Annalisa Cogo
University of Ferrara, Italy
Title: Exercise and respiratory system: Is there room for improvement?
Biography
Biography: Annalisa Cogo
Abstract
The pulmonary system has a crucial role in the performance and can be a limiting factor during exercise. What is known about exercise and respiratory function? It is known that regular physical activity is associated with higher ventilatory parameters and a slowdown of the physiological decline in pulmonary function. Another interesting topic is the analysis of breathing pattern. In fact, given ventilation can be achieved by different combinations of tidal volume and respiratory rate and a breathing pattern characterized by a higher tidal volume and a lower respiratory rate for the same ventilation is more efficient. Is it possible to exercise the ventilator capacity? The well-known information about this question is the reduction of ventilation for the same work rate, after a training program, but not much is known about other specific breathing training. The first point concerns the respiratory muscles. As breathing is a muscular exercise, it could also be trained. In fact, it has been shown that respiratory muscle training improves endurance exercise performance and time trials in healthy individuals with greater improvements in less fit individuals and in sports of longer durations. Also a regular yoga practice improves pulmonary function in healthy individuals. No information is available for athletes. The second point concerns the breathing pattern and in particular the possibility of training individuals or athletes to adopt a more efficient ventilatory pattern. Up to now there is no research devoted to this topic in athletes.