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A Brief Guide on Ventilatory Muscle Training

A schematic of the human respiratory system

Running, gymming, cycling, and various sports activities help us improve our muscle strength. We all know that and hence take up high-endurance physical exercises to get in shape and improve everyday performance. However, physical exercises primarily strengthen skeletal muscles. The human body also features other types of muscles that are not on display like skeletal muscles, but they play an integral role in the body's physiological functioning. Respiratory muscles are one of those invisible yet crucial parts of the body that ensure we remain alive (no exaggeration whatsoever). 

After many years of research, scientists have found out that like physical exercise strengthens skeletal muscles, ventilatory or respiratory training can strengthen respiratory muscles. If you want to know more about ventilatory muscle training, hang in there, and keep reading this article.

What is Ventilatory Muscle Training?

Ventilatory Muscle Training (VMT) is a technique aimed to improve the function of the respiratory muscles. The training entails breathing in a particular pattern to strengthen the inspiratory and expiratory muscles. Medical experts recommend VMT to people who have asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), emphysema, bronchitis, and other respiratory conditions. 

VMT can help all those patients improve their symptoms without banking on just drug-based treatments. Athletes and sportspeople are also recommended to do ventilatory muscle training to improve their stamina for high-endurance activities. 

How to Do Ventilatory Muscle Training? 

The best thing about ventilatory muscle training is you don't need any professional supervision to do it. If you have a good respiratory training device at your disposal, you can do VMT on your own to reap all its benefits. 

For VMT, you will need a device that can facilitate breathing at multiple levels of difficultly. Case in point: Orygen Dual Valve. It is a simple and easy-to-use device that consists of a nozzle (mouthpiece) and a dual-valve chamber and comes with a clamp. The two valves let you set the pressure in the chamber to which the nozzle is connected. As you move the pressure up and down, you change the difficulty level of breathing. 

Below are the steps through which you can carry out ventilatory muscle training while using Orygen Dual Valve.

  • Wash your hands and rinse your respiratory training device. 
  • Set the valves on the highest pressure reading (80 cmH20). It will be the most comfortable level of breathing. 
  • Sit straight on a chair or couch. Place the clamp on your nose, put the nozzle attached to the valve chamber in your mouth, and seal it with your lips. 
  • Take as strong and deep breath as possible on the given pressure setting and exhale it out naturally. Repeat this deep inhalation and normal exhalation 12 to 15 times in a minute. Do these reps for 10 to 15 minutes each day. 
  • Carry out this 10-minute exercise 4 to 5 times a week. 
  • As you move forward, decrease the valves' pressures to increase the difficulty level and repeat the same reps and follow the same frequency of daily and weekly routine. 

How Ventilatory Muscle Training Affects Respiratory Muscles?

Regular VMT affects the respiratory muscles, just like physical exercise affects skeletal muscles. The continuous VMT primarily cause functional and structural changes to respiratory muscles. 

  • Functional Changes: VMT improves the peak aspiratory flow, maximal inspiration, and expiratory pressure. Structural changes essentially cause these functional changes or improvements.  
  • Structural Changes: VMT has been studied to change the cross-sectional area of respiratory muscles and their thickness. 

Benefits of Ventilatory Muscle Training

Orygen Dual Valve

Ventilatory muscle training benefits both patients and healthy people. People suffering from any chronic respiratory complications can assuage their symptoms and improve their quality of life with the structural and functional changes instigated by ventilatory muscle training. 

On the other hand, athletes, sportspeople, and even common folks who don't belong to either of these categories can also leverage VMT to prevent shortness of breath while doing any high-endurance physical work. Ventilatory muscle training is particularly excellent for all those who indulge in rowing, cycling, running, and swimming.  

The other least discussed benefit of VMT is it is a no-frill yet effective technique to improve respiratory health. You can catalyze beneficial structural and functional changes of complex respiratory muscles without administrating any medicine and undergoing any surgery. All you need is a respiratory training device that will cost you even less than 100 Euros. Also, you don't need to pay hefty expert fees to help you carry out VMT. You can do it on your own from the comfort of your home.

If you want to strengthen your respiratory muscles via VMT and are looking for a training device for it, reach to us. Our Orygen Dual Valve is a cost-effective and easy-to-use device. We will provide you with all the instructions to use this respiratory training device for the best VMT results.