Benefit of breath-holding training on the concept of recreational freediving in healthy adults – a systematic literature review
Authors: Solikhin Muhamad Nanang , Sumaryanti Sumaryanti , Sulistiyono Sulistiyono , Fauzi Fauzi , Arbanto Bonifacius 
Published: March 2024

Background. breathing is a crucial process that commences at the moment of birth and ceases with one's passing. Through breathing, essential oxygen is supplied to all the body's parts, organs, and cells, sustaining life. Some numerous breathing techniques to optimize the advantages of breath-holding exercises. Freediving training is believed to be able to increase respiratory efficiency. The exercise is done by controlling of breathing and a stable heart rate so human can hold breath for a while, dive deeper and dive safely. These techniques are also employed in the preparation and meditation of postures, enhancing the focus and clarity of the mind to maximize the benefits of the practice.
Methods. All studies were screened on an individual basis, considering a set of specific criteria and key data such as affiliation of authors, type of study, year of publication, type of breath-hold exercise benefit in healthy. The study was designed in accordance with the standards of PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta Analyzes).
Results. Based on the systematic review process, selected and extracted data for each article obtained, a detailed description of the researcher's name, title, research design, respondents, strengths and research results, and research limitations are summarized.
The inclusion criteria: International Journal and Research Design include Controlled Intervention Studies, Observational Cohort and Cross-Sectional Studies, Case-Control Studies, Case Series Studies, and Articles containing elements of breath hold benefit training. Quality assessment tools of the paper use NHLBI with low, and medium, assessment criteria. In this systematic review process, 230 Article collections were using Scopus, Pubmed and GS Databases with the keywords namely breath hold "AND" training “AND” benefit.. The stage continued by searching for the duplicate articles and obtained 34 out of 230 databases so that 196 articles were obtained before the screening stage. The first screening stage continued by excluding the title and abstract and obtained 160 articles from the 196 databases, so 36 articles were obtained at the screening stage. The next stage was eligibility, excluding 11 articles based on IMRAD (Introduction, Method, Result, and Discussion)is not clear, excluding 5 article Systematic Review, and excluding 6 article study reports were not included where finally meet 14 articles were evaluated for eligibility based on the title and abstract as well as the entire article excluded on inclusion and exclusion were obtained that matched the article criteria to be reviewed in this study
Conclusion.This comprehensive review highlights a number of studies exploring the relationship between breath-holding exercises and associated health benefits. These studies cover a wide range of aspects, including the impact of physical activity on freedive training, the benefits of diaphragmatic breathing on lung function, and the effectiveness of mental imagery (MI) training in improving breath-hold performance. Additionally, studies have shown significant improvements in cardiorespiratory function in individuals with bronchial asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cancer. These improvements were evidenced by positive changes in pulse rate, blood pressure, respiratory function measurements, and overall quality of life.