Breathing is the most basic human function which everyone needs to do in order to survive. Though there is much power in keeping you alive, the ability to take in oxygen has other benefits. By increasing the maximum amount of oxygen we breathe in and use, we can strengthen our cardiovascular system, keep our bones strong, keep our brains healthy, increase our focus and awareness, and reduce risks of diseases (such as heart disease, cancer, dementia, Alzheimer’s, e.t.c). Breathing can also help better our mood and calm ourselves. You can even control your breathing to a point in which you can have complete control over your autonomic nervous system. The more we control our breathing; the more control we have over our bodies.

 

How does it work?

If you didn’t already know, the body requires energy to do anything. That’s why we need to eat food, so we have the energy for our daily activities. By inhaling oxygen, we not only send oxygen to the heart but also our muscles. The oxygen is used to break down the glucose from our food in order to create fuel for our muscles (ATP). That’s why breathing is so important when doing taxing exercises because it’s required by your heart and your muscles. Also, it improves your blood circulation, so it’s able to get more oxygen to your muscles and also muscle tissue which lacks blood flow. Basically, the more oxygen we are able to intake and use; the more we are able to increase our performance.

Lung Training

Of course one of the ways to maximize our intake of oxygen is to exercise our lungs. By increasing the amount of oxygen our lungs can intake we can increase the amount of oxygen in our blood. That’s why elite athletes train to expand their lungs and their diaphragm and focus really hard on anaerobic breathing exercises.

Inspiratory Muscle Training

This first method is commonly used by most runners. Inspiratory Muscle Training is a breathing tool that makes it harder for you to breathe. Now, you may wonder how this could help someone get more oxygen if it’s preventing them from getting any. This method trains your lungs so they can improve the delivery of oxygen in intense exercise. Your lungs have to try harder to achieve the same amount of oxygen you require without the apparatus, so that’s why this method strengthens your lungs and improves your performance. Studies have shown that IMT can help those with Asthma, and can have other benefits like lowering blood pressure, boost cognitive performance, and improve cardio fitness.

Usually, people utilize masks or tubes to breathe in and out of, but it can be done by the simplest items. If you have a straw nearby, I recommend trying this out. Try breathing in and out of the straw normally, and then try running while only breathing using the straw. You’ll notice that it isn’t that hard when just sitting around, but right when you start doing something it gets really tough.

Breath Holding

It’s exactly what it sounds like. Trying to improve your breath-hold times actually has many benefits other than just being able to stay underwater longer. It can strengthen your intercostal muscles, lungs, and diaphragm. It trains the body to be more efficient with oxygen intake, more resilient to carbon-dioxide, boosts mitochondrial density, and raises erythropoietin levels. Increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in your body might sound like a bad thing, but it actually helps extract oxygen from blood cells, which makes it a good thing. This type of training can also help with stress and control over your body.

There are two different ways to train breath-holding: O2 tables and Co2 tables. These training tables are mostly used by divers for lengthening diving times, but they are useful for athletes in general. O2 tables are where you increase the amount of time you hold your breath after each resting period. The resting period will stay the same. The goal of 02 tables is to make your body more efficient with a reduced amount of oxygen. C02 tables are the opposite of 02 tables. The time you hold your breath is the same, but the resting period gets shorter every time. This causes a build-in of Co2 which forces your body to become more resistant to Co2. The times are dependant on your static PB (how long you can hold your breath without moving), so the higher your PB the higher your times will be. Here is an example:

CO2 TABLE 

PREP	2.00		HOLD	2.00
	1.45			2.00
	1.30			2.00
	1.15			2.00
	1.00			2.00
	0.45			2.00
	0.30			2.00
	0.15			2.00

The resting period will always decrease at this rate but the amount of time you hold your breath will increase depending on your static PB. The hold time should be about 50% of the static PB.

O2 TABLE

PREP	2.00		HOLD	1.30
	2.00			1.45
	2.00			2.00
	2.00			2.15
	2.00			2.30
	2.00			2.45
	2.00			3.00
	2.00			3.15

You can adjust it from 50% of your static PB to 80% of your PB, but never try to max out. It can be dangerous if you try to consistently try to do your max.

Of course, you don’t have to do these calculations unless you want to. There are apps that will do the calculations for you. The app I use is “Freedive apnea” and it’s free. You record your static PB in the app and then it makes the tables for you. With apnea training, you have to make sure you don’t over-stress yourself. I am positive you’ll see results in the first month. I have been doing it for the past two weeks and I have increased my static PB by 20 seconds.

Relaxation Breathing Exercises

Breath control is also beneficial towards controlling your stress and anxiety. The way we breathe stimulates this one nerve called the vagus nerve. This nerve tells our brain what condition we are in. For example, if we are breathing very quickly then our brain thinks we are in danger of exercising. That’s why controlling our breathing is important when getting our brain into a calm state of mind.

I am just going to go over the two which I believe are the most important to know, but there are a lot more than these two exercises which are good for different scenarios. These exercises are really good for relieving stress and calming down.

Belly Breathing

Belly breathing is a good way to calm down and lower your heart rate. This involves relaxing your stomach and chest and expanding your lungs with as much oxygen as you can. Your stomach will expand when you inhale and when you exhale you should feel relaxed. It’s a good exercise for when you meditate or need a breather. I use it when I am resting through my Co2 and O2 tables.

Box Breathing

This is a very beneficial breathing exercise that isn’t only used to get into a calming state but also enhances C02 tolerance and oxygen efficiency. You first empty your lungs for 4 seconds, inhale for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 4 seconds, and then exhale for 4 seconds. This way of breathing forces you to put effort into inhaling and exhaling. Thus, this allows you to prevent hyperventilating or getting into a situation similar to it. This is very helpful if you have anger issues or any problems with staying calm. It helps me recover after exercise and control my breathing.

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I hope you have a new understanding of the power of breathing and try to utilize these methods more often. They are super helpful and will make you healthier, stronger, smarter, and overall happier.