Professor Alison McConnell is an established physiologist and inventor of POWERbreathe, a device that has helped the elderly and athletes alike to gain strength in their breathing. She is currently Professor of Applied Physiology at Brunel University.
Alison gained her undergraduate degree in biological sciences at the University of Birmingham, followed by a Ph.D in respiratory physiology at the University of London. She later went on the become the founding Director of the Sports Medicine & Human Performance Unit at the University of Birmingham – a time in which she successfully brought her first invention to the market.
Alison invented POWERbreathe in recognition of the limitations that breathing difficulties present in athletes and patients with respiratory illnesses. Dubbed “dumbbells for the diaphragm”, the invention strengthens the diaphragm and the rib cage muscles through a form of resistance training. A leading expert on breathing training techniques, Alison has worked with Olympic athletes all over the world to optimise their performance, and has been instrumental to the prescription of respiratory muscle training for patients with lung disease in the UK National Health Service.
Alison has published widely on the application of breathing training to sport, and in 2013, authored evidence-based guidelines on respiratory muscle training in the clinical setting. She is a Fellow of the British Association of Sport and Exercise Science, and a member of the Physiological Society and the European Respiratory Society. Earlier this month, she was appointed onto the Science Council’s top 100 list of UK practising scientists.
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