Why do athletes wear nasal strips?

Athletes wear nasal strips mainly to make breathing through the nose easier and to keep nose breathing going for longer as effort climbs. A strip lifts the sides of the nose and widens its narrowest point, which lowers the resistance air meets on the way in. The trend started on football fields in the 1990s, and while studies haven't found a big performance boost for most healthy people, strips do what they're designed to do: open the front of the nose.

When did athletes start wearing nasal strips?

Athletes started wearing nasal strips in the mid-1990s, shortly after the first commercial strip went on sale. Football was where most people first saw them. A company history published in the International Directory of Company Histories in 1998 tells how it happened.

According to that history, in October 1994 the strip's maker sent a letter and a case of strips to every National Football League team trainer. Players began wearing them in games, one of them on a nationally televised Monday Night Football broadcast, and in January 1995 about eight players in Super Bowl XXIX wore the strip. The same history reports that sales rose from 2.8 million dollars in 1994 to 48.5 million in 1995.

The trend spread beyond football. A 2014 review in the International Journal of General Medicine says strips became more popular after athletes used them at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. It also cites a 1998 paper suggesting strips were first used by American football players partly because mouth guards make mouth breathing harder, which puts more weight on the nose. Our article on the history of the nasal strip covers the full story, from the first patent to today.

What do nasal strips actually do during exercise?

Nasal strips lower the resistance to airflow at the front of the nose, which can make nose breathing take less effort during exercise. The 2014 review sums up decades of research: strips increase the cross-sectional area of the nasal valve, lower nasal resistance and help stop the sides of the nose from pulling inward on a strong breath in.

Several exercise studies have measured this directly.

• A 1997 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in Laryngoscope found the strip significantly increased nasal valve area in 53 athletes. In 30 of them, cycling with the strip lowered perceived exertion, heart rate, breathing volume and oxygen use during submaximal exercise compared with a placebo.
• A 1999 study in four healthy men found the strip cut inspiratory nasal resistance by about a third. It delayed the switch from nose-only to combined nose-and-mouth breathing by about 15%. The authors called that delay "relatively small" while confirming that strips do promote nose breathing.
• A 2000 study in 15 healthy adults found that in 11 "responders", the strip lowered nasal resistance and reduced the work of breathing through the nose during cycling.

There's one honest caveat. A 1999 study of 20 people in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that exercise itself lowers nasal resistance, and once people had exercised, the strip made no significant extra difference. So the effect of a strip may be biggest at rest, during warm-ups and at easier efforts, and smaller once your body has opened the nose on its own. Our guide to nasal strips for exercise goes deeper into these trials.

Do nasal strips improve athletic performance?

For most healthy athletes, nasal strips don't appear to raise peak performance by a measurable amount. The strongest evidence comes from two reviews that pooled many small studies.

Put together, the picture is fairly clear. If your nose is already wide open, a strip has less to fix, and the gains are hard to detect. If the front of your nose tends to narrow or collapse when you breathe hard, a dilator has more work to do. The 2024 study found that athletes with a narrowed nasal valve had lower aerobic capacity to begin with, and that dilation improved their airflow, oxygen uptake, breathlessness and fatigue ratings.

That doesn't mean strips are useless for everyone else. The 1997 study found lower heart rate and perceived exertion at moderate effort, which is where most training happens. It just means the research doesn't support strips as a way to raise your maximum.

Why do athletes still wear them?

Athletes still wear nasal strips because they make nose breathing feel easier, and many people like breathing through the nose when they train. The studies above show strips reliably widen the front of the nose and lower resistance, even when they don't change top-end numbers.

There are a few practical reasons that come up again and again.

Easy and moderate training

Most training happens at easy and moderate effort, and that's where nose breathing is most realistic. The 1997 study found the clearest benefits at submaximal effort, and the 1999 study showed strips let people keep breathing through the nose a little longer as effort rose. If you're working on nasal breathing during exercise, a strip can take some of the strain out of it.

Mouth guards and contact sports

Players who wear mouth guards have less room to breathe through the mouth. The 2014 review cites a 1998 paper describing how strips first caught on in American football partly for this reason. A strip helps the nose carry more of the load.

A nose that narrows under effort

Some people's nostrils pull inward on hard breaths, a sign of a weak or narrow nasal valve. This is the group the 2024 study found benefited most. If you notice your nostrils collapsing when you breathe in hard, read about nasal valve collapse, and see an ENT doctor if it bothers you often.

Sleep and recovery

Strips aren't only for game day. The 2014 review lists nasal congestion during sleep and snoring among their main uses, alongside exercise. Sleep wasn't measured in the exercise studies above, but plenty of people who train also want a clearer nose at night. Our article on whether nasal strips improve sleep looks at those trials.

Are nasal strips safe for athletes?

Nasal strips are a low-risk thing for most athletes to try. The 2014 review describes external nasal dilators as simple, noninvasive, painless and affordable, with minimal risk to the user. They don't contain any drug, so there's nothing to absorb, and they come off in seconds if they bother you.

The main thing to watch is your skin. Sweat, friction and daily use can irritate the skin on the nose, so give it a break if it turns red or sore. Our article on nasal strip skin irritation has practical fixes.

It also helps to keep expectations in proportion. The same review notes that most studies of strips have small sample sizes and that more research is needed on physical performance. A strip is a tool for easier nose breathing, not a shortcut to fitness.

Should athletes use a strip or an internal dilator?

Both styles widen the front of the nose, and athletes use each. An external strip sits on the outside and pulls the sides of the nose outward. An internal dilator sits just inside the nostrils and holds them open from within. The 2024 study used an internal dilator, and found benefits only in athletes whose nasal valve was narrowed.

For most people, a strip is the easier place to start, because nothing goes inside the nose and it's easy to see whether it's on properly. If you're curious about the other style, our comparison of nasal strips vs. nasal dilators lays out the differences.

Are nasal strips good for running?

Nasal strips are a reasonable choice for runners who want to breathe through the nose on easy runs. They widen the front of the nose, and the 1999 study found they extended nose-only breathing by about 15% during progressive exercise. Don't expect a faster race time from the strip alone. The running meta-analysis found only a small effect, with very low certainty.

A few tips help strips stay on when you sweat:

• Apply the strip to clean, dry skin before you start, not once you're already sweating.
• Place it on the soft part of the nose, just above the flare of the nostrils, rather than the bony bridge.
• Press the ends down firmly for a few seconds so the adhesive grips.
• Peel it off slowly after the run, ideally after loosening it with warm water.

Our full guide on how to apply nasal strips covers placement in more detail.

Our pick (paid partner): TitanAir Nasal Strips

If you want to try a strip for training or sleep, our pick is TitanAir Nasal Strips. This is our recommendation, not the result of testing or ranking strips ourselves.

Titan says they're drug-free external nasal dilators with flexible, spring-loaded bands. It recommends placing them just above the flare of the nostrils, on the soft part of the nose, on clean, dry skin with no moisturizer, and loosening them with warm water to peel off slowly from the ends inward. Titan says the strips are third-party tested and certified PFAS-free, and they come with a 30-night guarantee.

Read next

• Nasal strips for exercise: what the studies show
• The history of the nasal strip
• How nasal strips work

* This content is for informational and educational purposes only and is not medical advice. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease or health condition. Talk to a qualified healthcare provider about your health.