Slow breathing added no clear performance benefit during sprint training
A randomized trial found no detectable extra performance gains from slow breathing, while nighttime heart rate increased slightly in the breathing group compared with controls.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
The trial did not find an added performance advantage from slow breathing alongside sprint interval training. Both groups trained, and gains did not differ significantly between them. Nighttime heart rate increased slightly with the breathing program compared with control, but this isolated physiological result does not establish worse recovery or health.
This abstract-based summary has neither detailed sleep results nor group differences in heart-rate variability, limiting assessment of the authors' broader conclusion about recovery.
What researchers found
Running-performance gains
Breathing plus sprint training versus sprint training alone over 4 weeks: P > .05. This does not establish equivalent effects.
What researchers measured
Researchers assessed running performance, nighttime heart rate, heart-rate variability and sleep while participants followed the training programs. Adding breathing was intended to support recovery and lead to greater performance improvements.
How to read the null result
The absence of a statistically significant group difference means an extra performance benefit was not demonstrated in this trial. It does not show that the breathing routines have identical effects in every training context.
The original publication
No Evidence for the Efficacy of Slow-Paced Breathing as a Recovery Strategy After Sprint Interval Training.
Raidl P, Wessner B, Laister S et al.
Int J Sports Physiol Perform · 2026
- PubMed ID
- 41569822
- Record checked
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