Effects of Buteyko Breathing Technique on Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Physiological Parameters among Recreational Athletes: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Buteyko Breathing Technique (BBT) can significantly increase cardiorespiratory endurance. The breath-holding effect of the BBT is the condition of maintaining high carbon dioxide levels all the time, which can lower blood pH, causing more oxygen to be released into the tissues and increasing cardiorespiratory endurance. BBT is about slow and shallow nasal breathing, aiming to prevent hyperventilation, which may consequently increase parasympathetic activity. The objective of this study is to see whether daily BBT practice over five weeks would increase cardiorespiratory endurance, decrease perceived stress, improve sleep and lower resting heart rate and resting blood pressure.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of the Buteyko breathing technique on cardiorespiratory fitness and physiological parameters among recreational athletes.

60 recreational athletes will be included in the study and randomly divided into two groups: Group A (n=30) will receive Buteyko breathing along with conventional training (6 sessions/week), whereas Group B (n=30) will continue with the conventional training programme only for 6 weeks. The outcome measures, cardiorespiratory fitness, resting heart rate, and resting blood pressure, will be measured at the baseline and after the completion of 6 weeks of interventions.

Data will be analysed by using statistical software, the statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS). Normality will be done based upon the sample size. The sample size is 60, so we will use the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. If the data are normally distributed, a parametric test will be used. For within-group paired t-tests will be used. For between-group, independent t-tests will be used for analysis. If the data are not normally distributed, then non-parametric tests, i.e., the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, will be used for within-group analysis, and the Mann-Whitney test will be used for between-group analysis.