Developing your endurance and building up your cardiovascular system doesn’t need to take hours of your time and it doesn’t need to be a monotonous, boring routine. There are different “underground” techniques that are not very popular in the fitness world and which can greatly increase your endurance training effectiveness. So if you are looking for time-effective tips to support your endurance training you are on the right page.
Intro to resistance breathing
Restricted breathing or respiratory training is just like weight lifting for the lungs. You will get in less air and less oxygen. Your body will pick up the signals that there are less oxygen molecules to use and it will react to that. Breathing in general and oxygen in particular are one of the biggest contributors to energy production and fatigue management inside the body. So it makes sense to pay extra attention to your respiration.
If you are using the Training Mask as a respiratory training tool you will develop your endurance by increasing your lung ventilatory capacity. Basically your lung size will increase once your inspiratory and expiratory muscles grow stronger.
But there are also a bunch of other benefits of respiratory resistance training as well.
- First and foremost, your body will become much more efficient at transporting oxygen thought your body and at using it. When there is less of something you use it more rationally, right?
- Another effect of using the Training Mask is that it will skyrocket your calorie consumption and it will enhance the post-workout after burn effect. This will make your body run on fat for longer periods of time. It does this by lowering insulin levels and increasing human growth hormone.
- Restricted respiratory training will increase the production of antioxidants in your body. If you combine this with the increase level of human growth hormone you will get an anti-aging effect.
So, restricted breathing will allow you to benefit from the effects of hypoxic and resistance training at the same time.
Works Both Physically And Mentally
Hypoxic training is not just about training at altitude. Your body can actually learn how to cope with resistance breathing by using the Training Mask. By not being able to breath as fast or as much as you would like you can teach your body to adapt to these conditions.
This is a physical process – because you will develop your diaphragm, lungs and even your intercostal muscles. Resistance breathing is the absolute best exercise you can do for developing your diaphragm and lungs. A strong diaphragm will contract better, making more room for your lungs to fill with air when you breath in.
But using the Training Mask is also a mental process – because you will learn how to deal with it and control your breathing, control your pacing and your training. The Training Mask will force you to focus on your breathing, which is probably the most neglected part of every endurance athlete’s training.
Just by getting your breathing right you will get way more efficient faster than other training adaptations will start to develop.
How To Use The Training Mask
At first the Training Mask will feel very uncomfortable and you will probably feel like you are suffocating, but if you manage to go over that first reaction to take it off you will actually get used to it really quickly.
If you are a fist time user, always start with the easiest air resistance setting. Take your time to get to know how it feels and how it works. Your focus should be on building up from a lower air resistance setting to a higher air resistance while being in control of your breathing and training. You want to progressively increase your endurance and develop your tolerance to more difficult air resistance.
At first do not hesitate to take off the Training Mask every now and then, if you feel like you can’t go through your session, or lower the air resistance setting if possible.
So, if your main goal is to improve you endurance but also your overall conditioning by breathing more efficiently, there is no better way to do it than using the Training Mask. No matter what sport you are in or no matter how your training program is designed, the Training Mask can be easily incorporated in any routine.
