Controlled frequency breathing (CFB) is a training technique used by swimmers in an effort to limit oxygen availability to the body and stimulate anaerobic metabolism. During CFB, a swimmer restricts breathing to one breath every six, seven, or even eight strokes per breath. The purpose of this study was to determine tb.e influen<;:e of CFB on blood lactate, heart rate, and stroke rate during front crawl stroke swimming. A maximal exertion test was used to determine peak swimming velocity. Based on this maximal test, five different workloads were used to compare CFB and normal breathing (NB). Subjects swam three-minute workloads at 55%,65%,75%, 85%, and 95% of maximal effort with two minutes rest between each workload. Blood lactate and heart rate were measured immediately after each workload and stroke rate was counted manually. Subjects were assigned to breathe normally (NB) or to restrict their breathing to one breath every eight strokes (CFB). Breathing conditions were randomly assigned. Multivariate analysis was used to compare the blood lactate, heart rate, and stroke rate between NB and CFB. Tukey's post hoc test was used when F-values were significant (p<0.05). Twenty-eight subjects (18 females, 10 males) completed the entire protocol. As expected there were significant main effects for the heart rate and blood lactate responses to increasing workloads (p<0.01). However, CFB did not alter blood lactate levels when compared to NB. Interestingly, heart rate (p=0.014) was lower and stroke rate (p=0.011) was higher in the CFB condition when compared to N'B.
","abstract_html":"<p>Controlled frequency breathing (CFB) is a training technique used by swimmers in an effort to limit oxygen availability to the body and stimulate anaerobic metabolism. During CFB, a swimmer restricts breathing to one breath every six, seven, or even eight strokes per breath. The purpose of this study was to determine tb.e influen<;:e of CFB on blood lactate, heart rate, and stroke rate during front crawl stroke swimming. A maximal exertion test was used to determine peak swimming velocity. Based on this maximal test, five different workloads were used to compare CFB and normal breathing (NB). Subjects swam three-minute workloads at 55%,65%,75%, 85%, and 95% of maximal effort with two minutes rest between each workload. Blood lactate and heart rate were measured immediately after each workload and stroke rate was counted manually. Subjects were assigned to breathe normally (NB) or to restrict their breathing to one breath every eight strokes (CFB). Breathing conditions were randomly assigned. Multivariate analysis was used to compare the blood lactate, heart rate, and stroke rate between NB and CFB. Tukey's post hoc test was used when F-values were significant (p<0.05). Twenty-eight subjects (18 females, 10 males) completed the entire protocol. As expected there were significant main effects for the heart rate and blood lactate responses to increasing workloads (p<0.01). However, CFB did not alter blood lactate levels when compared to NB. Interestingly, heart rate (p=0.014) was lower and stroke rate (p=0.011) was higher in the CFB condition when compared to N'B.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Drummond, Micah J."],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts (M.A.)","degree_level":"Thesis - Pacific Access Restricted","degree_discipline":"Sport Sciences","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Mark VanNess"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2001,"date_issued":"2001-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2001-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:36:28Z","subjects":["Swimming Crawl stroke","Respiration","Sports Studies"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/552","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Mark VanNess"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Drummond, Micah J."]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2001-01-01T08:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Sport Sciences"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis - Pacific Access Restricted"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts (M.A.)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Swimming Crawl stroke","Respiration","Sports Studies"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/552"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Controlled frequency breathing (CFB) is a training technique used by swimmers in an effort to limit oxygen availability to the body and stimulate anaerobic metabolism. During CFB, a swimmer restricts breathing to one breath every six, seven, or even eight strokes per breath. The purpose of this study was to determine tb.e influen<;:e of CFB on blood lactate, heart rate, and stroke rate during front crawl stroke swimming. A maximal exertion test was used to determine peak swimming velocity. Based on this maximal test, five different workloads were used to compare CFB and normal breathing (NB). Subjects swam three-minute workloads at 55%,65%,75%, 85%, and 95% of maximal effort with two minutes rest between each workload. Blood lactate and heart rate were measured immediately after each workload and stroke rate was counted manually. Subjects were assigned to breathe normally (NB) or to restrict their breathing to one breath every eight strokes (CFB). Breathing conditions were randomly assigned. Multivariate analysis was used to compare the blood lactate, heart rate, and stroke rate between NB and CFB. Tukey's post hoc test was used when F-values were significant (p<0.05). Twenty-eight subjects (18 females, 10 males) completed the entire protocol. As expected there were significant main effects for the heart rate and blood lactate responses to increasing workloads (p<0.01). However, CFB did not alter blood lactate levels when compared to NB. Interestingly, heart rate (p=0.014) was lower and stroke rate (p=0.011) was higher in the CFB condition when compared to N'B.
"]},{"key":"dc:source","label":"Dc Source","values":["83"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["The influence of controlled frequency breathing on blood lactate levels during graded front crawl stroke swimming"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Mark VanNess"],"dc:creator":["Drummond, Micah J."],"dc:date.available":["2001-01-01T08:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Controlled frequency breathing (CFB) is a training technique used by swimmers in an effort to limit oxygen availability to the body and stimulate anaerobic metabolism. During CFB, a swimmer restricts breathing to one breath every six, seven, or even eight strokes per breath. The purpose of this study was to determine tb.e influen<;:e of CFB on blood lactate, heart rate, and stroke rate during front crawl stroke swimming. A maximal exertion test was used to determine peak swimming velocity. Based on this maximal test, five different workloads were used to compare CFB and normal breathing (NB). Subjects swam three-minute workloads at 55%,65%,75%, 85%, and 95% of maximal effort with two minutes rest between each workload. Blood lactate and heart rate were measured immediately after each workload and stroke rate was counted manually. Subjects were assigned to breathe normally (NB) or to restrict their breathing to one breath every eight strokes (CFB). Breathing conditions were randomly assigned. Multivariate analysis was used to compare the blood lactate, heart rate, and stroke rate between NB and CFB. Tukey's post hoc test was used when F-values were significant (p<0.05). Twenty-eight subjects (18 females, 10 males) completed the entire protocol. As expected there were significant main effects for the heart rate and blood lactate responses to increasing workloads (p<0.01). However, CFB did not alter blood lactate levels when compared to NB. Interestingly, heart rate (p=0.014) was lower and stroke rate (p=0.011) was higher in the CFB condition when compared to N'B.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/552"],"dc:rights":["http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/"],"dc:source":["83"],"dc:subject":["Swimming Crawl stroke","Respiration","Sports Studies"],"dc:title":["The influence of controlled frequency breathing on blood lactate levels during graded front crawl stroke swimming"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Sport Sciences"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis - Pacific Access Restricted"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts (M.A.)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:36:28Z"}