Effect of Various Pranayama Practices in Competitive Swimmers: A Review

Pranayama (yogic breathing) an essential component of Yoga, is said to influence both physiological and psychological aspects of humans. But its effectiveness in the field of sports especially in swimmers are less explored. The online databases were searched for the citations with “Pranayama, Yogic Breathing, competitive swimmers, competitive swimming, nadishudi pranayama, bhastrika pranayama, ujjayi pranayama, Bhramari Pranayama and Kapalabhathi” as keywords from the date of inception of the databases till October 2020. Experimental papers in English, revealing the effects of yogic breathing in competitive swimmers, effects of yogic breathing in lung capacity, lung function and psychological system and also papers showing the effect of pranayama on metabolic pathway were included in the review. The studies that had used yogic breathing in combination with other Yoga practices, studies in languages other than English, and whose abstracts were unavailable were excluded from the review. From the data gathered it was evident that pranayama has positive health effect and performance enhancement in competitive swimmers. Regular practice provides physiological and psychological wellbeing. Pranayama or yogic breathing act as a physiological stimulation. It has a multi-systemic effect in the human body. The rhythmic, slow and forceful inspiration and expiration in pranayama strengthen respiratory muscles, improve the expiratory power, and decrease resistance to the airflow in the lungs and increase voluntary breath holding time. Moreover, it brings sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system into balance. This paper intends to explore the effect of a set of pranayama practice in competitive swimmers.