How Important is Your Next Breath? Very! (and not just for the obvious reasons)

What is the most vital element to humans on earth?  Yep, you guessed it…oxygen.  Our body’s cells require oxygen to function. You probably already knew that, right?  The thing is, however, that most of you are probably not getting enough oxygen in your lives.  What do I mean?  Well, for starters, you people are shallow (breathers, that is

What do I mean by breathing shallow?  It means that you are breathing in a way that does not exercise your diaphragm, or does not draw oxygen into the body optimally.  The diaphragm is your primary breathing muscle.  It’s located between the thorax and abdomen.  Most of us are “chest” breathers.  We take in oxygen by just filling up our lungs, and not from the diaphragm up (explained later).  We probably only take in a few proper breaths per day, and usually it’s by accident. There are a variety of problems that arise from not taking long, deep breaths on a regular basis.  Some of them include…

•Cardiovascular issues – breathing and the heart go hand in hand – through diaphragmatic breathing, circulation is actually improved.  In fact, there have been many studies that show a direct correlation between regular diaphragmatic breathing and decrease in incidence of heart trauma such as heart attacks.
•Stress – the body likes oxygen.
•Visceral issues (gut) – believe it or not, movement of the diaphragm actually massages the gut, and promotes regularity.
•Orthopedic issues – starts to arise through bad posture, even though posture can be both a cause and effect of prolonged poor breathing techniques

Some of the things that cause us to breathe improperly are…

•    Walking surfaces – Flat walking surfaces force you to shift breathing muscles to be used to stabilize other body parts. That action takes away from your body’s ability to breathe deeply and properly.
•    Stress - stress (any kind) causes us to breathe primarily from the chest.
•    Posture – Bad posture causes our diaphragm to work improperly.  Inevitably, other accessory breathing muscles have to pick up the slack to compensate.  In many cases, this causes a variety of nagging health issues such as muscle tension and headaches.
•    Poor Nutrition – Even though your diaphragm massages your gut (including the stomach, intestines, kidneys, etc), the gut can still become inflamed due to the poor quality of the food that we eat today…namely through additives and preservatives, pesticides, hormones, etc.  This stuff wreaks havoc on our vital organs, and the subsequent inflammation of these very organs pushes on the diaphragm, decreasing its effectiveness.

Breathing during exercise…

There are a few things to consider when determining how to breathe during exercise.  The first being what kind of exercise you are doing.  Take weights/resistance training for example.  The old school train of thought was that you were to exhale when you contracted during an exercise, and inhale on the relaxed part of the exercise.  I’ll use the shoulder press as an example.  When you push the two dumbbells up over you head, you exhale.  When you lower them, you inhale.  The theory behind this is that you bring more power to the move by activating your core muscles a bit more.  This is actually a pretty good rule of thumb, especially if you are a beginner.  It will allow you to train in a way that develops a breathing pattern that is normal during exercise.

Things will progress, however, and your breathing pattern might have to change a bit as you get fitter, and become more experienced.  The problem with the “exhale upon contraction” theory is that it doesn’t account for variations in the speed of the exercise you are doing.  Let’s say you were doing a particular exercise rather quickly.  It wouldn’t really make sense to breathe in and out really quickly to keep up with the pace of the contractions.  You’d hyperventilate!  So what’s an athlete to do during exercise?

Well, first and foremost, you need to breathe.  Sounds silly, but anyone who has gone through a tough workout has held their breath for longer than they should have at some point or another.  It’s a natural reaction to stress.  Problem is, when you hold your breath, the pressure inside your body increases quite a bit.  At the very least, you can feel a little dizzy, or even pass out.  At worst, it could cause a stroke, which can obviously be fatal.  This would be an extreme circumstance, however, and would only happen during a period of extreme stress.  They call this the Valsalva maneuver, and it happens when there is a forced expiration against a closed airway, raising your blood pressure in a major way. Why take the chance though?

So how should you breathe?  The simple answer is normally.  Don’t worry so much about the “inhale on the contraction” and “exhale on the relaxation” portions of whatever exercise you are doing, (especially when doing a lot of functional-type training like we do in boot camp).  That’s more applicable to the traditional weight training moves that are slower and more controlled (and there are some exceptions with certain moves).  It’s more about remembering to do so, if not every repetition, then every other repetition.  If you are going fast, perhaps it’s every 3 or 4 reps, but the point is that you are getting a regular, deep breath on a frequent basis.

During cardio, it’s important to pay attention to whether or not you can get a deep breath.  If you are unable, you might be working too hard, or perhaps have started too quickly without getting into a rhythm.  It might take a little time to figure out a comfortable breathing pattern for you during a steady-state, longer duration cardio session (i.e. 20-30 minutes).  Sprints are a different story, as in an all out sprint; your body is going to probably only get in a deep breath or two.

So How Can We Breathe Better?….

First we start with the practice of breathing diaphragmatically.  First, it is important to know that the breathing this way helps the body to absorb more oxygen (good news).  When you breathe through your chest (as most people do), there is not as much oxygen exchanged in the lower part of the lungs (or not as much with each breath).  When this happens, you increase the rate of breathing.  Essentially, through diaphragmatic breathing you decrease the work that your lungs have to put in to get the oxygen you need.  A diaphragmatic breath is marked by an expansion of the abdomen.  The old school test would be to place a small bottle of water on your tummy while lying down.  If the bottle rises and falls, kind of like sticking your tummy out as you draw in a slow breath, you are engaging your diaphragm.  The perfect breath of fresh air would be diaphragmatic breath at the first part of the breath, and an expanding fill of air into the chest at the last part of the breath.  Then you’re good to go!

I’ll give you the best example of how good oxygen flow can improve your overall state of being, and quite frankly make you feel better in a matter of seconds.  Whenever I’m feeling a little run down, I take a couple of minutes to focus on my breathing.  I take 10 slow, deep diaphragmatic breaths, and voila, I immediately feel more refreshed, relaxed, and focused.  Let’s face it, wouldn’t most of the tasks we do on a daily basis go ten times smoother if we were at least a little more refreshed, relaxed, and focused?  So, my challenge to you would be to take a minute or two whenever you are feeling a little run down, and practice this technique.  I defy you to tell me you don’t feel much better.  Funny things happen when you give your body what it wants.  Things start kicking on all cylinders.

Just some thoughts about something that we totally take for granted.  Start with 5 minutes early in the day, and 5 minutes later on in the day to practice diaphragmatic breathing, and it will become second nature.

To Your Health,

Jason

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