Differences in respirogram phase between taekwondo poomsae athletes and nonathletes.
Yong-Sub Shin, Seung-Min Yang, Mee-Young Kim and 10 others
PMID 27799678WHAT IT FOUND
Young male taekwondo poomsae athletes had a different forced breathing curve than nonathletes, with a larger inspiratory area and higher expiratory slopes.
The study compares groups and does not test a treatment.
Key findings
01Taekwondo poomsae athletes had a higher FEV1.0/FVC ratio than nonathletes (89.7 ± 6.5% versus 84.1 ± 6.1%).
02The inspiratory area of the forced vital capacity graph was larger in athletes (25,184.5 ± 3,470.4) than nonathletes (23,728.6 ± 6,598.0).
03The first three slopes of the A area on the forced vital capacity graph were higher in athletes (12.4 ± 2.8, 7.7 ± 1.5 and 2.7 ± 1.6) than in nonathletes (10.3 ± 3.1, 5.6 ± 2.4 and 1.9 ± 1.0).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The athlete group was small: 13 participants, compared with 95 nonathletes. The study measured people once and did not assign a treatment, so it cannot show that taekwondo training changed breathing. The groups differed in age and body size: nonathletes were older (24.9 ± 2.8 years) and athletes were younger (20.6 ± 0.9 years), and nonathletes had larger chest and abdominal circumference values. The respirogram areas and slopes are graph measures based on pixel values, not standard clinical units. The Discussion links the results to type II muscle fibres, but the methods describe only breathing and circumference measurements.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that taekwondo training improves breathing or that these graph differences are clinically useful. The study measured 13 athletes and 95 nonathletes once, did not test an intervention, and the groups differed in age and body size.