6 1
 I breath through my arse.
  • 3 1
 This is the way...





(It actually is for real though.)
  • 5 0
 And this is why saddles have cut-outs
  • 5 0
 Actually, nose breathing is the thing right now.
  • 1 0
 So you improves by their metrics, but what about by other metrics? Did you see any changes to power over the same period? I'd totally believe this would increase expiration pressure, but are there studies linking that to performance?
  • 1 0
 Other than the one I linked to?
  • 1 0
 @mattwragg: Haha, you should have responded with a "RTFA". Yeah I missed the links up top (the general health one is broken btw). That study certainly shows an increase in breathing efficiency, but concludes with a "may benefit endurance performance by reducing energy demand". It makes sense that it would, the fitness nerd in me just wants to know how much!
  • 2 1
 "Train low, live high" is a thing for a reason. You can't perform when you restrict your breathing, which is why high end athletes do their workouts at a lower altitude and then live at a higher altitude (or use an altitude tent to simulate living at a higher altitude).

I don't want to restrict my breathing, I want to get as much air as I can so I can push out as many watts as I can so I get stronger. Same reason I run a huge fan at full blast when I am on the trainer; I don't want my workouts limited by how much heat I can reject.
  • 1 0
 That won't improve your breathing, it only improves oxygen saturation.
  • 1 0
 @nurseben: I would imagine VO2 Max intervals (preferably at a lower elevation) would improve your breathing though.
  • 1 0
 Just learn how to play a horn, you will develop amazing breath control AND you'll make music!

But for those with no musical agility, a tool like this will probably help if you use it daily for at least a month.

It's about learning to breathe well, which is not inherent for most folks.

Seriously, 99.9% of people on PB do not breath well.
  • 2 0
 Noooo! Don't tell my wife that, she will have her mother send her saxophone here... Something I have been resisting for some time. Roni Size robbed me of my enjoyment of said instrument.
  • 2 0
 yeah playing trumpet definitely helped me breathe properly when exerting myself
  • 1 0
 I like to think I’m the 0.01% that does breath well.
  • 4 0
 Why not just blow up an air mattress while camping? You can time yourself to see your performance gains.
  • 1 0
 This is called spirometry. Baaaaack in the day in the exercise physiology lab, we used a large spool of paper with a pen of sorts to write your results down as you inhaled and exhaled through a tube. Was racing xc at the time and me and the fit graduate teacher went at it after class lol. There’s a lot of gold to training your respiratory muscles. Often times bikers get really stiff in the abdomen and chest, restricting where the breath can freely go. Releasing around these stiff muscles in conjunction with training would nearly guarantee better results IMHO. Clearly an improvement over bulky and expensive physiology equipment.
  • 1 0
 For years there has been gadgets to improve lung muscles (POWERbreathe).
Sure it doesn't have an app, so it probably ain't for milleni'anals, or pussies.
Like any muscle that is trained, it will improve breathing capabilities due to the fact that the muscle has been improved (resistance & force), and for such, you can breath in faster intervals, fill more air into the lung (due to faster contraction), and doing so, you'll oxiginate better your blonde.

This is an add on and complementary exercise to normal training.
  • 1 0
 Quite interested in this actually, but the price tag is really, really off putting. My asthma is the limiting factor for me on the bike I got more out of doing a small amount of HIIT training in the winter than slogging out zwift sessions, so something that focuses specifically on improving my breathing pattern and technique is probably worth a go. I just don't want to spend 250 quid to find out.
  • 1 0
 An old dual filter dust mask does the same thing. Way less electronics and there is no app! You have to pull hard to get air. Doing hard demo work and pulling air through a filter that should have been changed 5 years ago is hard. I’ve not tried riding my bike with it on. Being in a crawl space yanking old insulation and trying to avoid rattle snakes involves a calm mind and a big stick.. Similarly, Breathing through your nose only will have a lot of benefits too. Not only does it force you to use more of your lungs capacity it’s calms you down too. Mouth breathing can trigger your fight or flight response.
  • 1 0
 In healthy individuals lung capacity is not a limiting factor in performance. You are rarely ever breathing at 100%. The amount of oxygen you can get to the muscles is the main limiting factor in trained, healthy individuals. This is restricted by blood and red blood cell count. That's why doping always focuses on increasing the red blood cell in the blood. Remember you blow back out most the oxygen you breathe in anyway.
  • 1 1
 @mattwragg There are other products out there that provide breathing training. I used a mask from Training Mask to training my lungs to function better with less air when I was getting ready to hike Mt. Whitney 8 years ago. The mask worked very well and I did find myself breathing easier during exercise after training with the mask for a while. It's also way cheaper.

www.trainingmask.com
  • 2 0
 It's not about training your lungs, it's about training you how to breath correctly using your diaphragm and accessory muscles
  • 1 0
 @nurseben: Training is about more than just your lungs.
  • 1 0
 As stated above: just because you can inhale more air, doesn't mean you improve the ability to utilize it. See link to study below.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12131262
  • 2 0
 Yeah nah, not paying $300 to restrict my breathing...
Have a read of Breath by James Nestor or look into Wim Hof, much better information in there.
  • 2 0
 Training masks look more basic, clunky and dont have the tech, but they are £25 from Amazon.

Whats the difference in performance when training between this and a mask?
  • 4 4
 Perhaps this forum doesn't have that many viewers who compete or have an interest in performance.
Breathing technique is perhaps the most underrated part of exercise. Many people breathe erratically when the effort is minimal, and so when the effort increases, they have no headroom.

One of the best tips I ever heard is from Loana Lecompte (Current XC world cup champion). When she trains, she only breathes through her nose. If you can train your body to perform on this limited oxygen level, when you come to a competion, you can ride to a higher level due to the increased flow through the mouth.
  • 2 0
 I can't even breath enough through the nose without exercising, love my crooked nasal septum Wink
  • 2 1
 Not the same thing but my brother had fainting attacks because of vaping too much. It appears that force breathing by the mouth can creat contraction of your diaphragm and lead to that sort of issue. For him reeducation have been to breath by the nose with a pen in the mouth
  • 1 1
 That tip from Loana has to be taken in context, in order to perform at the higher level she must train at that level ie breathing through her mouth.
  • 3 0
 @MathiasBd: I'ts not quite so easy. With restricted oxygen you can't do full intensity training. Which can lead to muscle loss and performance decrease. Thats why actually achieving gains from high altitude training is not easy and usually only done by pro athletes.
  • 4 0
 This is the way. Nasal breathing naturally increases Nitric Oxide in the blood which widens blood vessels and improves blood flow. Breathing through your nose also reduces lactic acid buildup while also helping to clear it out faster. Mouth breathing does NONE of this. Mouth breathing is unavoidable at max effort but I think a roll of duct tape would be a more effective training tool than a digital ball gag.
  • 1 1
 @jspicoli: so we know something on this thread that pro cyclists don't? You'd think all the pro-tour riders would know about nose breathing but based on what I see, they don't.
  • 2 0
 Is she only breathing through her nose to limit her oxygen, or because she's doing the bulk of her training in =Z2 though?
  • 1 0
 Gonna have to ask for a source on that Loana claim. Cause a google search turned up absolutely zilch associating her with nasal breathing.
  • 1 0
 Can you please expand on the performance benefits? Did you just get better scores on their breathing exercises or was there a measurable improvement in fitness?
  • 4 0
 I was going through a phase of rebuilding after some illness and I'm certain that I was able to go harder sooner than I expected. But... it's hard to gauge my fitness this year as we bought a house last year and I now have more brush clearance and gardening to do than I know what to do with - so as I'm splitting my time I can't really compare it with previous experiences.
  • 3 0
 Hof breathing for the Wim!
  • 2 0
 I like the old man.. but this is valid only for the double black diamond sector on mud at the end of your enduro race on a hardtail. adrenaline for survival baby..
  • 1 0
 This is basically a high-tech PEP device. We hand them out at the hospital all the time

www.physio-pedia.com/Positive_Expiratory_Pressure_(PEP)_DevicesPEP
  • 2 1
 The ignorance in these comments is astounding! You all need to read Breath by James Nestor and Oxygen Advantage by Patrick McKeown.
  • 2 0
 Correct - @mattwragg check out those books then let us know what you think of this device. Nasal breathing trains your body to do more with less - increases tolerance to C02 and various other benefits.
  • 2 0
 Yeah breath through you MOUTH, great way to turn your DNA into doo doo garbage......
  • 1 0
 If I needed a reminder of how shitty my breathing is, I’d bring my CPAP machine with me on rides.
  • 1 0
 How about you really show you care about the environment and stop promoting garbage that no one needs?
  • 1 0
 Or I can ride my bike . Get cardio and stronger lungs . Who is this for ? Couch potato athletes?
  • 3 1
 Amazing.
  • 11 0
 Breathtaking, you mean?
  • 1 0
 The Breather and save $240
  • 1 0
 WTF is an oura ring? asking for a friend
  • 9 0
 You put it on to increase and extend performance, see pornhub for videos
  • 1 0
 Just don't put it on the wrong digit
  • 1 0
 I was expecting a shoe....
  • 1 0
 What improved during the course of your training?
  • 2 0
 I was going through a phase of rebuilding after some illness and I'm certain that I was able to go harder sooner than I expected. But... it's hard to gauge my fitness this year as we bought a house last year and I now have more brush clearance and gardening to do than I know what to do with - so as I'm splitting my time I can't really compare it with previous experiences.
+2
  • 1 0
 Try breathing through your nose when you bike… it’s deceivingly hard
  • 1 0
 Ah yes, because you definitely exercise your lungs and not your diaphragm.
  • 1 0
 @mattwrag Thank you for this review!
  • 1 0
 This would be great for sex workers.
  • 1 0
 We asthmatics simply skip our berodual few times a week
  • 1 0
 Nerd Alert!
  • 1 2
 Matt: *literally links scientific data*
pinkbike: „WHAT A LOAD OF RUBBISH, AAAAARRGHHH!“
  • 6 0
 The question isn't necessarily "does the science support the idea of breathing exercises?", it's "does this device strengthen the things the science says need strengthening?". That paper outlined a test methodology, so as a starting point the test in the paper could be replicated with an Airofit instead of the yoga program to see if similar muscles are strengthened.

Without doing that, you don't know if you are actually strengthening the right muscles, or potentially storing up future problem. A decent biking analogy is that you can get pretty good power by using your lower back muscles for stabilising your core, but at some point you're going to throw your back out (don't ask me how I know). Only when you sort out your core strength and favour your glutes will you really generate the power consistently and without injury.
  • 2 0
 Also, the device does what it says it does, strengthen the inspiratory muscles. The main question is: does strengthening your inspiratory muscles improve your performance? The answer from research seems to be pretty convincingly no. Aerobic performance is limited by heart rate, metabolic factors and central control long before lung capacity and inspiratory muscle strength. (For healthy, athletic people that is)
  • 1 0
 Bullshiiiiiiiiiiiii
  • 2 4
 Yawn
  • 9 1
 Sounds like your brain needs more oxygen. This device is clearly for you!
  • 1 1
 @gnarnaimo: keep it real in Canada, eh?







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