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#Post#: 29--------------------------------------------------
Want to Improve Your Performance? Breathe!
DIR By: LightMove
Date: October 28, 2021, 3:28 am
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You work out to improve your cardiovascular fitness, muscular
strength and endurance, and flexibility. You train your clients
and students for the same reasons. But have you forgotten to
breathe?
“By learning to control your breathing, by understanding how the
respiratory system is integrated with your body, by using
conscious breathing in all your pursuits, you will improve
nearly every aspect of your life,” explains Al Lee, co-author of
Perfect Breathing (Sterling Publishing, 2009). “Whether you’re a
casual gym-goer, a mall walker, a mountain biker, an actor,
singer or dancer, putting your breath at the core of your
discipline will help you achieve far more than you ever
thought.”
“During exercise, the body’s demand for oxygen increases and our
breathing volume or ventilation must also rise,” explain Matthew
Pine and Mark Watsford, both from the human performance
laboratory at the University of Technology, Sydney. “This
requires numerous muscles surrounding the lungs to contract in a
highly coordinated manner. As the intensity of exercise
increases, these respiratory muscles must contract more
forcefully and more rapidly to keep pace with the body’s
substantial increase in metabolism.”
However, in the same way that a stronger heart can push out more
blood with each pump and as a result doesn’t have to beat as
often, a stronger diaphragm and intercostals mean you can slow
your breathing rate down and even get more oxygen to your
muscles.
“By increasing the strength and stamina of your respiratory
system, your breathing becomes more efficient, requiring less
energy—which leaves more energy for the motor muscles and
whatever task or activity you’re involved in,” explains Lee.
“Therefore, you can take slower, deeper breaths, getting more
oxygen out of each breath; you don’t have to work as hard to get
it, because you don’t have to breathe as many times to get the
same amount of oxygen.”
As an example, Lee cites studies that he and co-author, Don
Campbell, came across with competitive athletes that showed an
efficiency improvement of about 10 percent with respiratory
resistance training. That means that at the same level of
performance, they were consuming 10 percent less oxygen. “There
was also an associated performance improvement of about 5 to 8
percent,” says Lee, “which would shave about three to five
minutes off the time of a runner in a 60-minute race.”
That performance improvement, he explains, may also be due in
part to improved focus. “When you are focused on your breath,
you become intimately in touch with your mind, body and emotions
and very much in the moment, which improves performance.”
In a study performed at the State University of New York at
Buffalo, subjects who followed breathing resistance training
improved their snorkel surface swimming time by 33 percent and
their underwater Scuba swimming time by 66 percent.
“This is in agreement with previous studies in cyclists, rowers
and runners,” explains study author, Dr. Claes Lundgren. “It
suggests that athletes in most sports could improve their
performance by undergoing respiratory muscle training. It is
also clear that the greater the stress on the respiratory
system, the larger the improvement in performance.”
During high-intensity exercise, when the respiratory muscles
become fatigued, the body switches to survival mode and “steals”
blood flow and oxygen away from locomotor muscles. As a result,
these locomotor muscles become fatigued and performance can
suffer significantly. Increasing the strength of the muscles
involved with breathing, say study authors, through
breathing-resistance exercise, can prevent this fatigue during
sustained exercise situations, resulting in better performance.
Lee goes on to explain that if the diaphragm and intercostals
aren’t exercised, they atrophy—just like any other muscle in the
body. “For most adults, their breathing has slowly moved higher
and higher into their chests over the years, so they’re taking
little sips of air into the tops of their lungs and are barely
using the diaphragm. In fact, if you’re not actively exercising
it, the older you get, the more difficult it is to get it
unstuck.” So we can choose to buy a breathing exerciser like
OPUMP to help us do daily breathing
training.
HTML https://theopump.com/
Performance Breathing
Incorporating breathing methods into workouts is really nothing
new. Yogis have been doing it for centuries, Pilates instructors
for decades. And who hasn’t used breathing to aid in moving
heavy weight—inhaling on the eccentric phase and exhaling on the
concentric phase. Like yoga, though, the point of performance
breathing—a term Lee and Campbell came up with to refer to using
breath to enhance performance—is to help center and focus you,
as much as it is to strengthen the respiratory muscles.
“Being in a relaxed state is important to achieving optimal
performance in any endeavor, not just sports,” says Karlene
Sugarman, M.A., author of Winning the Mental Way (Step Up
Publishing, 1999). “It’s a vital stepping stone to peak
performance [whether you’re working out, giving a presentation
or dealing with your children]. The [individual] that is
mentally and physically relaxed and has ‘quiet intensity’ is the
one that is going to come out on top.”
One way to achieve this quiet intensity is through breath
control.
“Try performance breathing during your next workout,” says Lee.
“This simple technique can immediately improve your athletic
performance, and is especially well-suited to repetitive-motion
activities, such as running, cycling, swimming, etc.”
Lee explains that focused breathing helps to maximize your
energy intake, while keeping the mind “in the body” and clear of
distracting, self-limiting thoughts.
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Before beginning, make sure you’ve followed the “Preparing to
Practice” guidelines (see sidebar). Lee also stresses the
importance of being able to comfortably complete deep, full
breaths. When first beginning this method, it will probably feel
uncomfortable and unnatural. That’s why practice is important.
The breathing cycle for this exercise is divided into three
parts, each part getting a set number of counts:
Inhale (2 counts)
Hold the breath (2 counts)
Exhale (4 counts)
Once you’re comfortable with this method, Lee then suggests
applying it to your activity. As an example, for walking:
Inhale for 2 steps
Hold for 2 steps
Exhale for 4 steps
If you’re a cyclist, replace steps with pedal strokes, swimming
strokes for swimming and so on, depending on your activity.
Ultimately, you want to find a pace and count that you can
maintain and that feels natural. As you become more adept with
this technique, try and increase your counts while keeping the
same ratio. For example, inhale for 4 counts, hold for 4 counts,
exhale for 8 (or 6, 6 and 12). Experiment and find a combination
that works well for you.
Not a breathing convert? At the very least, says Lee, simply
become more conscious of your breath. A great way to practice
breath consciousness—or your breathing cycles—is in bed. A
fringe benefit: It’ll probably quickly send you off to
dreamland.
“[Focusing on your breathing] brings you back to the present
moment,” explains Campbell. “There’s no way you can think about
yesterday or tomorrow when you’re concentrating on your next
breath.”
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