breath-rite strips

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Placebo effect.

As posted in another thread, these are about as useful to runners as the Atkins diet.

They "claim" to improve ventilation.

Even if the claims were true, ventilation for most healthy adults is not a limiting factor to endurance performance. Much more important limiters are VO2max and lactate threshold.

Save your money and train-rite.

It's a fad, a gimmick. High schoolers love fads and gimmicks. Then the fad goes out of style and we laugh at there old pictures.

Paula Radcliffe is weak-minded.

I guess I was wondering if it would make a differnce indoors where the air tends to be a little stale and people do complain of shortness of breath or respiratory distress.

Who the f^ck complains about that?

i don't think it is actually a placebo effect for someone who has blocked or obstructed pathways due to colds, allergies or deviated septums. I have used them, with some success here and there, to help my breathing during bad allergy periods in the year as it pulls open the pathways. The downside is that they seem to be hit or miss in terms of which ones stay on well on which ones start pealing off and won't stay stuck on.

Look son, you're are obviously in high school but some kids named Rupp and McDougal didn't popularize anything. I don't know if you noticed from your perch on your high chair but those things got big in the mid-nineties. A certain Jerry Rice wore one. Please show some respect and climb out of your bubble.

yeh, i've used them pretty much in every race i've run for the past 4 years. I'll tell ya what, in cross and outdoor when the weather is perfect with no pollen, ya don't need them. But for someone who has allergies, they can mean the difference between forcing air in using shoulder/abdominal muscles and running like dog crap, or running like there was no problem with breathing. As for indoor, I love em. the air is so dry and stuffy that it makes a world of difference when inhaling though the nose. Call it what you will, but i believe they have helped me.

Think about it. Exactly how does applying a piece of tape over the bridge of the nose help you breathe?

It might help if you open an anatomy book first.

the ones that have some sort of plastic piece in them that help pull open the nostril pathways and enable you to breathe easier is how they help. try running a deviated septum (I don't want to get the surgery either), a really bad cold or allergies...these things can help.

I don't know about you guys, but when I run, I breathe through my MOUTH. On your next training run try it out, I think you'll be shocked at how much easier it is compared to breathing through your nose.

I'm not quite sure but I usually breath out of my mouth not my nose when I run.

if your breathing is obstructed in any way, you'd be surprised at how much that little bit can help from your nose above and beyond what you breath through your mouth.

Let me explain the placebo effect somewhat further. Good research in the past few years has shown that the placebo effect can be "real." That is, people often recover because they believe they are getting real medicine. The body is a big mystery in this area. In other words, if you really believe it is helping you breath, then you probably will perform better. So stick with it. That said, if you do a medline search for sports medicine research, you will also find some good studies showing rather clearly that those pieces of tape don't do anything to help you breath, from an anatomical perspective. The best way to look at them is like a lucky charm, in the same way that baseball players have all kind of strange mojo rituals. If wearing a breath-rite helps you get your gameface on, then wear it.

And if you believe that a bandaid on your nose itches and make you cross-eyed, it probably does!

and as mentioned, i am not talking about the one that is just a bandaid like strip, but rather the ones with the small piece of plastic which actually pulls open the pathways more than would otherwise naturally happen. so, in effect, it isn't a placebo effect in that regard. I don't like wearing them and rarely do, particularly since I feel foolish with it on, but in training I have worn it when I am extremely clogged up due to allergies and it does help with getting more air and over coming the shortness of breath and weazing. Not a cure all, and not just the bandaid, but the one that pulls open the pathways.

Knowitall, you what you're saying the claim is, is that these pieces of tape increase the surface area of the opening of the nose? That would be determined by one thing - the circumference of the nasal opening. I don't see the logic, nor the math in it.

Some numbers please.