Written from firsthand experience with a deviated septum and checked against clinical sources. We make Ventriq Nasal Strips, so we are always upfront that a strip relieves symptoms rather than fixing the structural problem. Read our methodology or our editorial policy.
For CrossFit athletes, the best nasal strips are sport strips built with strong spring tension and an adhesive that holds through burpees, wall balls and box jumps without sliding off mid WOD. A strip will not add reps to your board or shave time off your clock, but it reduces the resistance your nose creates on every breath, which matters a lot when a workout has you breathing hard for ten or twenty minutes straight. If your nose tends to collapse under load, or you have a structural issue like a deviated septum, a strip compensates for some of that restriction before the clock even starts.
I started using nasal strips for sleep after a Consultant Otolaryngologist at a private hospital in Dublin diagnosed me with a significantly deviated septum and recommended septorhinoplasty. I played rugby for over a decade and my nose took plenty of damage along the way, broken more than once in collisions. I put the surgery off to keep playing, and I built Ventriq to give myself a way to breathe properly in the meantime. I noticed the difference at night first, then in the gym. Anyone who has done a long metcon knows the exact moment I mean: your nose cannot keep up with the demand, you switch to your mouth, and your breathing turns ragged just when you need to stay calm and controlled.
Why Nasal Breathing Matters in CrossFit
CrossFit workouts are built around variety and intensity rather than a single steady pace. A WOD might move you from heavy deadlifts to sprints to gymnastics movements inside the same ten minutes, and your breathing has to adapt to each of those demands without warning. How efficiently you breathe between movements has a direct effect on how quickly your heart rate settles and how much you have left for the next round.
Nasal breathing slows your breathing rate, warms and humidifies the air before it reaches your lungs, and triggers a calmer autonomic response than mouth breathing. The nose also produces nitric oxide as air passes through it. Nitric oxide acts as a bronchodilator and a vasodilator, meaning nasal breathing helps open your airways and relax your blood vessels, improving oxygen uptake at a tissue level. When you are forced onto your mouth because your nose cannot move enough air, you lose all of that.
The catch is that the nose struggles to move enough air at very high intensity. Part of that is a normal limit everyone shares, especially once your heart rate climbs during something like Fran or a heavy AMRAP. But for people with a structural issue it is worse. A deviated septum reduces the cross sectional area of one nasal passage, and combined with the nasal cycle, where the tissue inside your nose alternates which side is more congested on a roughly four hour rotation, the restricted side can feel almost completely blocked halfway through a workout.
How Nasal Strips Help CrossFit Athletes
A nasal strip works on the outside of the nose. It spans the lower cartilage and uses a spring action to lift the lateral nasal wall outward, widening the internal diameter at the nasal valve. The nasal valve is the narrowest point in your entire airway, and it is the same spot that pinches inward if you press gently on the side of your nose while breathing in hard.
For a CrossFit athlete with a deviated septum, the strip helps most on the side where the deviation crowds the valve area. For an athlete with no structural issue, the main benefit is stopping dynamic valve collapse, where the cartilage gets pulled inward under heavy breathing load, something that happens often during a max effort set or the final round of a WOD. In both cases the practical payoff shows up during the steadier movements in a workout and in the minute right after you finish, when holding nasal breathing helps you settle faster before the next round or the next exercise.
I use the Ventriq Sport Nasal Strips for training. They are stiffer than a standard sleep strip, built to stay put through sweat, and the adhesive holds through a full session without peeling at the edges. That matters in CrossFit, where you are sweating from the warm up onward and chalk dust gets on everything, both of which will lift a weak strip within minutes.
What to Look for in a CrossFit Nasal Strip
Not all nasal strips are built the same, and for CrossFit a few things actually matter:
- Adhesive strength: standard strips give up as soon as you sweat or get chalk on them. You need a strip made for sport, with an adhesive designed to grip through a full session.
- Spring tension: more tension means more lift and a more open airway. A soft strip made for sleep will not give you the same airflow under a heavy breathing load.
- Fit and position: a strip that sits too high on the bony part of your nose does nothing. It has to sit across the lower cartilage where the nasal valve is.
- Skin tolerance: if you are training most days, you want a strip that does not leave your skin raw after you peel it off.
I have tried a lot of strips over the years. Most were fine for sleep but failed the moment sweat and chalk got involved. The Ventriq Sport strip holds better and keeps lifting the airway open through the full workout.
Does It Actually Improve Performance?
I will be straight about this. The research on nasal strips producing measurable performance gains in trained athletes is mixed. Some studies show small improvements in perceived effort and breathing efficiency. Others show no meaningful change in VO2 max or power output under laboratory conditions. A strip is a breathing aid, not an engine upgrade.
What I can tell you from my own experience is that the subjective difference is real. Breathing through your nose during the steadier parts of a workout feels less effortful and less drying, and it is easier to hold your composure when you are not gasping through your mouth between rounds. Whether that turns into measurable output on the leaderboard depends on the athlete and the workout. If you want the deeper look at the evidence, I have covered it in Boost Your Workout: How Nasal Strips Enhance Athletic Performance, Benefits of Nasal Strips for Sport and Do Nasal Strips Improve Athletic Performance.
Nasal Strips if You Have a Deviated Septum
If you have a deviated septum and you train CrossFit regularly, nasal strips are probably more useful for you than for the average athlete. You are starting every session with your airway already restricted, so anything that gives part of that width back levels the field a little. External strips work best when the restriction sits at the nasal valve rather than deep inside the nasal cavity, which is a common pattern after a broken nose or years of contact sport. I have written more on this in Best Nasal Strips for a Deviated Septum.
If your breathing also wrecks your sleep and slows your recovery after hard sessions, How to Sleep Better with a Deviated Septum covers what has worked for me overnight.
My Recommendation
For CrossFit, get the Ventriq Sport Nasal Strips. They were built for sport and they stay on through a full WOD, chalk and all. If your main need is breathing and recovering better overnight after training, the Ventriq Sleep Nasal Strips are the right pick for bedtime, and plenty of athletes use both: sport strips for training, sleep strips overnight. If you mix in other training, the same thinking applies to running and cycling, and if your programming leans on heavier lifting days I have covered nasal strips for the gym too in How a Deviated Septum Affects Gym Performance. If heavy training days leave you snoring at night, have a look at Do Nasal Strips Stop Snoring and Best Nasal Strips for Sleeping.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are nasal strips allowed in CrossFit competitions?
Yes. Nasal strips are a mechanical breathing aid with no drug action, so they are not banned by any anti doping code, and nothing in CrossFit or USAW competition rules prohibits them. You will see competitive athletes wearing them at events.
Will a nasal strip stay on during a sweaty WOD?
A sport specific strip is designed to hold through sweat for a full session. Standard sleep strips are not built for that and will often start peeling within the first 20 to 30 minutes of hard training.
Where exactly should I place a nasal strip?
Position it across the fleshiest part of your nose, over the lower cartilage rather than the bone. If you feel the spring tension lifting your nostrils when you breathe in, it is in the right place. Sit it too high and it does nothing.
Do nasal strips help with breathing during a metcon?
They help you keep breathing through your nose for longer during the steadier movements in a workout, which makes it easier to settle your breathing before the next round. They will not raise your aerobic ceiling, but reducing airway resistance can make your breathing more efficient at the intensities where you spend most of a WOD.
Do I need a deviated septum for nasal strips to work?
No. Dynamic nasal valve collapse, where the side of the nose pulls inward under hard breathing, is common even in people with a perfectly straight septum. A strip prevents that collapse and improves airflow either way.
Can chalk affect how well a nasal strip sticks?
Chalk dust on the skin can reduce how well any adhesive grips, so it helps to apply the strip to clean, dry skin before you chalk up rather than after. A quality sport strip will still hold through a session even with some chalk dust nearby.
