Oxygen is the key to making the energy from food available to the body, explains the "Oxford Companion to the Body." Breathing when exercising provides many benefits, including aiding in burning fat, preventing injury and improving overall exercise performance. Through proper breathing, you can improve the effects of aerobic exercise and resistance training alike.
Energy For Exercise
When you exercise, your energy demands increase over those required for basic metabolic function. That means you need to take in even more oxygen to unlock that energy than you do during the routine activities of everyday living. Sufficiently oxygenating the blood stimulates the brain and helps the body to more effectively carry nutrients to the muscles and organs. This helps to give the brain and the rest of the body more of the usable energy it needs to exercise.
Weight Loss
Oxygen is one of the two primary components in burning calories, the other being water. Increasing the oxygen level of the blood helps burn fat by increasing metabolism and encouraging production of an energy-carrying molecule called ATP that plays a major role in burning calories. Breathing also discourages production of cortisol, which is involved in promoting the storage of fat in the first place.
Muscle Growth And Conditioning
The growth of muscles, or hypertrophy, is achieved by increasing the number of muscle fibers, which in turn is the result of repetitious muscle contractions. For these contractions to effectively promote new muscle fiber growth, those muscles require additional nourishment, which are carried to them through oxygen in the bloodstream. Similarly, muscle conditioning, or muscles' increased ability to perform a given task, requires increased energy and strength. Both are functions of extra oxygen reaching the muscle tissues.
Helps Prevent Injury
Not breathing when exercising could cause injury, including strained blood vessels, exercise-induced headaches, hernia and even stroke. It could increase pressure in the chest, causing cramping, and decrease blood flow to the brain, causing dizziness and lightheadedness. Holding your breath while exercising could also elevate your blood pressure significantly, potentially leading to unconsciousness or, when you resume breathing again, hyperventilation.
Regulates Blood Composition
Holding your breath while you exercise increases the ratio of carbon dioxide to oxygen in the bloodstream. Excessive carbon dioxide causes acidity in the way of too much hydrogen in the blood and bodily tissues, which, among other harmful effects, can throw off the body's mechanisms that regulate respiration and metabolism for proper maintenance of arterial O2 and CO2 levels. When this aerobic, or oxygen-based, energy transfer is insufficient to support the demands of exercise, the body breaks down carbohydrates into lactic acid. Too much lactic acid can lead to a number of exercise-related health problems, including shortness of breath, muscle contraction and perceived limb fatigue.
References
- "The Oxford Companion To The Body"; Breathing During Exercise; Colin Blakemore, et al.; Mar 2001
- Military.com Fitness Center; Breathing During Exercise; Stew Smith
- "Archives Of Physical Medicine And Rehabilitation"; Influence Of Breathing Technique On Arterial Blood Pressure During Heavy Weight Lifting; Joseph A. Narloch, M.D., et al.; May 1995
- The Diet Channel; Breathing Techniques During Exercise; Michele Silence; Sep 2006
- Exercise Solution; Proper Breathing; Gus Diamantopoulos; 2005
