Breathing - How to breathe in an optimal way and why it is important

Hey steemers!

Many of us do not breathe efficiently and therefore get tired quickly on a daily basis or during efforts ... and yet it is very useful to breathe in an optimal way. Indeed, from inspiration to expiration, each phase must be correctly realized by being dissociated and adapted to your gesture or your posture.

Whether it is during a sports practice or during periods of stress, we concentrate more generally on the effort or on the task to be performed than on the breath, which is much more important!

To know if you are breathing through your stomach or thorax, there is a simple exercise. You just have to lie down on the floor and place a hand on your stomach and one on the chest and observe when breathing which lifts first.

If you breathe through the chest, you do not fully utilize your lung's capacities, and you also get tired faster (oxygen reserves less than those that breathe through the stomach). Then learn to alter your breath during effort to gain in efficiency.

You need to concentrate on your inspiration. Release your belly well and inflate gradually and regularly like a balloon. At this point your diaphragm opens and you absorb a large amount of oxygen and therefore energy. When exhaling, blow the air out of your lungs by getting your stomach back as far as possible, your diaphragm then goes up and empties your lungs. On average, at each inhalation and normal exhalation, 0.5 liter of air enters and exits the lungs ... depending on the age, gender of the person. By using your abdominal breathing, you can inhale more oxygen and exhale Co2, not to mention inspiration and "forced" exhalation.

Strength Training/Sports

Strength training requires a breathing method that is to exhale at the time of exertion. This means you must exhale when you lift or pull weights, elastics ... and inspire when relaxing and recovering. Although this may seem trivial, it deserves to be clarified because many people block and / or reverse their breathing during exercise. Focus on your breathing in your upcoming muscle strengthening sessions and you'll see how effective it is.

To breathe well, you must be as regular as possible, not to force yourself to find your rhythm according to the sport practiced. As a general rule the exhalation should be on average two to three times longer than inspiration. Avoid double expirations!

For very fast efforts such as sprint, very little breathing, recovery then trying to regain a nasal inspiration/oral expiration. The same applies to fractional efforts where, during the recovery period, you must try to resume full and optimal breathing in order to fill the oxygen debt as much as possible.

Don't forget that during periods of extreme cold you need to inhale more by the nostrils than by the mouth as this will allow to filter the air, to warm it, to moisten it, and will therefore be less aggressive for the lungs!

Thanks for reading!