Activeforever PowerLung - Manual (Page 3)

The question of whether or not this has an effect on either exercise
performance or living everyday life can be examined in terms of
basic physiological principles and then backed up by the research.
The relationship between strength, power and endurance must be
fully understood before embarking on an explanation of how this
affects our breathing.
What is important is that as we move from strength at one end of the spectrum, to endurance on the other,
the weight decreases. Therefore, in very crude terms, if we increase the strength of the muscle, still keeping
power and endurance work, then the range shifts up. So, the person that is required to work at a certain
level will find it easier to work at that level if the muscle is stronger because they are working at a lower
percentage of their maximum.
The endurance capacity of the muscle is the number of repetitions it can produce before it fatigues. Equating
this to a bench press, the person may be able to lift 100kg once. If they were wanting to then build up the
power of the muscles, they would look at working at around 80% of that maximum, i.e. 80kg, trying to
contract the muscles as quickly as possible. They would attempt the lift 8 – 12 times. As they move in to
e ndur an ce the y wo uld lift 4 0 - 60 % o f t he ir ma ximu m a nd re pea t the mot ion 20 + t ime s.
And what can better breathing do?
The strength of the muscle is the maximum possible output that it
can produce. The power of the muscle is a combination of strength
and speed defined as the amount of work done in a unit of time.
To increase power, therefore, the person could either lift a heavier
weight in the same time, or lift the same weight in a faster time.
These are obviously rough guidelines depending on how much endurance, or number of repetitions the
person wants to do, or how fast they want the contractions to be as contraction speed is vitally important
in a number of sports.
“Respir at ory mus cle
training can be effective
in a d dr e s s i ng t h e
limi t at i ons o f t he
r es p ir at or y s ys t em
during exercise.”
Sheel et al. (2002)
Page 3 Peak Performance Training Begins with PowerLung