363: Why Breathing Frequency May Become Our Best Measure of Training Stress
Mar 20, 2025
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Dr. Stephen Seiler, a leading physiologist from the University of Agder renowned for his research on polarized training, discusses an innovative project focusing on breathing frequency as a training metric. He explores how this approach may better align with perceived exertion than heart rate, offering deeper insights into athletes' performance. The conversation also covers the complex mechanics of breathing, the potential of wearable technology in measuring exertion, and the importance of personalized respiratory training for optimizing athletic performance.
Breathing frequency may serve as a more accurate measure of perceived exertion than traditional metrics like heart rate and power.
The relationship between perceived effort and increased breathing rates offers a potential solution to inconsistencies seen in training assessments.
Advancements in wearable technology could facilitate real-time monitoring of breathing frequency, enhancing the athlete's ability to assess training stress accurately.
Deep dives
Training Load Metrics
Measuring training load is crucial for understanding the stress placed on an athlete's body. Traditional metrics like power and heart rate serve as surrogates, but both have limitations. For instance, factors such as sleep quality or hydration levels can significantly affect heart rate readings. In contrast, power outputs can vary based on daily performance conditions, leading to inconsistencies in training assessments.
The Importance of Perceived Exertion
Perceived exertion, or Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE), is highlighted as one of the most dependable metrics for athletes. This method relies on an individual’s self-assessment of their effort level, potentially overcoming the discrepancies seen in other metrics. Interestingly, breathing frequency, which correlates closely with RPE, presents a new avenue for quantifying perceived exertion in a more objective manner. This development suggests that breathing patterns during workouts can serve as reliable indicators of physical effort.
Breathing Frequency as a Metric
Breathing frequency is posited as a valuable new measure of training stress, controlled by the brain's perception of exertion. When athletes experience fatigue, their perceived effort increases, which in turn raises their breathing rate. Unlike heart rate, which can remain stable while power output fluctuates, breathing frequency consistently reflects the intensity of effort exerted. This connection could potentially fill gaps left by existing metrics, especially during interval training, where heart rate may not accurately depict the athlete’s exertion level.
Technological Advances in Measurement
Advancements in wearable technology are set to revolutionize how breathing frequency is monitored in real-time during training. A novel device currently being developed aims to measure both breathing frequency and tidal volume, offering an integrated approach to assessing ventilation. This innovation looks to simplify the complex relationship between various physiological metrics, bridging the gap between subjective experience and quantifiable data. The collaboration between researchers and technology developers is essential for ensuring that these systems are both accurate and user-friendly for athletes.
The Future of Breathing Metrics in Training
The potential integration of breathing frequency with existing metrics such as heart rate and power output presents a holistic method for evaluating performance. This synergy could lead to a new understanding of training stress, allowing coaches and athletes to make better-informed decisions. However, care must be taken to ensure that the new metrics do not complicate training regimens but rather enhance their effectiveness. Overall, breathing frequency metrics could ultimately provide richer insights into athletes' physical limits and recovery needs.
Dr. Stephen Seiler joins us to talk about his new project developing a breathing frequency measure and why it may match up better with perceived exertion than heart rate or power.
