I was wondering whether anyone here has tried, or heard anything about the efficacy of, Airofit. Essentially, as I understand it, it’s a gizmo which pairs with an app and which enables a person to do a range of exercises which are aimed at improving the strength of the diaphragm (and thus increase lung capacity). To my extremely unscientific mind the theory seems to make sense - the diaphragm is a muscle, so its function must be capable of improvement with the correct training, and it’s also a muscle which (though we all use it) isn’t generally “trained” in a conventional sense, so promoting a greater awareness of, and control over, it could have a benefit in a sport which relies in large part on efficient oxygen take-up.
The testimonials they cite seem to be impressive, with users reporting relatively significant lung capacity improvements (presumably due to being able to breathe ‘deeper’ after training), but what I was wondering is whether there is any science out there that backs it up. I do know that the ‘altitude mask’ type things (which, if I’ve understood correctly, aim to artificially limit the amount of air available to simulate being at altitude) are considered to be something of a gimmick, but I don’t know what to make of this. Any thoughts?
I get a lot of ads for Airofit on Facebook, so got interested, but I quickly backed off. It won’t give any lasting benefit.
I asked DCRainmaker about it a few weeks ago on whether he wanted to do an in-depth review and got the following answer:
Hi Arne
Yeah, I put that kinda stuff in the same camp as those bracelets people try and pitch that supposedly make you do X or Y.
My thing is simple on these: If they actually worked (even at a 1% increase), then we’d see every single pro athletes in the world using them (for free), since 1% is gold medal at the Olympics or off the podium for most events. But…we don’t. We only see mostly no-name athletes talking about supposed benefits.
Most data I’ve read basically says there are some short-term benefits, but, like everything else in the body eventually your body adapts (very quickly in this case), and there’s no actual increase in performance, because you can’t keep applying more and more load like you can other stimuli.
Cheers!
It kind of follows what I already suspected. Since we don’t see any big names or more buzz on any forums regarding training, we should be kind of sceptical.
Also, I watched a video on their YouTube-channel where one of the researchers from the paper the company quotes commented asking them to stop misrepresenting his findings to sell their product.
Looks up Airofit… how much!!! I have a Powerbreathe in a drawer somewhere that I bought for, what, 20 quid? about 15 years ago. Probably just as good. I won’t say it did nothing for me, think it might have, but I didn’t stick to using it for long. Hence the drawer bit.
Yeah, to top it off, it’s another expensive subscription service with a special app to help you ‘analyze’ the data.
It’s worse than Whoop (DCR’s review of that service is also quite something), but with the same business model: market a cool looking gadget that already exists in a cheaper/more reliable form (whether or not the science supports it) > make it look really cool > use a bunch of influencers to gain traction > sell a subscription service to use the product > profit
On a final note, breath training devices can train the muscles involved in breathing, but so does normal exercise. So I’d say there’s no need for anyone to use these as you get the same benefits from your normal training anyway. That’s the conclusion from this article too.
This has also been appearing quite a lot in my Facebook feed and seems quite interesting. Though it does seem pretty expensive.
It sounds like it’s more useful for medical applications in respiratory illnesses rather than improving atheletic performance - though I don’t doubt that some people may see some marginal gains here.
Personally, there’s probably lots of other areas of improvement I can make first before looking here. If the price were a lot cheaper, I’d probably take a punt.
Hi, I’m using it almost half a year. It gave me a lot, especially in swimming (I do triathlon). Underwater I feel more comfy now, than before. It helped me as well in a few different aspects, and I’ve made review of that device with all my results: https://thesorwbiegu.pl/en/airofit-review/ I hope it would be useful
Personally - the principle ‘seems’ sensible enough - in my case I have a couple of issues that this may have helped me ‘train’ my way out of.
I never subscribed to any of the advertising which in my opinion is misleading (existing athletes who increase their numbers by 10% for example). All that would mean is that compared to the first period of using the device and the latter period then the app is showing higher numbers. To me that is just because people get better at using the device not because any measure of lung volume or flow has changed.
So I personally dislike that type of advertising.
I did go to send it back, and then for in to a to and fro conversation about setting up calls to make sure I was using it right. That worked because clearly I’m mentally not strong enough to just decide to send it back and it’s been sitting somewhere in a cupboard for a long time now after I got fed up listening to what I considered to be legitimate, but designed to deflect, emails. But that’s my own fault. I could have simply sent it back. There was nothing from them saying I couldn’t just do it. That’s my own doing.
Anyway - while I did use it I found it triggered my physical issues more than helped them and in the end stopped and it was interfering with cycling.