The Effect of Hyper-Oxidative Breathing on Physical Endurance
File(s)
Date
2019Author
Begin, Sam
Ferreira, Melissa
Isaacs, Cassie
Langiewicz, Colton
Toberna, Caroline
Publisher
Journal of Advanced Student Sciences (JASS)
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Increasing endurance can have important implications for anyone looking to improve
their physical performance. Hyper-oxidative breathing techniques, such as the one utilized in the
Wim Hof Method, have been proven successful in improving endurance in individuals. This
study explores the physiological effects of a hyper-oxidative breathing technique, based off of
the Wim Hof Method, on physical endurance. The physiological parameters observed were heart
rate, blood pressure, as well as wall-sit duration, in seconds. The BIOPAC student lab system
(BSL 4 software, MP36) was used in this experiment. Blood pressure was measured by utilizing
an “OMRON 10 Series +” automatic blood pressure monitor (BP791IT, OMRON, Inc.). These
effects are measured by implementing the breathing technique during an anaerobic exercise, a
wall-sit, under normal, non-extreme conditions. Participants performed two trials of wall-sits,
one without the breathing technique, then another one week later with the breathing technique. It
was found that the breathing technique was effective in elongating the duration of a
maximal-effort wall-sit for the entire group of participants as a whole. The heart rate data
recorded during the initial wall-sits without the breathing exercise plateaus earlier, at 40 seconds,
than the normal breathing heart rate, further indicating that Hof’s breathing technique is effective
in obtaining and maintaining a stable heart rate more quickly. However, based on the statistical
analysis, this is not statistically significant. This trend observed, however, is an important
observation seen in the data, and had the equipment in this experiment been more reliable and if
more trials were run with a sample size larger than 50 people, this data could have been
statistically significant. We conclude that while our data indicates that the breathing technique
did successfully raise the duration an individual could maintain a wall-sit, further studies are
needed to determine exactly which physiological changes give rise to this increase.
Subject
Blood Pressure
Heart Rate
Exercise
hyper-oxidative breathing
physical endurance
physical stress
wall-sit
Permanent Link
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/82013Description
An article that appeared in JASS, issue 2019