Games Rookie Abigail Domit Found AIRWAAV and She Hasn’t Looked Back

Abbie Domit made her first appearance at the CrossFit Games this year and was almost never without her AIRWAAV mouthpiece throughout the competition weekend. The mouthpiece brand has become a staple performance tool for many elite athletes seeking to improve their athletic performance. 

Remind me: The AIRWAAV Performance Mouthpiece comes in two different versions; HIIT and Endurance. Both provide similar benefits, but differ when it comes to the fit. Once the device is molded to your mouth, it’s placed on your bottom teeth, while your tongue rests underneath the intake bar.. 

“By directing your tongue down and forward, this mouthpiece gently widens your airway while simultaneously igniting cortical brain function when biting down. The result? A game-changing enhancement to your performance,” according to a blog post from AIRWAAV.

Domit, 25, finished in 26th place at the 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games and has made Semifinals 3 times in a row. She found the AIRWAAV after seeing others use it and gave it a try a little over a year ago and can’t imagine being without it during her workouts. 

• “I’ve never worn a mouthpiece before, but I figured, at the very least it’ll protect my teeth,” said Domit. “After a week or two it fit my mouth perfectly and I’ve kind of just gotten used to it.”
• “I remember we took a trip, not too long after that, and I had forgotten my AIRWAAV. And I said, ‘Oh my God, why does this feel so weird? Why is my breathing so radical all of a sudden?’ I’m like, Oh, shucks, I’ve been wearing my AIRWAAV this whole time and I forgot it. And now everything is different. It kind of happened organically.” 
• “I wore it for every workout [at the Games]. I would go back and forth between my HIIT piece and my Endurance piece. I think I mostly wore the HIIT piece and then for the long run, I wore the Endurance piece. There might have been another one that I wore the endurance piece for, but I wore it for every workout.” 

The AIRWAAV is backed by more than 15 years of peer-reviewed, published research on the effects of a mouthpiece or oral device during athletic performance. One study highlighted by AIRWAAV recently found an oral device enhanced athletic performance during heavy resistance exercise.

Participants in the study that used the mouthpiece were found to “complete more unassisted repetitions and required fewer assisted repetitions compared to the control group. This suggests that mouthpiece use can enhance an individual’s ability to perform repetitions before muscle failure,” according to a recent blog post from AIRWAAV. 

• “I’m now at a point where I’m just so used to it. It’s just so natural to use it every single time. Whereas if I don’t have it, I’m like, ‘Oh crap, this is gonna feel harder. This is gonna be tougher, just because it [AIRWAAV] keeps me so relaxed and so calm when I’m working out because my breathing is just the same every single time.” 
• “At this point, I always use it. I think I will definitely continue using it in the years to come. I do think it absolutely benefits me when it comes to breathing, when it comes to staying calm, keeping my heart rate down, keeping my stress levels lower, and also protecting my teeth and jaw, not even just the heavy lifting. But when you’re upside down that kind of changes the way you’re moving your mouth and moving your jaw straight and even that just helps your neck.” 
• “The mouthpiece really is very durable and it’s just so simple. It’s not invasive, it’s not something you have to get crazy with. You just put it in your mouth and it just does its thing. And that’s it. It’s not complicated. It’s super simple, and it’s almost too simple where it seems kind of like it wouldn’t work. But then you try it and you’re like, ‘oh, okay, this actually makes total sense.’”

AIRWAAV has partnered with other notable brands and athletes to launch special edition mouthpieces, including WIT, Mayhem, Danielle Brandon, and 2023 World’s Strongest Man Mitchell Hooper. The brand has also launched a Recovery mouthpiece meant to be worn at night to optimize breathing when you sleep. 

The bottom line: Domit, and a growing list of athletes have given AIRWAAV a try, and have found they can’t train without it anymore.