Your normal rate of breathing is 12 to 15 times a minute. When you work out, your heart rate and breathing rate increase at the same time. Your heart pumps oxygenated blood to your muscles and tissues and collects waste gas, or carbon dioxide. Next, blood flows to your lungs where gas exchange takes place. Carbon dioxide is left and fresh oxygen replaces it, and the process begins again.
Lungs
Your right lung has three sections or lobes. Your left lung is slightly smaller, with only two lobes. Inside your lungs, small tubes called bronchi branch out into smaller tubes called bronchioles, and end in small sacs called alveoli. Each alveolus is covered with a fine mesh of capillaries which connect to the network of arteries and veins that supply blood to your body.
Heart
Blood returns to the heart full of carbon dioxide, then flows into the lungs and through the capillaries that surround the alveoli. Inside the alveoli, carbon dioxide moves from the blood into the air inside the sac; meanwhile, oxygen is moving into the blood. This is the vital gas exchange that recharges the blood with oxygen and removes the waste products from the blood. The blood returns to the heart and is pumped back out into the circulatory system.
Exercise
When you start to exercise, your muscles demand more oxygen in order to create movement. Your heart rate increases to bring extra oxygenated blood to the muscles. As the blood flow increases, your lungs have to increase their rate as well. They perform the gas exchange more quickly, so that the heart has an adequate supply of oxygenated blood to return to the muscles. Your rate of breathing increases as your heart and lungs work harder to keep your muscles supplied with fresh oxygen.
Coordinated Body Systems
During exercise, your cardiovascular system, respiratory system and skeletal muscle system all work in harmony to get extra oxygen to your muscles and eliminate waste products via the lungs. You feel your muscles warm up, your heart rate increase, and you are breathing faster and harder. Once the workout is complete, your heart rate and respiratory rate return to normal.
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