Influence of inspiratory muscle warm-up on aerobic performance during incremental exercise

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BACKGROUND: Endurance is an important factor in athletic performance and is affected by respiratory muscle fatigue. Recent studies indicate that warming up of respiratory muscles improves the respiratory muscle fatigue. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of inspiratory muscle warm-up on aerobic performance during incremental exercise. METHOD: Maximal inspiratory (MIP) and expiratory (MEP) pressures were measured in 30 healthy male athletes, with (EX) and without (CON) inspiratory muscle warm-up. RESULTS: No significant changes in MIP and MEP values between baseline levels and the CON condition were observed while such were seen with respect to EX and between the EX and CON conditions ([Formula: see text] 0.05). Aerobic performance measurements, including peak oxygen uptake (VO[Formula: see text]), relative VO[Formula: see text], oxygen uptake to workrate slope ([Formula: see text]VO[Formula: see text]/[Formula: see text]WR), metabolic equivalent (MET), peak heart rate (HR[Formula: see text]), peak minute ventilation (VE[Formula: see text]), peak tidal volume (TV[Formula: see text]), peak respiratory rate (RR[Formula: see text]), peak carbondioxide output (VCO[Formula: see text]) and respiratory exchange rate (RER) significantly differed by 18.84%, 19.51%, 9.53%, 15.54%, [Formula: see text]4.36%, 19.90%, 32.77%, [Formula: see text]6.10%, 23.29% and 7.34%, respectively, between subjects in the EX and CON conditions. CONCLUSION: These results show that inspiratory muscle warm-up improves aerobic performance byt further investigation is required to elucidate the exact mechanisms that stand behing these variations.