Mechanical work of breathing during muscular exercise

¹ Istituto di Fisiologia Umana, Università di Milano, Milano, Italy; and Institut E. Malvoz, Liège, Belgium

The mechanical work of breathing was measured during muscular exercise on three normal subjects from simultaneous records of intra-esophageal pressure and tidal volume. At the maximal values of ventilation attained during exercise, the mechanical work of breathing amounts to about 100–120 cal/min. The maximum pulmonary ventilation useful for external work is attained when the energy cost of breathing due to any additional unit of air ventilated (dW_re/dV) equals the additional energy provided by the same change in ventilation (dW_tot/ dV), i.e. when dW_re/dV = dW_tot/dV. The maximal values of ventilation obtained experimentally during muscular exercise are in good agreement with that assumption, if the mechanical efficiency of the respiratory muscles is taken as 0.25. This implies that the mechanical efficiency of the respiratory muscles is the same as that of the muscles involved in performing useful external work. The work of breathing is of relatively small magnitude: during exercise the work of a breathing cycle amounts, at maximum, to 8% of the maximum potential work of breathing, calculated from the pressure-volume diagram of the respiratory apparatus, and the energy cost of respiration represents no more than 3% of the total energy consumed by the subject.

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