Nasal Strips for Running: Do They Actually Work? Honest Review (1/5)
Written and published September 2026 | Andy Hood, ultra and endurance runner, 25 years of running, cancer survivor
Product rating: 1 out of 5
Regular followers of the blog will know I write about topics that interest me in the running community, alongside articles about my training, races and cancer awareness. It was a message in my Instagram DMs that had me opening the laptop, heading deep into research, and once the science confirmed my initial suspicions, heading to the blog for a new article.
Let's talk nasal strips for running.
The DM That Started This
The DM in question came from a company called Zone8, offering me a free pack of nasal strips if I'd don these on my runs, take a selfie, post to Instagram looking like a national race horse.
I receive many offers of products in exchange for a review, even more so now the companies have cottoned on to my blog and that it receives tens of thousands of visits a month. I'll be clear here: at the time of writing I have only ever accepted one Ambassador role, and that's with Runna, a product that helped me rebuild after cancer and has genuinely made a huge difference to my life. I recommend Runna to so many people at various stages of their running journey, and I love hearing their successes and how much they're enjoying lacing up.
And in the name of transparency, there's likely to be a second Ambassador role I'll accept in the coming months, another product I firmly believe in, use, and know can and does benefit so many. The people are also nice, and share a common vision around my awareness mission and fundraising.
But nasal strips? No.
The only nasal strips that ever piqued my interest were the furry ones on race horses. Ask me to throw a pound in the pot for the Grand National and I will pick the horse with the nose strip, it kind of looks cute. I'm not going to get heavy on the science; if you've read my articles on running nutrition, you'll know the science is there, it's precise, informative, but light to the touch. What I will do is tell you whether you should be spending your money on nasal strips. In my opinion.
Do Nasal Strips Work? What the Research Actually Shows
Right, quick dive, I promise. The pitch behind nasal strips is simple enough on paper: they hold your nostrils open, that widens the nasal valve, more air gets in, more air means more oxygen, more oxygen means you run faster. Sounds logical. Problem is, running physiology doesn't care how logical your marketing copy sounds.
The strips genuinely do increase airflow through the nose, that part isn't disputed. But whether that translates into you actually running better is a different question, and the research on it has been fairly consistent for decades. A study presented at the American College of Sports Medicine back in 1998Ā found a properly worn nasal strip had no effect on breathing during intense exercise and didn't improve performance. Since then, the biggest review of the evidence, a 2020 meta-analysis pooling 19 studies, found no meaningful improvement in VO2max, heart rate, or how hard the effort felt. Even the researchers behind it rated their own confidence in that finding as low, which in research terms means it could easily be overturned by better-designed studies. A separate 2021 reviewĀ reached broadly the same conclusion. It's not a total wipeout though. A couple of smaller trials have found modest, statistically significant improvements in specific performance tests, so the picture isn't 100% one-sided, but the weight of the evidence leans firmly towards "don't bother."
The most likely reason is that your body has a workaround built in already, and it's called your mouth. When you're working hard enough that your nose can't keep up, you automatically start breathing through your mouth, which shifts far more air than your nostrils ever could, strip or no strip. As one ENT specialist put it, running performance comes down to your lungs, heart and muscles, not the width of your nostrils.
There is one genuine exception worth knowing about. If you've actually got something structurally wrong with your nose (a deviated septum, chronic congestion, that sort of thing), a 2023 study of 38 endurance athletesĀ found internal nasal dilators, a different and pricier cousin of the sticky external strip, did help that specific group, while doing nothing for runners with normal nasal anatomy. So if your nose is properly blocked, there might be something in it. If it isn't, you're paying for a placebo with a spring in it.
What the strips do reliably deliver is a change in how breathing feels. Several studies found people reported less breathlessness even when their actual oxygen uptake and heart rate hadn't budged. That's a real effect. It's just not the one being sold to you.
Why I Gave It a 1 Out of 5 (Having Never Tried It)
The 1 is for the fact that if the placebo effect works for you, then great, go for it. But it falls down on actually being useful to a runner. It's another one of those fads where you accept the offer of a free pack, post some pictures, never buy a pack after the freebie, and a year later you're scrolling your Instagram feed seriously considering deleting those posts and hoping no one scrolls back that far.
Save your money. Save your face. Unless your nose is genuinely, medically blocked, that spring-loaded strip across your nostrils isn't shaving a second off your PB. It's just giving Instagram something to laugh at.
FAQs: Nasal Strips and Running
Do nasal strips actually improve running performance?
For runners with normal nasal anatomy, no. The largest reviews of the evidence, covering multiple studies each, found no significant improvement in VO2max, heart rate, or perceived effort when wearing nasal strips.
Why don't nasal strips help if they increase airflow through the nose?
Because at running intensities your body switches to mouth breathing, which moves far more air than your nose can regardless of any strip. The extra nasal airflow simply isn't the bottleneck.
Are nasal strips ever worth using for running?
Possibly, if you have a genuine structural nasal issue like a deviated septum or nasal valve compromise. Research on internal nasal dilators shows benefits specifically for that group, not for runners with normal nasal anatomy.
Why do so many elite runners wear nasal strips if they don't work?
Trend and placebo effect are the most likely explanations. Wearing a strip can make breathing feel easier even when it isn't measurably changing your oxygen uptake or heart rate, and once a few visible athletes wear something, everyone else follows.
Do nasal strips work for snoring?
That's actually what they were originally designed and marketed for, though the evidence for snoring is also fairly thin and not something I've dug into for this article.
About the Author
Andy Hood is an ultra and endurance runner, cancer survivor, and unapologetic advocate for men's health. After a diagnosis tried to take his running shoes off, he laced them back up and turned the experience into a mission: designing bold, attention-grabbing ultras each year to raise awareness and funds, particularly around testicular cancer. That mission includes his cheeky-but-serious menswear brand, Check Ya Balls, kit with a message that quite literally saves lives.
Follow his runs, read his race reports, and grab a pair of Check Ya Balls at runningwestwardho.co.uk.
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