Most athletes direct their efforts to different groups of muscles development, but don’t pay much attention to respiratory muscles. In this case these muscles may become a limitative factor for further performance improvement. Nowadays many sports' practitioners pay attention to respiratory muscles' training.

Purpose. Investigation of the impact of an additional resistance during inhalation at the training process of highly-qualified hockey players on their performance.

Subjects. 29 KHL players: 17 forwards, 9 defensemen, 3 goaltenders.

Results. 2 weeks of training led to an increase in strength (13.84%), power (11.73%) and volume (6.03%) of inhalation. The following 4 weeks of training resulted in an additional improvements in strength (10.35%), power (9.31%) and volume (1.28%) of a single inhalation.

Conclusion. The research reveals a positive influence of purposeful training of respiratory muscles on strength, power and volume of inhalation.

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