Article

Inspiratory Muscle Strength Training (IMST): Boosting Your Breathing Power

Published on Thursday, March 12, 2026
by Alexander Koch

Health & Wellness

What is Inspiratory Muscle Strength Training (IMST)?

Targeting the Muscles We Use to Inhale

Breathing air into our lungs requires a muscular effort. Specifically, the diaphragm is the prime muscle that allows us to inspire. The diaphragm is a flat muscle that, when it contracts, raises the rib cage, expanding the lungs and allowing air to rush in to balance the pressure. The diaphragm is a hard-working muscle, as we are always breathing. Fortunately, it is well-suited to its task as the diaphragm is very resistant to fatigue, much more so than any of our skeletal muscles.

The diaphragm is assisted by the external intercostals, which also work to expand the ribs. Both of these muscles go to work every time we inhale.

If you are wondering, exhalation is usually a passive process that requires no muscular action. When we need to exhale forcefully (such as during exercise or when blowing up a balloon), we use our abdominal muscles and the internal intercostals to draw the rib cage down more quickly.

How IMST Works: Resistance for Respiratory Muscles

Inspiratory muscle strength training (IMST) uses resistive devices to increase the pressure required to inhale. This makes the diaphragm work harder than usual to inflate the lungs. As with any muscle, applying transient stress will make it adapt and become stronger. In theory, IMST can strengthen the inspiratory muscles and, consequently, make breathing feel easier.

Key Benefits of IMST for Health and Performance

Enhancing Respiratory Function and Lung Capacity

IMST works! Meaning it consistently increases maximum pulmonary inspiratory strength (PImax) when performed on most days of the week. Interventions over 6 weeks using resistance of 50%+ PImax have also improved exercise capacity.

Improving Exercise Tolerance and Athletic Performance

Fatigue of the respiratory muscles can impair exercise performance. So by strengthening the respiratory muscles, IMT can make them more resistant to fatigue and improve exercise performance in the general population. Improvements in exercise capacity from IMST appear more likely in subjects who are less fit and in those with longer exercise performance.

Potential Benefits for Blood Pressure, Sleep Apnea, and patients with cardiorespiratory disorders

Hypertension, or chronically elevated resting blood pressure, impacts almost half of US adults. IMST has been found to reduce systolic and diastolic blood pressure and lower resting heart rate.

Sleep apnea, a condition characterized by repeated interruptions in breathing during the night, is a common complaint. A recent meta-analysis of clinical trials examining the impact of IMST on patients with sleep apnea concluded that IMST improved sleep quality and reduced daytime sleepiness.

Patients with respiratory disorders, such as COPD, are often referred to supervised exercise in a pulmonary rehabilitation program. In a comparison study, IMST was found to improve quality of life and exercise capacity in populations with lung disease, though to a lesser extent than pulmonary rehabilitation, so IMST may best be used as an adjunct therapy in that population.

A meta-analysis of clinical trials evaluating IMST in asthma patients found consistent improvements in PImax, but only mild evidence of improvements in exercise capacity or quality of life. Likewise, heart disease patients who trained with IMST showed significant improvement in PImax but no effect on 6 min walk performance.

Implementing IMST

All told, IMST has shown potential to improve health in a variety of ways. In general, these improvements are most noticeable in people who are less fit or have some health issues (hypertension, sleep apnea) at the onset of training.

The time burden of IMST is quite low, with 5-10-minute daily training sessions shown to increase PImax. The financial cost of IMST equipment is not prohibitive either, as popular IMST devices retail for $50-100. It may be worth your while to explore training your inspiratory muscles. You should expect to notice benefits within 4-8 weeks of starting.

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