Yes, nasal strips can improve athletic performance. The mechanism is well understood. They work by dilating the nasal valve, the narrowest point inside your nose, and reducing the airflow resistance your respiratory muscles have to overcome with every single breath. The benefit is most pronounced in athletes with any structural nasal obstruction, including a deviated septum, but it extends to anyone exercising at intensities where nasal resistance becomes a real limiting factor.
How the Nasal Valve Limits Athletic Breathing
When you breathe through your nose, air passes through the nasal valve, a narrow passage formed by the lower lateral cartilages on either side of your nose. It is the point of highest airflow resistance in the entire upper airway. At rest, most people manage this just fine. During high intensity exercise, when breathing rate and tidal volume both increase sharply, that resistance becomes a genuine constraint on how efficiently you can ventilate your lungs.
Research has shown that external nasal dilators can reduce nasal airway resistance by 25 to 30 percent in some subjects. That reduction means your accessory respiratory muscles, including the intercostals, scalenes, and sternocleidomastoids, are working less hard just to pull air in. Those are muscles that could otherwise be contributing to your actual athletic output.
The nasal cycle adds another layer to this. Your nose naturally alternates congestion between nostrils roughly every two to four hours. If you hit a training session during a congested phase, one nostril is already partially blocked. Add mucosal swelling triggered by physical exertion or cold, dry air, and you are pulling oxygen through a significantly narrowed passage. A nasal strip holds the lateral nasal walls open regardless of which phase of the cycle you happen to be in.
My Experience: Rugby, a Broken Nose, and Breathing Through a Wall
I played rugby for over ten years. In that time my nose took more hits than I can count, almost certainly broken more than once. By the time I eventually saw an ENT specialist and was referred to a Consultant Otolaryngologist at a private hospital in Dublin, the diagnosis was a deviated septum. The consultant recommended septorhinoplasty, procedure code 5975. I deferred surgery because I was still playing and could not justify the recovery time away from the game.
Long before the official diagnosis, I noticed that my breathing during training felt disproportionately hard at intensities that should not have been a problem for my fitness level. High intensity intervals felt brutal. Recovery between sets dragged on. I put it down to being out of shape in different phases of the season. Looking back, a significant portion of that was nasal airflow resistance grinding against me with every breath.
When I started using nasal strips during training and matches, the difference in that first session was enough to set me on the path of building Ventriq. It felt like a blocked pipe had been cleared. I still had to do the work but the breathing was no longer the obstacle. I developed Ventriq Sport Nasal Strips specifically for athletic use, with a stronger adhesive and stiffer spring than the sleep version, built to survive sweat and physical contact on the pitch.
What the Research Actually Shows
The evidence on nasal strips and athletic performance is genuinely mixed in the published literature, and I think it is worth being upfront about that. Some studies show measurable improvements in VO2 max, perceived exertion, and breathing economy. Others show minimal effect in subjects without nasal obstruction. The consistent pattern across the evidence is this: people with existing nasal airflow problems benefit meaningfully, people with normal nasal anatomy benefit less.
A study looking at external nasal dilators in cyclists found that participants reported lower perceived exertion at equivalent work rates, even when objective ventilation measures were comparable. That perceived difference matters enormously in endurance sport. If your breathing feels easier, you are less likely to slow down prematurely. The psychological component of breathing effort is real and seriously underappreciated in sports science.
There is also solid research on nasal breathing itself for endurance performance. The nasal sinuses produce nitric oxide continuously, which acts as both a bronchodilator and a vasodilator when it reaches the lower airways. Mouth breathing bypasses this entirely. If nasal resistance is low enough to allow nasal breathing at moderate exercise intensities, you benefit from this effect for the duration of your session. A nasal strip can push that threshold higher for people who would otherwise switch to mouth breathing at lower intensities.
I went into more detail on the underlying physiology in this post: how nasal strips enhance athletic performance.
Who Benefits Most From Nasal Strips During Exercise
Based on what the research shows and my own experience, these are the athletes most likely to see a measurable improvement:
- Anyone with a confirmed or suspected deviated septum
- People who experience nasal congestion during or after exercise, known as exercise induced rhinitis
- Athletes training in cold or dry environments where mucosal swelling is common
- Endurance athletes actively training themselves to breathe nasally at moderate intensities
- Rugby and contact sport players whose noses have been repeatedly compressed or struck over the years
I covered the rugby specific angle in more detail here: best nasal strips for rugby. Contact sport puts nasal anatomy under chronic stress that most people never factor into their breathing performance.
For a broader look at the evidence in sport contexts, see my post on the benefits of nasal strips for sport.
Sport vs Sleep: Using the Right Strip
Not every nasal strip is designed for athletic use. The strips I use at night are built for comfort across an eight hour stretch at rest. Ventriq Sport uses a stronger adhesive formula and a stiffer spring mechanism designed to stay on through sweat, heat, and physical demands. If you put a sleep strip on before a high intensity session, it will typically come off within twenty minutes once you start sweating. Using the right strip makes the difference between the product working and not working at all.
How to Get the Most Out of a Nasal Strip During Training
Apply the strip to clean, dry skin across the bridge of the nose. Make sure there is no sunscreen or moisturiser on the skin first, as these are the main reasons strips fail to stick. Press firmly along the entire length of the strip, not just the centre. For outdoor sessions, apply it before your warm up begins so the adhesive has time to bond fully before significant sweating starts.
If you are new to nasal breathing during exercise, do not expect to sustain it at high intensity straight away. Start using the strip during warm ups and moderate effort intervals. The strip reduces resistance but you still need to train the breathing pattern consistently over several weeks for it to hold under real load.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do nasal strips actually improve VO2 max?
Not directly. Nasal strips reduce airway resistance, which lowers the work your respiratory muscles do and can reduce perceived exertion. In athletes with nasal obstruction, this may translate to a real improvement in sustainable intensity. In athletes with normal unobstructed nasal anatomy, the effect on VO2 max is small.
Can I wear a nasal strip during competition?
Yes. Nasal strips are permitted under all major sporting regulations including World Rugby. Many professional athletes use them in competition. They have no pharmacological effect and are not classified as performance enhancing substances.
How long do nasal strips stay on during exercise?
Sport nasal strips with a strong adhesive, like Ventriq Sport, are designed to stay on through a full training session or match. Standard or sleep strips are not built for this and will typically come off once significant sweating begins.
Is nasal breathing better than mouth breathing during exercise?
At low to moderate intensity, nasal breathing carries real advantages including nitric oxide production in the sinuses, better air filtration, and humidity regulation for the airways. At very high intensity, most people need to supplement with some mouth breathing. The aim is to extend the intensity range at which you can breathe nasally, not eliminate mouth breathing entirely. I explore this further in my post on nasal strips vs mouth tape.
Will nasal strips help with congestion after exercise?
Exercise induced rhinitis is very common, particularly in cold environments. Wearing a nasal strip during and after a session can reduce the stuffiness that often develops as your body cools down and nasal mucosal blood flow increases. It does not stop the underlying physiological response but it makes a meaningful difference to how blocked you feel afterward.
I have a deviated septum. Will nasal strips actually help my performance?
They made a significant difference to mine. A deviated septum narrows the effective cross section of one nasal passage. A nasal strip works on the lateral wall of the nose rather than the septum itself, so it opens the better of your two nostrils as wide as structurally possible. It does not correct the deviation but it maximises the available airflow through it. For more on this see: best nasal strips for a deviated septum. And if your sleep is also affected: how to sleep better with a deviated septum.
The Bottom Line
If you have any degree of nasal obstruction, from a deviated septum, accumulated contact sport damage, or regular mucosal swelling during exercise, nasal strips can make a real difference to how your breathing feels under load. They changed my training significantly, and building Ventriq came directly from that experience. To try them for sport, start with Ventriq Sport Nasal Strips, built specifically for athletic use.
