Hallie BulkinAsk HallieAI:Your On-Demand Mentor in Pediatric Feeding & Myo

CPAP is a Splint. This is the GYM for Your Airway! 🏋️‍♂️🌬️

25 Mar 2026 · 1 min

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0:43

In this video, Hallie Bulkin explains how respiratory muscle strength training (RMST) can be used to actively strengthen and stabilize the muscles and structural components of the respiratory system, contrasting it with common treatments like CPAP and oral appliance therapy that merely open or splint the airway without providing muscular reinforcement. She notes that CPAP may even lead to gradual weakening of inspiratory and expiratory muscles over time. Bulkin describes her practical experience applying RMST with older child clients and adult patients, emphasizing that it targets both inspiratory and expiratory muscles as part of a structured exercise program that can be combined with other breathwork techniques.

Chapters

And how we're incorporating this, I started using it with my older kids who are clients, and then especially for my adults. So we're targeting the muscles and the structure of the respiratory system to stabilize them. And as I said earlier, you know, oral appliance therapy and CPAP, they stint the airway, they open it up, but they don't stabilize it and they don't strengthen it. And actually, we've seen over time CPAP can actually weaken some of that musculature. So we're using RMST to strengthen the inspiratory muscles and expiratory muscles. And I really like it. I use it again in conjunction with other breathwork techniques, but what I like about it is it's a set exercise program.