The impact of functional respiratory variables on swimming

Abstract

The aim of this study was strenghtening respiratory muscles in a direction of increasing inspiratory capacity and its effect on underwater swimming performance. Experimental sample was composed by subjects T1 – competitive swimmers (n = 5), age 17,53-23,17 years, Height 170,0cm – 183,0cm and bodyweight 61,5kg – 77,7 kg and subjects T2- Physical education and Sports department students from Faculty of Arts, Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica (n = 5), age 19,87 – 22,36 years, Height 169,5cm – 183,0 cm, bodyweight 57,7kg – 79,2 kg. Powerbreathe Plus was inserted into all workouts of subjects and into their daily life as well for 10 weeks. Subjects completed tasks 2 times per day when they were inhalating 30 times every morning and evening. The impact of experimental factor was recorded via specific test by respiratory machine Powerbreathe K 5. Test was targeted on detecting intensity index, maximal inspiration speed and also on inspiration capacity. Second test consisted of maximal distance underwater swimming with inspiration before going under water. The results showed positive differences in functional respiratory variables on a rank from 8,6% - 36,9% in T1 and from 7,1% - 27,7% in T2 sample. In underwater swimming test subjects also improved in both samples, when T1 improved from 9,8% - 14,3% (SD 3,18) and T2 improved from 6,8% to 12,7%. The inspiration training effect was confirmed on 5% significance level. In the same time results showed high correlation coeficients of mutual dependance of tracked variables.