Airofit – Anyone?

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Llanberis
Posts: 296
Joined: Tue Jun 23, 2020 12:10 am

by Llanberis

Came across this breathing training tool – anyone here has experience with it? I did a quick search and saw many positive reviews without any negative comment in general (only critism I saw is their app doesn't seem to work that well). Can anyone share your real world experience with it?

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Raimundo
Posts: 357
Joined: Fri Jun 26, 2020 4:55 pm
Location: Flanders

by Raimundo

Here, from a grade A+, bull$hit free reviewer.

https://cyclingtips.com/2020/08/ct-tech ... -and-more/

Llanberis
Posts: 296
Joined: Tue Jun 23, 2020 12:10 am

by Llanberis

Thanks! Always love his reviews; sounds like he hasn't got to a conclusion yet? I was told this thing may help with respiratory problem, but reamin somewhat sceptical..

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Raimundo
Posts: 357
Joined: Fri Jun 26, 2020 4:55 pm
Location: Flanders

by Raimundo

Me too, i trust the guy, i choose a lot of gear due to some of his reviews, if he is this skeptic about something, then, probably (probably is the right word) i wont even consider it. but to each its own.

But the thing is, from the 50 something comments on the comment section around 40 are over Airofit, and over there the skepticism trend continues... And i'm already saying this with a pinch of salt...

Considering the archetypal road cyclist looks like Tiesj benoot (T-rex Shape), and that the bigger the muscle, the more energy it saps from your reserves, than i would share my opinion that the mastery of Yoga breathing techniques is far more helpful for an endurance athlete than a true development of the breathing muscles themselves (as in Airofit)... Especially if you look at it from an holistic perspective, and considering your fit on the bike is well balanced

I don't remember if it was LeMond or some other ultra successful road cyclist that defended that the upper body was solely a vessel for the lungs, and that the least resistence your breathing muscles provided, the better...

Unfortunatelly (or not) i have no experience with Airofit nor do i oppose the concept, so i really can't help you on this one.

Now, if you're a mountain biker, fell free to scrap most of what i just said. :mrgreen:

AJS914
Posts: 5392
Joined: Tue Jan 28, 2014 6:52 pm

by AJS914

Llanberis wrote:
Mon Nov 23, 2020 5:45 pm
Always love his reviews; sounds like he hasn't got to a conclusion yet?
There are many studies that show inspiratory muscle training to have some benefit. I seem to recall that it was 3-4% on a 40km TT. I bought a PowerBreathe to test out the theory. Did it work? Well, my inpiratory muscles got stronger because over time I could do the training session on harder and harder settings.

I doubt James Huang is ever going to come to a conclusion because I doubt he does enough training/racing at threshold to notice a difference.

Llanberis
Posts: 296
Joined: Tue Jun 23, 2020 12:10 am

by Llanberis

Thank you Raimundo / AJS914 both for your input, appreciate it! Funny enough, I did try yoga before as a holistic approach to aid physical condition, but didn't carry on as I try to fit in more training on the roads / trails (both cyclling & running). I always have a problem of "legs feel alright, but breathing seems to struggle to catch up" during each trainning session (partially due to my pre-existing condition). My Garmin seems to think otherwise, as it keeps showing me good result of VO2 max in comparision to other people in the same age group, which really baffles me. Will look into options you guys mentioned as I'm keen to break this barrier..

I do rememer James Huang at one point mentioend that he mainly rides to explore, so probably not much hardcore pushing on product testing like you said. But still, big fan of his. :thumbup:

petromyzon
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Joined: Mon Apr 05, 2010 4:14 pm

by petromyzon

Generally speaking if you do exercise testing on healthy people with no lung pathology the lungs do not limit their performance - there is spare capacity at that point and the limitation occurs later on in the oxygen cascade.

Hexsense
Posts: 3254
Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2015 12:41 am
Location: USA

by Hexsense

I found it actually helpful in very limited cases.
1) Ignore lung capacity training. It's useless for cyclist. We never have to hold our breath. Go for resporitory strength training sessions.
2) Even when ignoring lung capacity and train only for resporitory strength (strengthen diaphragm and muscle related to breathing), it'll only help if you have one of following symptoms:
-- your breathing muscle give up during a long hard effort. During hard ride, I used to experienced this bad enough that I felt sore to breath in deep.
-- you feel that it is hard to breath in certain aero positions (many core muscles perform dual functions- can be used as stabilizer as well as help breathing).
There, if breathing muscles used to be a weakness. Strengthen them helps. It did helped me as I had both of these symptoms.
Otherwise if you never feel short of breath or pain to breath, nah. Don't bother. Or if you really want to try, the much cheaper non smart one ($86 Airofit-Basic) is good enough. The $299 Airofit Pro is like interactive smart trainer. Nice, but not necessary.

MariusRO
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Joined: Sun Aug 19, 2018 10:40 am

by MariusRO

almost bought this, good read ;-)

CustomMetal
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by CustomMetal

Been using it for a couple of weeks. Have been seeing an improvement. These are all breathing exercises and techniques that have been around for centuries, however this takes all the thinking out of it which with a young kid and hectic work schedule means I actually do it
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TheSor
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Jul 08, 2021 8:55 am

by TheSor

Hi I'm using it almost half a year, and I can say, that it's really good device, which helped me in my breathing problems during swimming. In fast intervals on a bike helped me as well. If you'd like, I've made a longer review with all details and results which AirOFit gave me: https://thesorwbiegu.pl/en/airofit-review/

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