The Set That Breaks You Is Won With Your Breath
Rugby league is a repeat effort sport. Six tackles, a kick chase, a scramble on your own line, then you do it all again.
The player who loses his spot in the defensive line in the 70th minute rarely lacks top speed. He lacks the ability to back up effort after effort while his lungs and legs are screaming.
That is exactly the quality breath hold sprint training targets. Control your breath. Control the result.
Why Breathing Limits Repeat Efforts
Breathing is not free. In a laboratory study during maximal exercise, Harms and colleagues (1997) showed that the work of the breathing muscles can compromise blood flow to the working legs.
Think of a prop chasing a kick after three straight hit ups. It is a useful reminder that breathing and leg fatigue are linked when intensity is at its highest.
To be clear, that study did not test breath hold training. It explains why breathing matters at high intensity. It does not show that breath holds fix it.
What The Research Actually Shows
First, the honest part. We could not find a published training study of breath hold sprint work in rugby league players. The closest evidence comes from rugby union and other team sports, and we label it that way.
Closest evidence, rugby union. Fornasier Santos, Millet and Woorons (2018) put 21 highly trained rugby players through seven sessions of repeated 40 metre sprints over four weeks.
One group sprinted using voluntary hypoventilation at low lung volume, known as VHL: breathe out normally, hold at the bottom of the exhale, then perform the effort. The other group ran the same sprints breathing normally.
In a repeated sprint test to exhaustion, the VHL group went from 9.1 to 14.9 sprints, a 64% increase. The normal breathing group showed no significant change. Maximal velocity did not change in either group.
Read that last line again. This is not a speed tool. It is a fatigue resistance tool, and that is what a middle forward needs at the back end of a set.
The VHL group also trained at a lower blood oxygen saturation, averaging 90.1% versus 95.5% with normal breathing. That is a hypoxic training stress delivered at sea level, on your own training field.
Closest evidence, mixed team sports. Woorons and colleagues (2020) had 20 well trained team sport athletes complete six cycling sessions of short, very hard efforts over three weeks, with VHL or normal breathing.
Only the VHL group improved Yo Yo Intermittent Recovery Level 1 distance, from 1,111 to 1,468 metres. Best sprint velocity and 200 metre run performance did not change.
That matters for clubs managing load. The breathing stress was applied on a bike, and the benefit showed up in running.
A 2025 meta analysis by Précart and colleagues pooled the VHL repeated sprint studies. The benefits sit mainly in fatigue resistance and repeated sprint ability, not peak speed. That is the claim we make, and no more.
What This Will Not Do
The research does not show higher top speed or a higher VO2max. Anyone selling breath holds as a speed or aerobic capacity fix is overselling it.
It is also not a replacement for conditioning. In every study above, the breath hold group and the comparison group did the same sprint work. Only the breathing changed. The sprints still have to be run.
A Note On Breath Hold Warm Ups
One study tested breath holds as a warm up in elite rugby players (Wang et al., 2024). The paper does not state which code they played.
Eighteen players performed six maximal breath holds after an exhale, then an incremental cycle test. Peak oxygen uptake relative to body mass was higher after the breath hold warm ups than after a normal warm up.
This was a single session in one small group. Treat it as an interesting signal, not proof, and do not build a game day routine around it.
How We Program It For A Rugby League Squad
The research protocols are simple, and that is their strength. Here is how the evidence translates into a club week.
Nasal breathing in low intensity work. Light, slow nasal breathing through warm ups, recovery runs and skills blocks. It is the foundation that gets players comfortable with restricted breathing.
Breath holds after a normal exhale. Static holds at low lung volume before field work. Short holds, full recovery, no straining. This is the entry point before any sprint work.
VHL repeated sprints. Seven sessions across four weeks mirrors the rugby study. Exhale normally, hold, sprint up to 40 metres, breathe through the recovery. Start with fewer reps and build.
Bike based option. For players carrying soft tissue niggles or coming through heavy collision weeks, the cycling protocol applies the stimulus without extra running load.
Timing in the season. Preseason is the natural window. The published protocols ran for three to six weeks, so plan a block, then test.
Coaching Cues That Work
Exhale, do not empty. Breathe out a normal, relaxed breath. Forcing all the air out is not the target and makes the hold harder to control.
Hold, then go. Start the effort straight after the exhale and keep it short. The hold ends when the effort ends, or earlier.
Recover through the nose where possible. Take the first breath calmly, then settle back into light nasal breathing before the next rep.
Quality over volume. If technique falls apart on the field, the set is over. This is a fatigue resistance drill, not a test of willpower.
Expect discomfort, not distress. Strong air hunger is normal. Dizziness, tingling or confusion are not. Stop immediately.
Run a simple repeated sprint test before and after the block. If the number of sprints completed before performance drops off rises, it is working for your group.
Safety: never do breath holds in or near water, never while driving and never alone. Stop if you feel dizzy. Get medical clearance first if you are pregnant or have a heart, lung or blood pressure condition.
Simon Kerle has worked with the Brisbane Broncos and Australian Rugby League, and is an Advanced Oxygen Advantage instructor. The method is delivered like any other training input: measured, progressed and accountable.
This is not wellness. This is your competitive edge.
FOR ELITE ATHLETES, THIS CAN HELP YOU
✔ Complete more repeated sprints before performance drops off
✔ Hold your running quality deeper into long defensive sets
✔ Add a hypoxic training stress at sea level, with no altitude camp
✔ Apply a repeated sprint stimulus on a bike when running load needs managing
Performance takeawayBreath hold sprint training will not make your wingers faster. The evidence says it helps players repeat high intensity efforts for longer.
In a sport decided by who is still working in the final 10 minutes, that is the edge.
Want this in your program? Enquire about Vincere Protocol for your team.
