How should you breathe during a workout so as not to get out of breath?

When we go for a run or lift weights at the gym, we often worry about what clothes and shoes to wear, how to warm up our muscles, or even how many heartbeats we need to get in order to be effective. However, we tend to ignore the impact of breathing on physical performance.

Science has a lot to say about how to get more out of our gym hours by paying attention to how we breathe.

Mechanism of oxygenation during exercise

We all know that the task of the respiratory system is gas exchange. That is, it is responsible for both obtaining oxygen (O₂) from outside for energy production, and for removing waste – carbon dioxide (CO₂). Therefore, it allows us to live.

But let’s look at the process more technically. Air enters through the nose, circulating through the respiratory tract to the pulmonary alveoli, where gas exchange occurs. From there, oxygen enters the blood to be transported to all cells. At the same time, the CO₂ they produce is transported to the lungs for removal.

That’s how it works under normal conditions, but what about when we’re exercising? Well, muscles work much harder, taking in more oxygen and producing more CO₂. The rate increases from 15 breaths per minute at rest to 40-60 breaths per minute at full activity. As a result, the amount of incoming air increases, which goes from 12 to 100 liters.

During this additional gas exchange, our respiratory system is responsible for maintaining a constant blood acidity, which is measured by pH, by removing CO₂.

Another detail to take into account is that oxygen enters the muscles through the blood via red blood cells (the “carriers” that carry it from the lungs), specifically through a macromolecule called hemoglobin. So, in order for the oxygen molecule to be captured by the hemoglobin in the red blood cells that travel through the lungs, another CO₂ molecule is needed, which allows the hemoglobin to release oxygen at its destination. Ultimately, it is the amount of CO₂ in the body that determines the correct supply of O₂ to the muscles.

If we breathe through our mouth, we run out of breath

Now that we know about hemoglobin, we can’t forget about its key property: the Bohr effect. This refers to the fact that when we activate our body, there is an increase in CO₂ and therefore hydrogen ions, causing the pH to become acidic. This causes hemoglobin to capture oxygen with a higher affinity, achieving a greater contribution of O₂ to areas of our body where more CO₂ is released.

Therefore, by exercising, our body produces more CO₂, and the Bohr effect is triggered. In short, the Bohr effect allows our friend hemoglobin to release more oxygen the more we are active.

For this reason, when it comes to breathing, we must be guided not only by intuition. While you might think that breathing through your mouth is better for exercise, if we exhale air through our mouth, we run the risk of losing too much CO₂. In fact, when we get out of breath during a workout, it’s not because our muscles get tired, but because they don’t get enough oxygen because they don’t have enough CO₂ to exchange.

After reviewing the scientific work of recent years, a recent publication concluded that it is not so clear whether it is good to breathe through the mouth during sports. In addition, evidence suggests that purely nasal breathing is possible for most people with moderate levels of aerobic exercise without special adaptations, and that this approach to breathing can also be achieved during intense levels of aerobic exercise.

airways open more

Another cause of nasal breathing is nitric oxide (NO), a vasodilator that is produced in the epithelial cells of the nasal cavity when air passes through. It is known that nitric oxide, among other functions, is involved in the processes of chronic inflammation and in the modulation of lung function. In addition, it is a powerful vasodilator that dissipates very quickly, allowing for greater airway opening.

This is very important for people with exercise-induced asthma. In fact, this pathology has been shown to be greatly improved by breathing through the nose.

At maximum effort, the mouth opens

We have explained that nasal breathing helps athletes perform better, especially when the effort is long and moderate. Although less air enters the lungs when breathing through the nose, there is enough air to keep you active and does not appear to cause problems.

However, things change when more complex conditions are reached. With maximum effort, athletes automatically switch their breath to their mouth. Interestingly, scientists have shown that this change occurs earlier in women than men as exercise intensity increases, and they attribute this to the fact that women tend to have smaller noses.

In the most difficult and fastest race of 100 meters, athletes breathe through their nose and mouth at the same time. Of course, in just 10 seconds. It is enough to watch Carl Lewis or Usain Bolt in the Olympic finals to be convinced of this.

Avoid yoga and pilates

There are two exceptions to the cases we covered earlier: yoga and Pilates. In these two modalities of physical exercise, breathing is a very important part, and its technique is learned first. This is always the naso-oral type (that is, inhalation occurs through the nose, and exhalation through the mouth). This is especially important in the case of Pilates with a very determined execution that engages (and shapes) the muscles surrounding the chest, exercising them both on the inhale and on the exhale.

Using a technique called EMG or “electromyography”, to measure muscle activity in real time, the beneficial effects of Pilates breathing have been shown. In older adults in particular, there are studies that show a great benefit of Pilates breathing in stimulating muscle activation during exercise. And the benefits go further: spinal alignment is also improved and loss of balance is prevented.

Therefore, there is no single answer to the question of how we should breathe during exercise: it depends on the type of activity. What we believe in is that the next time you listen to your instructor or trainer explain how to breathe, you won’t be thinking “how heavy” or “what else does that matter.” Because proper breathing will affect your performance.

Matilda Canelles Lopez, Research Fellow. Science, Technology and Society, Institute of Philosophy (IFS-CSIC); Maria Mercedes Jimenez Sarmiento, Research Fellow at CSIC. Systemic biochemistry of bacterial division. Science Communicator, Margarita Salas Center for Biological Research (CIB – CSIC) and Nuria Eugenia Campillo, Senior Research Fellow. Medicinal Chemistry, Margarita Salas Biological Research Center (CIB – CSIC)

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original.

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