Review of Two Years "Playing with the SpiroTiger"

By Juerg Feldmann

It is now just 2 years, since we seriously started to "play" more with the possibilities of "breathing" training as another way of adding to performance.
Well where do we stand now?
I will try to keep it as simple and as practical as possible. Main reason: It is too confusing for me anyway, so I try to put it into words, so I can understand it myself.
Question: Does training of the respiratory system have the potential of improving performance?
My answer is: Yes, (well there are much smarter people out there, who did some more serious research, who confirm this for us nicely). We tried over the last 2 years different ideas on different levels of clients.
From high performance athletes to severe COPD clients and the average JOE Blow from the road.
Main problem: As in any other field of training, the main problem is:
1. Stick to the program long enough
2. Learn to recognize the difference between functional reaction and structural adaptation.
3. Try to recognize adaptation and as soon as you reach adaptation you have to change the stimulus.
4. Have 3-5 different ideas of using the Spirotiger handy to avoid boring situations.
5. Learn to integrate the equipment into other training units like technique, interval, circuit and so on.
Main problem: People, who push too fast too early on improvement actually will see a very fast functional improvement with the result of actually a loss of performance in the actual activity they do.
Reason: You can learn to move more air very fast by exactly doing the wrong idea, meaning by activating the "emergency" muscles (breathing helper).
In forced inspiration, where the "neck muscles" are getting very active and you actually do a so called sterno-clavicluar breathing, the diaphram has to work against an increased mechanical tension of the abdominal muscles.
Try it out: Sit nice and upright and your "belly" disappears (perhaps) a bit or more, depending on the "volume" down there. Now sit upright and breathe hard and fast in and keep one hand on the abdominal area and you will feel how the muscle is getting "harder". No it does not contract, but because you pull both attachments appart, like you pull an elastic apart, your tension goes up (passively), which makes it harder for the diaphram to contract, because the intestine can not as easy push down and out.
Okay, you can use this as an idea of giving the diaphram some additional resistance to strenghten it. Well maybe?
Now this type of breathing is often done with a power lung or other similar devices. You breathe hard and harder in and out (you can change the resistance for in, as well as expiration. You can do a max of anywhere between 20 - 30 deep breaths, before you get somewhat dizzy (hyperventilation) then you need a rest to recover.
There is one question here. The diaphram is one of the rare muscles, which does not relax immediately, when the antagonist kicks in. Some researchers believe, that it takes about 1/2 the time of expiration before it is completely relaxed, and then the abdominal contraction should kick in. Meaning that the initial outflow should be done over the elasticity loaded on the chest (as it is completely done during the night).
So we may have to learn to let go initially, but be patient with the forced expiration for just a bit.
This would lead to a rhythm of 1:2
1 time unit for breathing in and 2 time units for breathing out.
A good way to try this is when you walk, nordic walk or run with the step count. It is very easy on the bike but it is not so bad as well during cross country skiing. It is just different.
In swimming it seems to be nearly natural with a short breath in and a double stroke breathing out to alternatly breath left and right anyway.
Now with this idea we run against the "school" belief, that under work the breathing will be always 1:1. well may be or perhaps we never tried it differently?
It could as well be, that as soon we have to breathe 1:1 the metaboreflex kicks in anyway, because breathing is now the main problem of performance?
Now there is a second problem with the sterno-clavicular breathing and forced expiration. You may get a kind of an air entrapment. Practically you can see, that as soon as people start breathing this way, they have a problem to get the bar graph to the middle (they stay on the left side) meaning they do not breathe in enough. Well they can't, because they do not breathe first enough out. They produce the feeling like people with asthma may have. Inspiration situation, because of lack of expiration. So if you now try to force quickly the air out over abdominal contraction, you get quickly the air out, but again not enough, because your diaphram is not relaxed yet and keeps the volume in the costal-abdominal area open, so air can stay there, even though you thought you push really all the air out.
So the result of all of this is, that you have like in any other sport or motion, you have to learn first the proper technique, before you push performance, but as so often, are we patient enough? Most likely not.
Here a very short summary on how or what we do with breathing and the SpiroTiger.

1. Breathing technique without equipment "endogeneous breathing"
Goal breathe in with the diaphram and learn to use the abdominal to breathe out but as well learn to relax again to avoid the above problem.

2. Start using the user set only for inspiration and expiration with some resistance. The user set only with some small changes can be used the same way as a power lung but you can avoid hyperventilation, as well as the price is the same as a power lung.
Start breathing without the "stress" of the pacing by the steering unit. Problem here is you use the user set together with the handle, but without connection the the steering unit. Problem: you do not know, when you are getting hypoxic and hypercapnic, so you only can use this idea, if you use an O2 sat meter to control the proper O2 sat. If you breathe properly, your O2 sat will stay the same as in rest and or often will actually increase if not already on 99 or 100%. Now if you feel O2 sat high and you are getting somewhat dizzy you hyperventilate and you breathe a bit less intense, or take a bigger bag.
If your O2 sat drops you have to breathe deeper and if the O2 sat does not increase you have to take a smaller bag or use one of our clamps to reduce the size of the bag.
If you like to increase inspiration as well as expiration resistance before you go up with the bag size you can add the filter to it, and if you feel problem with inspiration take the mask to be able to breath in through the nose.
So this version would give you a kind of a beginner set. User set plus O2 sat meter without steering unit and handle.
Later you can ubgrade it to the full unit where you have the "caddilac" of the training device, as soon you see progress and you start to test your respiratory system the same way as you test your legs or your body on a treadmill or on a wattage trainer.
Now with the full set, SpiroTiger plus O2 sat you have a full set of possibilities.
a) Increase the ability of a bigger tidal volume
b) work on the coordination of inspiration/expiration (timing between abdominal contraction and diaphram activity)
c) integrate it into a technical training as a IHT
Bike 5 min on PC or normal bike followed by 5 min biking (much less wattage) in combination with breathing (check O2 sat not below 92%)
d) push 30 sec hard on the wattage trainer or sprint, followed immediatly by breathing (check your O2 sat, stop breathing with the device as soon it drops to 92% but keep checking the O2 sat. Adjust the length of the interval (check with a spiro expert first).
Use the user set as a IHT with sitting only (specific technique)
Use the user set with activity for IHT
Use the full unit before or after races or training for what ever you like to achieve.
Bar graph can be moved for more hypocapnia or more hypercapnia.
Check out the possible link between epinephrine surge and hypoxia/hypercapnia.
There is as well a possible link between controlled hypercapnia/hypoxia and reaction on the cardiovascular system. Studies show a hyperdynamic state defined by tachtcardia, high cardiac output and a reduction in systemic vascular resistance. The Pa CO2 is as well a very potent stimulus for increased respiratory activity.
As before the question is about safety.
We not drop the O2 sat further than 90% in any of our trainings, and the Pa CO2 in the tested cases stayed well below the critical number of 80, well actually we kept it to be on the safe side below 55 as an acute hypercapnic situation.
There are some studies out there suggesting a PaCO2 of 48 - 55 is one of the most optimal levels to adress this above situation in healthy people and as well use the increased CO2 level as a possible antioxidant stimulation?
Well that's it for the moment.
It may be that the education branch of FaCT with Dr. A. Sellars (who runs very great FaCT certification courses in Canada and in the USA may start to add some SpiroTiger courses as well). Check our web site for possible ideas and come back with questions.

www.fact-canada.com