Press
"Besides regimented breathing exercises and paying attention to his heart rate, Froning also trains with an AIRWAAV, a 'performance mouthpiece' that's designed to "perfect the most efficient way of opening the airway and optimizing performance.""
"Yankees star Harrison Bader credits his strange mouthguard as calming influence, explains how it helped him achieve postseason success."
“I used the Airwaav for more than a month. During that time I did strength work, high intensity
dynamic sessions and long endurance runs. The biggest benefit I noticed was the positive effect on my breathing.”
"There are seven real research-based and user-backed benefits to moving with this mouthpiece. The mouthpiece’s main mission is to help keep your airway as open as possible — and research shows that it does so effectively."
"Your tongue is a muscle. And just like any other muscle in the body, you can train it to improve its function. The AIRWAAV helps train and position your tongue for optimal performance by improving the width of your airway."
"I noticed in metcons and during my lifts I was able to focus on my breathing and on the goal of the workout in a way I hadn’t before. The AIRWAAV shifted my mindset from just going into a workout without any goals in mind to going into a workout and wanting to get something more out of it."
"While breathing has been the main reason CrossFit athletes like Froning, Dallin Pepper and Abbie Domit have turned to AIRWAAV, the company’s researchers say it offers various other benefits well beyond improved breathing efficiency. It also provides an edge when it comes to endurance, strength, recovery, mobility (yes, mobility) and even sleep."
"Abbie Domit made her first appearance at the CrossFit Games this year and was almost never without her AIRWAAV mouthpiece throughout the competition weekend. The mouthpiece brand has become a staple performance tool for many elite athletes seeking to improve their athletic performance."
"Pepper first adopted the AIRWAAV in 2021. “I figured if it can help me in my workouts as well as in my lifting, I might as well give it a try,” he explained. “After a couple of days, I realized that I really enjoyed it and I really liked what it did for me.”"
It isn’t a secret that a custom-fitted mouthpiece improves performance, but why? The answer is a combination of subtle effects it has on airflow and how the body responds as a result.
To compete at the highest levels of CrossFit competition, many might think that strength, speed, agility, endurance, stamina, conditioning, form, or a plethora of other physical aspects are most important to elite performance. But ask four-time Fittest Man on Earth, Rich Froning, and you might get an answer often overlooked: breathing.
