Acute psychophysiological responses during exercise while using resistive respiratory devices: A systematic review

Different studies have observed that respiratory muscle training (RMT) improve the endurance and strength of the respiratory muscles, having a positive impact on performance of endurance sports. Nevertheless, it remains to be clarified how to improve the efficiency of such training. The objective of this systematic review was to evaluate the acute physiological responses produced by training the respiratory muscles during exercise with flow resistive devices because such information may support us improve the efficiency of this type of training. A search in the Medline, Science Direct, Web of Science and Scopus databases was conducted, following the PRISMA guidelines. The methodological quality of the articles was assessed using the PEDro scale. Nineteen studies met the inclusion criteria and a total of 212 subjects were included in the studies. The RMT method used in all studies was flow resistive loading, whereas the constant load exercise was the most common type of exercise among the studies. The results obtained seem to indicate that the use of this type of training during exercise reduces the performance, the lactate (La-) values and the ventilation, whereas the end - tidal partial pressure of carbon dioxide (P-CO2) is increased.