Twenty Minutes. Twice a Week.
Every coach asks the same question first: where does this fit in a week that is already full?
Breathing work often fails in teams for a simple reason. It gets treated as an optional extra, done when there is time, which means it rarely gets done at all.
The good news is that the published breath hold sprint studies did not replace training. They added a short, structured block to what athletes were already doing. Here is how to do the same, using the doses that were actually tested.
What the Studies Actually Prescribed
The method is repeated sprint training with voluntary hypoventilation at low lung volume. Athletes breathe out normally, hold, and sprint on that hold. The research protocols are remarkably consistent.
Rugby union. Fornasier Santos et al. (2018) used seven sessions over 4 weeks: 2 to 3 sets of 6 to 8 all out sprints over 40 metres, 22 to 25 seconds between sprints, 3 minutes between sets. Sprints to exhaustion rose from 9.1 to 14.9 in the breath hold group. The normal breathing group showed no significant change.
Basketball. Lapointe et al. (2020) ran eight sessions over 4 weeks, added to the players' usual training: 3 sets of 6 to 8 all out sprints of about 6 seconds, 24 seconds between sprints, 3 minutes between sets. Sprint decrement in the repeated sprint test fell by 24.5% in the breath hold group, against 5.9% in the normal breathing group. Fastest sprint did not clearly change.
Women's soccer. Ait Ali Braham et al. (2024) used 12 sessions over 6 weeks: 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 9 all out sprints over 30 metres, 25 seconds between sprints, 5 minutes between sets. Sprints completed to exhaustion rose from 19.3 to 22.6.
Across the 10 trials pooled in the 2025 meta analysis by Précart et al., programs ran for 2 to 6 weeks, mostly at two sessions a week. Benefits showed up mainly as better fatigue resistance across repeated sprints, with no effect on best sprint time.
The Standard Dose
Pull those protocols together and a clear template emerges.
Frequency: two sessions a week.
Block length: 4 to 6 weeks, or 7 to 12 sessions.
Session: 2 to 3 sets of 6 to 9 sprints, each sprint about 6 seconds or 30 to 40 metres.
Recovery: roughly 20 to 25 seconds between sprints, 3 to 5 minutes between sets.
Breathing: a normal exhale, then the hold, then the sprint. Not a big breath in.
Progression: start at the lower end, 2 sets of 6, and build toward 3 sets of 8 or 9 over the block. Start with shorter holds over a few strides in the first session so athletes learn the exhale before they sprint on it.
The time cost is small. Three sets of eight 6 second sprints on a 30 second cycle, with 3 minutes between sets, comes to roughly 18 minutes including rest. Fit a proper warm up before it and you are still well under half an hour.
One limit to be clear about: nobody has yet published a tested maintenance dose after the block ends. If you continue at a lower frequency in season, treat it as a coaching decision and monitor it, not as an evidence based prescription.
Where It Sits in the Week
Breath hold sprints are a high intensity, high fatigue stimulus. Program them where you would program any repeated sprint conditioning. The placement advice below is our coaching recommendation, not something the trials tested.
Preseason. This is the ideal window. Run a full 4 to 6 week block, two sessions a week, ideally on your existing conditioning days so it replaces some normal breathing sprint volume rather than piling on top.
In season, one game a week. Place the two sessions early and mid week, well clear of game day. Avoid the day before a game and the day straight after.
Session order. Put the sprints after the warm up and any speed work, while athletes are fresh enough to sprint all out. Top speed work stays on normal breathing; breath hold sprints do not improve maximal velocity.
Two game weeks. Drop to one breath hold session, or pause the block and resume when the schedule allows. Fatigue management comes first.
Group size. Run it in small groups so one coach can watch every athlete's exhale and every hold. A coach who cannot see the athletes cannot supervise them.
Testing. Copy the studies. Run a repeated sprint test to exhaustion or a fixed sprint set with sprint decrement before and after the block. That is what changed in the research, so that is what to measure.
The Daily Layer
Outside the sprint block, the rest of the method takes minutes and costs nothing in fatigue.
Warm ups: light, slow nasal breathing through the general warm up sets the tone and keeps breathing controlled.
Cool downs and between sessions: a few minutes of slow breathing. A 2022 meta analysis by Laborde et al. of 223 studies found that voluntary slow breathing increases vagally mediated heart rate variability during a session, immediately after one, and after multi session programs. That evidence is not specific to elite athletes, and a short term rise in HRV is not the same as better performance, so keep the claim modest.
Check ins: a quick BOLT score is a useful self check of breathlessness and CO2 sensitivity. It is not a validated performance predictor, so log it, but never select on it.
Safety note: never do breath holds in or near water, never while driving and never alone. Stop if dizzy. Athletes who are pregnant or have a heart, lung or blood pressure condition need medical clearance before starting.
FOR ELITE ATHLETES, THIS CAN HELP YOU
✔ Improve repeated sprint ability with two short sessions a week
✔ Reduce sprint decrement across repeated efforts, as seen in basketball and soccer
✔ Add a tested stimulus without adding much total training time
✔ Measure the change with a simple repeated sprint test
Performance takeawayTwo sessions a week for 4 to 6 weeks. That is the dose the research tested.
Control your breath. Control the result.
Want this in your program? Enquire about Vincere Protocol for your team.
