WellO2 breathing exercise guides for everyday use and for athletes

Everyone can benefit from WellO2 breathing exercises

Respiratory muscle exercise (RMT) has been shown to:

• Increase blood circulation and inspiratory and expiratory airflow
• Improve exhalation and inhalation strength
• Reduce stress & enhance general health
• Improve wellbeing by promoting deep breathing

WellO2 breathing exercises for daily use

Make sure you are sitting upright before starting WellO2 breathing exercises.

• During normal use, always start exercising with the lowest resistance (position 0).
• Using the device, inhale deeply and blow evenly and lightly into the device once the device is ready for use (see operating instructions).
• After this, breathe freely a few times, and repeat the exhalation.
• Repeat 3-10 times.
• Then, gently inhale from the device until your lungs are full.
• You should rest between repetitions as you did above.

Once you have practiced breathing into and out of the device (inhale and exhale) alternately, you can do exercises using both. Immediately after exhaling, inhale into the device. Inhaling and exhaling can be repeated according to your needs.

• It is recommended that you do 10-20 repetitions, which do not need to be done at once, but in several sets.
• Despite being heavy, the exercise should not cause pain or dizziness.
• Stop using the device if it causes you pain and contact the manufacturer.
• If you feel dizzy during the exercise, you should take a longer rest between repetitions.

Training with WellO2 for athletes

WellO2 can be used to increase the strength and endurance of breathing muscles. It also moisturizes airways, which promotes respiratory health. Adding maximal breathing power requires high breathing resistance and fewer exhalations and inhalations, whereas endurance training requires lower breathing resistance and multiple repetitions.

It's also important to remember that higher respiratory resistance can only be used if your airways are apparently healthy, i.e. without infection or severe respiratory disease. Exercises that require intensive breathing can stress breathing organs, so it is important to consider this especially when exercising during competition season. It is therefore recommended that intensive breathing exercises be performed outside of competition seasons.

Adding maximal breathing power

GOAL: Adding maximal ex- and inhaling power

SETTINGS:

• Breathing resistance should be approx. 60% from the maximal breathing power. As a general rule, if you are breathing 200 H2Ocm maximally, you should use 120 H2Ocm resistance, which equals setting 2 on the WellO2 device. Inhaling resistance is therefore 2/3 from the exhaling resistance i.e. 80 H2Ocm.
• Mild or medium mild is a good temperature for the water.

In order to estimate maximal breathing resistance, you can use the following information:

• Maximal exhaling power of the normal adult is 140 – 160 H2Ocm
• Maximal inhaling power of the normal adult is 80 – 120 H2Ocm
• Maximal exhaling power of the trained user is 180 – 220 H2Ocm
• Maximal inhaling power of the trained user is 120 – 160 H2Ocm
• In these cases, correct setting for the normal adult is 2 (84-96 H2Ocm), and for the trained person 3 (108-132 H2Ocm).

EXERCISE:

• Repeat exhalations and inhalations with the device for 3-5 times (one set).
• It is recommended to breathe in and out for approximately six to ten seconds.
• After each set, take a minute to rest.
• Perform app. 5 - 7 sets.

NOTE! It is recommended that the exercise is done once a day, 3-5 times a week. A week's break from exercise is recommended after a few weeks of exercising. Depending on the baseline, maximum power usually increases after two weeks of training. Exercises like this should not be done during the week prior to a competition.

Endurance training

GOAL: In this exercise, longer repetitions and lower resistance are used to increase respiratory muscles' endurance.

SETTINGS:

• As above, but the resistance is now set to about 30% of maximum breathing power. For most people, this is about 40 H2Ocm when exhaled and 25-30 H2Ocm when inhaled.
• The setting is then set to 0-1
• For trained persons, the corresponding values are 50 to 60 H2Ocm and setting 1-2.
• The exercise involves repeating ex- and inhales with the device 5-7 times (one set).
• A 10-15 second inhalation and exhalation time is recommended.
• Between sets, rest for approximately one minute.
• Do approximately 10 - 15 repetitions.

NOTE! It is recommended that the exercise is done once a day and 2-3 times a week. A week's break from exercise is recommended after a few weeks of exercising. Exercises like this should not be done during the week prior to a competition.

Sources: WellO2