Inspiratory Muscle Performance Following Diaphragmatic Resistance Training in Healthy Adults

Background: Diaphragmatic weight training has been found to be as effective as resistive inspiratory muscle training and better than the incentive spirometry training in patients with tetraplegia for improving respiratory muscle function. However a previous research concluded no improvement in inspiratory muscle functions among healthy subjects following diaphragmatic weight training. The present study was conducted to know the effects of diaphragmatic weight training on inspiratory muscle performance in healthy adults.

Methods: Study had between- subject experimental design. 20 subjects (8 males and 12 females), having mean age 21.1 + 0.7182 yrs., were randomly allocated into two groups. Group A was experiment and Group B was control group. Diaphragmatic resistance training was given to the experimental groups for 5 weeks. Control group was not given any kind of training. Data for vital capacity and inspiratory capacity was recorded from each subject of both the groups (experimental and control) at baseline as well as after 5 weeks.

Data analysis and Results: Dependent t-test was used for within group comparison. Independent ttest was used for comparison between group A and B. Highly significant improvement in vital capacity and inspiratory capacity was found (p=.000 and p=.000 respectively) in experimental group as compared to control group.

Conclusion: Diaphragmatic resistance training improves vital capacity and inspiratory capacity.