Breathing Technique

Although breathing may seem like a trivial and instinctive task in daily life, it is important for exercising safely, comfortably, and effectively.

If you are just starting exercise again, or if you are exercising for the first time, you may find that it’s challenging to focus on your breathing. This is completely normal as your body is adjusting to the exercises by concentrating on keeping proper form and completing the movements correctly.

This can be frustrating, but your cardiovascular fitness can generally improve quickly with daily exercise and soon you will develop breathing patterns that come naturally and without conscious thought.


Why Is Breathing So Important?

Simply put, breathing provides your body with necessary oxygen, while also ridding the body of waste such as carbon dioxide. Oxygen helps to feed and power the muscles during exercise, and although we instinctively breathe in and out, there are specific breathing patterns that will enhance the quality of your workout.

  • Benefits of proper breathing while exercising:
    • Increases comfort, safety, and exercise duration
    • Prevents injuries (hernias, blood vessel strain, blood pressure spikes)
    • Increases blood flow in the body
    • Increases ability to relax
    • Increases focus on exercise

Breathing During Resistance Exercises

To properly breathe during resistance exercises, you exhale on the exertion phase and inhale on the resetting phase

But what does this all mean?

Basically, you’re exhaling as you resist or lift the load and inhaling as you relax into the beginning position of the exercise

Example: when performing a bicep curl, while you are bending your arms up towards your body (resisting the load), you are exhaling, and when you are straightening your arms back down to your sides (relaxing into starting position), you are inhaling


Information on this page was retrieved from: https://www.summitmedicalgroup.com/news/fitness/proper-breathing-during-exercise/