Train More Consciously

Proper Breathing During Exercise

A classic rule of breathing is to first think about your breathing, and then begin to exercise. You'll expand your lung capacity allowing more and more oxygen in and more stale air out.

You will set your own breathing pace by getting in union with your body. If you are not properly breathing, you'll fatigue more quickly, so please review the following tips.

General Work-Out Tips

Maintain diaphragmatic breathing during every activity. Do not hold your abdomen in for the diaphragm cannot properly descend. Exhale through pursed lips.

Begin your routine slowly until you begin to perspire. This usually occurs at about 6 to 10 minutes. You'll more easily increase your workout performance, while still maintaining diaphragmatic breathing. Check your breathing regularly, especially if you are inhaling through your mouth because mouth breathing tends to promote upper chest breathing, which leads to over breathing and hyperventilation.

Take the talk test. If you can, with some difficulty, converse with a companion or sing to yourself, you're working at a beneficial pace.

Be cautious, as respiratory efforts usually become increasingly less efficient as you begin to tire-always be conscious of your breathing.

Even though the following are sport specific, you may well find a tip you can use in any area.

Weight Training

Inhale using the diaphragm while your body is under the least amount of stress, and exhale through pursed lips while you are performing against resistance. Note: It has been consistently reported that the heart rate at a given maximal oxygen uptake is higher during weight lifting than for dynamic low resistance exercises such as running or cycling at the same given amount of maximal oxygen uptake. Therefore, particular attention to proper breathing should always be practiced during weight lifting in order to bring more oxygen into the body to assist the heart.

Do not hold your breath too long when lifting. Breathing is what sends oxygen to your muscles, enabling them to work. If you should hold your breath too long during a particularly heavy lift, you may run the risk of reducing blood flow to the brain due to increased pressure in the chest.

Cycling

Try to exhale through pursed lips on the down-stroke, and if that seems too often, try every other down-stroke, or every third stroke, etc.

Inhale using the diaphragm. Tip: Aero bars enable you to stretch out your back and open your rib cage, which enhances your breathing.

Walking

Synchronize your breathing with your pace, exhaling through pursed lips every second, fourth or sixth step, depending upon how fast the walk.

Always exhale through pursed lips and try always to inhale through the nose.

Raise the arms away from your body as you inhale. It helps to expand the chest. Note: This also works well for running aerobics.

Running

As in walking, synchronize your breathing with your pace, exhaling through pursed lips every fourth or sixth step.

Always exhale through pursed lips and try to inhale through your nose.

Swimming

Exhale slowly through pursed lips in the water before raising your head and blow out more explosively when you tilt your head toward the surface. This gets rid of excess air in your lungs as well as clears the water away from your mouth so you can inhale properly using your diaphragm.

Summary

Breathing is an involuntary action and most people feel it requires no teaching. Maybe because so many feel it's so easy, most do it incorrectly.

A theoretical benefit of training is a reduced feeling of fatigue. Resistive breathing relieves this discomfort enabling you to more efficiently perform your chosen exercise routine.

An efficient breathing technique can have a significant impact on your performance. In addition to the effect of power breathing influencing the amount of oxygen brought into the body, regulating carbon dioxide levels, and maintaining a correct pH level, there is an effect on your nervous system: deep and regular breathing allows the brain to better control movements, reactions, thoughts and emotions, both during exercise and rest. This effect may well allow you to divide your powers more effectively, to make more intelligent decisions and to train more consciously. And eliminate overbreathing and hyperventilation.

Coordination between respiratory muscles will reduce the amount of oxygen needed to exercise, simply giving you more endurance. The aim is to breathe with maximum effect and minimum effort and for controlled power breathing to become a natural habit.

Hi, my name is Sharron and I've written this guide to help people who are serious about exercise and those who are not so serious, but just want to get the most from their workout to get a little bit of a competitive edge.  I am an eBay Power seller and have specialized in selling the Sports Breather online for the past 12 years. You can find a link to my online website on my About Me page. I hope you will find this guide useful and feel free to contact me if you have any further questions.

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