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Combined Breathing and Core Training Improved Swim Times—but More Was Not Clearly Better - breathingreport.com is a page on The Breathing Report, originally at https://breathingreport.com/combined-breathing-and-core-training-improved-swim-times-but-more-was-not-clearly-better.
A six-week program combining inspiratory-muscle resistance with core exercises improved swim times in young competitors, but adding both components did not produce a clear advantage over training the breathing muscles alone.
That distinction is central to the randomized trial published in the Journal of Sports Sciences by Ade Pratama, Weerapong Chidnok and Tossaporn Yimlamai. The researchers assigned 25 competitive male swimmers ages 15 to 20 to core training, inspiratory muscle training or a combined program, completed three times weekly alongside usual swim practice.
Inspiratory muscle training uses a threshold or resistance device that makes inhalation progressively harder. In the study, the load was set at 60 to 80 percent of maximal inspiratory pressure. The intervention is strength training for muscles used to inhale—not slow breathing,
meditation or unsupervised breath holding.
Swimming creates an unusual respiratory demand. An athlete must fit inhalation into the narrow opening created by a stroke, exhale into the water and coordinate ventilation with technique. The inspiratory muscles also work against water pressure and body position. Fatigue in that system could affect breathing comfort, pacing or mechanics, although the new trial did not establish which mechanism drove performance.
After six weeks, only the combined group showed a statistically significant improvement in swimming time from its own baseline, a reduction of 4.74 percent. The improvement was greater than in the core-only group, but not statistically greater than in the inspiratory-training group. That result does not prove the two programs were equivalent; with only eight or nine swimmers in each arm, the study may not have been large enough to detect a difference.
Both the combined and inspiratory-only groups improved maximal inspiratory pressure and inspiratory endurance. The combined and core-only groups improved measures of core function. The experiment therefore suggests that respiratory resistance contributed meaningfully, while leaving open whether the larger program earns its additional training time.
The finding also sits within a mixed evidence base. A 2024 systematic review of inspiratory training in swimmers found potential respiratory benefits, while an earlier study in elite swimmers reported stronger inspiratory muscles without a corresponding performance gain.
The new trial was short, male-only and lacked a usual-training-only control. Its results cannot be assumed to apply to elite adults, women, open-water racers or athletes in other sports.
For coaches, the study supports a measured test: keep pool training stable, add progressive inspiratory resistance and track race-relevant outcomes, perceived effort and adherence. The experiment becomes useful when the stopwatch changes—not simply when another exercise is added to the program.
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This content is drawn from The Breathing Report; the specific supporting URL is https://breathingreport.com/combined-breathing-and-core-training-improved-swim-times-but-more-was-not-clearly-better.
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