The Immediate Effects of Short-term Exercise on Diaphragmatic Breathing over Wind Instruments

Abstract

A strong diaphragm is critical to wind musicians because it helps produce a steady airstream needed for playing wind instruments. To strengthen the diaphragm, musicians use various methods. One method is exercise because it increases the breathing rate, forces the diaphragm to expand and contract, and allows for longer sustainment of breaths and greater endurance. This raises the question of whether exercise can affect the diaphragmatic breathing rate over wind instruments for wind musicians. The purpose of this research was to draw conclusions that could help rising and professional musicians improve their endurance through alternative means. The initial hypothesis was that as the duration of cardio exercise increases, there would be an increase in breath sustainment because the exercise would impel the diaphragm to expand and, subsequently, allow the lungs to fill to higher capacity. To determine this, human participants were gathered for three trials: no exercise, five minutes of exercise, and ten minutes of exercise. Each participant performed cardio exercises, after which they breathed into a breath builder. The amount of time they could sustain the ball in the air was measured as were the average times for each of the three groups of participants. The results of the ANOVA test demonstrated that F(2, 5.07) = 0.0081, p<0.05, indicating that the null hypothesis­­—that the mean durations of breath sustainment for the three trials were equivalent—could be rejected. The results demonstrated that exercise did not have the hypothesized immediate effect of increasing breath sustainment and diaphragmatic breathing.