The Importance of Correct Breathing during Exercise
Well, of course we all know the importance of breathing in our day-to-day lives as without it most of you wouldn’t be reading this. Our lungs are used to breathing air in so we can utilise the oxygen that our cells require and expel waste gases like carbon dioxide. It is a constant job our bodies carry out 24 hours a day.
Breathing and Exercise
When exercising breathing becomes all the more important; the more efficiently we can draw oxygen in and get it to the required cells the better our results will be on our chosen piece of equipment. All in all it is vital that we get our breathing perfect to get the best results and see the changes in our bodies.
How should we breathe during cardiovascular exercise?
Cardiovascular exercise refers to anything that involves prolonged effort. Most sports are cardiovascular and in the gym cardiovascular refers to pieces of equipment like the treadmill, stepper, rowing machine, bicycle and cross trainer (click here to read more on cardiovascular exercise). The correct breathing technique during this exercise is as deep and as controlled as you can make it. As soon as you are hyperventilating (breathing very quickly) then you are pushing yourself too hard and just need to tone it down a little. You should be able to inhale a full lungful and exhale it all out completely. This insures that you bring in the needed gases and take out the waste gases.
Listen to your Breathing
Of course this is much easier said than done, but it has to be something you must focus on during your exercise to help your body maximise the benefits. The way I get my clients to improve their breathing during cardiovascular training is to take them onto their favourite piece of equipment e.g. the treadmill and let them run as they have done since they started training. I then ask them to breathe through their mouth with their teeth clenched together. Sounds bizarre I know but it makes it impossible for them to breathe quietly. This means that I can actually hear their breathing pattern and so can they (and probably everyone else in the gym – Beeble). From here we can get them to concentrate on slowing the breathing rate down. This maybe difficult for them to do at the speed they normally run, so it is advisable to slow the run down until the breath rate becomes around 2 seconds in and 2 seconds out. This now becomes their new running speed and they can only increase this in small increments as long as they can maintain this new breathing rate.
How should we breathe during weight based exercise?
Weight based exercises are anything that uses a resistance to a movement e.g. a dumbbell in a bicep curl or a chest press machine. Have you ever noticed that when doing a new exercise or when you have put the resistance up, you nearly always hold your breath? I too have been guilty of this, but is it wrong? There is an argument that goes along with this and it is based around the energy system that is used to complete resistance based exercise. It is known that if you complete a relatively brief movement that requires a lot of strength then the energy system that is used does not require oxygen, whereas a less strenuous exercise that goes on for longer does require oxygen as part of the body’s fuelling system. It is therefore considered that for powerful muscle strengthening exercise breathing is unnecessary.
Oxygen is still needed elsewhere
Whilst I agree that the muscle for this type of exercise does not need oxygen as a fuel, you must never forget that during an exercise there are other parts of your body that are functioning that do require oxygen. Whilst the body is very good at shutting down organs in the body that are not required and sending that blood to the muscle that is being used, it does not take blood and oxygen away from the important organs like the brain and heart. So you can feel all happy that you don’t need to breathe because your muscle doesn’t need oxygen, but when you wake up after passing out with a very heavy weight resting on your head, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
So how should you breathe during this exercise?
Now that we understand that it is indeed important to breathe during this type of exercise, we must now find a regular pattern to keep the oxygen coming in and the waste carbon dioxide getting out. You may know of ways that work for you but here is the method I use.
Count it out loud
If you count each repetition out loud during the exercise, you have to expel air to make the sound and of course draw air into your lungs afterwards to count the next one. This method really works well for me and my clients and guarantees that you breathe. For me I find it works best that I breathe out and count on exertion and breathe in on the way back to the start position. This makes it regular and I also find that it helps me slow the movement down a little, rather than rushing it. By slowing the movement down you work the muscle for longer and therefore improve your results.
And a Warning…
There are serious implications to holding your breath during exercise. By holding your breath you starve the body of oxygen and therefore the heart has to work much harder to get the blood round to deliver what oxygen there is left. This increases your heart rate to dangerously high levels. If you are not very fit and know that you already have high blood pressure make sure that you learn how to breathe during exercise. If you are worried or unsure of your blood pressure and how exercise can affect you, please check with your doctor.
Summary
If you know of any other good breathing techniques please write to us and let us know. If you would like to improve your breathing but are finding it difficult, try taking up swimming. This is the very best exercise to improve your breathing. Good luck with your exercising and remember: keep breathing!
November 25th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
Hi. I like your blog. Lots of good info.
September 11th, 2009 at 1:49 am
Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog.
Cheers! Sandra. R.