If you thought that the only benefit of breathing is to provide oxygen to the body, well, we have exciting news for you.
Correct breathing during workouts can be a tricky one; while some people breathe more than necessary, others are unsure of how fast or slow their breathing intervals must be. Studies have shown that a majority of people are not well informed on the benefits of breathing properly during exercise. Paying attention to your health and fitness also means being informed on why you should check correctly during workouts, and how to even do it. Continue reading to learn more about correct breathing during exercises.
Breathing Correctly While Exercising Helps To:
- Enhance Your Focus
Breathing while exercising helps you get deep full breaths, supplying your lungs with all the air and oxygen you need. This will help avoid distractions and sustain your focus on your workout activity.
- Ensure The Muscles Receive The Required Energy To Function Properly
A good breathing pattern ensures that the muscles that are engaged in the physical exercise have continuous access to the oxygen they need.
This is very crucial because it allows the working muscles to get the right amount of oxygen into the body to ensure the proper functioning of the muscles in the body during the exercise.
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- Calm Your Body and Mind
Taking constant breaths helps calm the body and mind, it gives you clarity of thought, and it also helps to get rid of anxiety. A maximum focus on breathing patterns is essentially needed during exercises. It is even a key component of yoga. In performing yoga, be sure to focus and remain conscious of your breath, and inhale deeply from your nose. Then, hold it for a while and then release it through the mouth, changing your position slowly. The better you get this, the calmer and more refreshed you’ll feel.
- Increase Your Workout Time
How long you sustain a workout or a session and ultimately decide on the outcome of it largely depends on how properly you breathe. Breathe in as much air as you will probably breathe out, make sure you keep both very balanced. Remember to stay mindful of holding your breath whiles working out.
- Improve The Quality of Your Workout
Become more conscious of how you breathe during your workout sessions because how you breathe whiles exercising has multiple effects on the outcome of your sessions. Correct breathing while exercising will give you more comfort when working out. You may even end up increasing your workout time without getting as tired as you used to feel.
If you regularly visit the gym, you might have once heard your gym instructor or a fitness trainer remind a colleague not to stop breathing. Proper breathing whiles working out increases blood flow throughout the body.
With normal breathing rates ranging from 15 times a minute while resting to about 40 to 60 times a minute, it is normal to breathe more and faster during physical exercises. The more intense the exercise, the faster your breathing rate.
- Improves Body Posture
This is interesting to note because the muscles working to improve good body posture also helps with proper respiration, so when you practice good breathing techniques while exercising, you are also taking control of your body posture. Go ahead, and breathe correctly because proper breathing means good posture.
- Improves Weight Loss
Oxygen aids with the burning of extra body fat. Your body is supplied with extra oxygen when you practice deep breathing, your body then uses this extra oxygen to burn excess fat in the body stream. Diaphragm breathing is one of the best breathing exercises that enhances weight loss.
What Happens When You Breathe?
When you inhale, the air is pulled into microscopic air sacs in the lungs called the alveoli, here is where oxygen is delivered to the red blood cells, and carbon dioxide is transferred from the blood to the air in the alveoli. The oxygen-rich blood flows to your heart, which then pumps it out to your body. You exhale carbon dioxide.
Use These Techniques And Enjoy The Benefits Of Proper Breathing
When exercising, your muscles work harder, and your body uses a lot of oxygen and produces more carbon dioxide; blood circulation also speeds up to transmit the oxygen they need to keep moving. To ensure that you take deep and constant breathes during a workout session, to avoid early exhausted during your workout, use these breathing techniques:
- The pace of your breathing: The type of exercise you engage in may determine the way you should breathe, be it a low intensity or high-intensity exercises, you need to pace your breath, balancing it well with the type of exercise you are doing. For example, yoga is a low-intensity exercise; hence, the pace and pattern of your breathing should also be of similar intensity. You can’t be doing yoga and gasping in and out so much breath.
- Meditative breathing: There are different types of breathing patterns that come with the kind of exercise you are doing. Some exercises need “light force” breathing patterns whiles others need a forceful breathing pattern. The human mind is so vulnerable and sensitive, and meditative breathing makes you feel calm and relaxed. This technique also helps minimize your anxiety and stress.
- Power breathing: This technique uses power and fast-paced breathing patterns during exercises. Combining this with a breath-holding pattern is a very effective way to influence the parasympathetic nervous system to reduce the release of the stress hormone, which reduces how fast you tire out during a workout.
- Box breathing: This technique is best known as an advantageous way of reducing anxiety, slowing the heart rate, and also restoring calm. This type of technique involves breathing in through the nose for a specified number of seconds, hold it in for a while and then exhale through the nose for a specified number of seconds as well, continuing in the same pattern for at least 5 minutes.
- Belly breathing: You can also refer to this technique as diaphragmatic breathing. Breathe in slowly through your nose and then start to feel your belly puff out. This technique supplies more oxygen more in-depth into your lungs than other types of techniques, and this also helps in weight loss.
- Chest breathing: Also known called the shallow breathing technique, chest breathing is done by drawing in the minimal breath into the lungs, usually by drawing air into the chest through the intercostal muscles rather than through the diaphragm.
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Here Are Your Top Tips for Breathing Correctly During Exercises:
- Stick with a rhythm: Your breathing intensity should properly match the exercise pace. Your choice of exercise is also important to consider. The trick here is to stay consistent with your rhythm. When exercising, you need to breathe through the mouth and the nose and equal intervals, especially when you are engaged in a cardio exercise such as running, walking, or jogging. Make sure each breath you take comes at an equal and even interval just as you exhale.
Breathe out when you lift a weight and slowly inhale while you relax your muscles and get ready to start. Deep breaths can help in stabilizing muscles around your core and protect your spine while lift weights.
- Be Conscious of Your Body Posture As You Lift: When you warm up to lift a weight, you should put your body in a position that will aid you in being able to breathe properly while you push the weight. Put your body in a position to be able to breathe through your diaphragm without much stress.
- Relax Your Muscles and Mind: Before you start any physical exercise, always make sure that your muscles are well relaxed and ready. You have to be sure your mind is prepared and in tune with the exercise, you are about to do. Do this consistently, and you’ll notice the quality of your workout sessions will improve. Working out with a tired muscle will only put you through injury. Sadly you may not even get the required results you hoped for.
- Don’t Hold Your Breath: Find a breathing intensity that suits your exercise in a manner that makes it easier for you to breathe in and out consistently without pressure.
- Learn To Adjust To Slower Paces: As the intensity of your exercise reduces and comes to an end, breathe slowly till you reach your normal breathing pace.
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Here Are a Few Conditions That May Result in Abnormal Breathing:
- Asthma
- Anxiety
- Pneumonia
- Congestive Heart Failure
- Lung Disease
- Drug Overdose
- Use of Narcotics
- Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
Adjusting to proper breathing patterns takes time, effort, and practice, especially if you are starting.
Remember to seek expert advice before changing your breathing pattern or including any new breathing technique with a professional, especially if you are managing high blood pressure. If you need extra help, you can book a session with fitness professionals at Fitness 1 Gym.
References
Newhouse R., MyNet Diary, The Benefits of Proper Breathing During Exercise, https://www.mynetdiary.com/the-benefits-of-proper-breathing-during-exercise.html
Cleveland Clinic, Vital Signs, January 01, 2019, https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/10881-vital-signs
Summit Medical Group, Proper Breathing During Exercise, https://www.summitmedicalgroup.com/news/fitness/proper-breathing-during-exercise/
TNN, Weight Loss Tips: Top 4 Breathing Exercises That Can Help You Lose Belly Fat, March 09, 2018, https://m.timesofindia.com/life-style/health-fitness/weight-loss/top-4-breathing-exercises-that-can-help-you-lose-belly-fat/amp_articleshow/63201899.cms
Respiratory Responses to Exercise, https://www.ptdirect.com/training-design/anatomy-and-physiology/acute-respiratory-responses
Laura, The Importance of Breathing During Workouts, July 22, 2019, https://www.totalbalanceehf.com/single-post/2019/07/01/The-importance-of-breathing-during-workouts