Teaching yourself to Breathe during Workouts

Working out isn’t just about getting to the gym, pushing through a routine, and heading home. What you do during your routine is key and that goes for everything from what time you train to how you breathe. Yes, although you’ve spent your whole life breathing, figuring out how to breathe properly during exercise can have a huge effect on how much you get out of your exercise and what intensity you can handle. Regardless of what type of exercise you’re doing, it’s important to know some basics about how to control your breathing.

The most important thing to remember is that you have to keep breathing. While this may sound like common sense, we actually tend to hold our breath to try to stabilize ourselves when we’re lifting weight or doing crunches or push-ups. If you’re not breathing, though, your muscles and brain aren’t getting the oxygen they need to make it through your workout. Holding your breath during exercise can lead to dizziness and muscle cramps so remember to make yourself breathe, even when you’re exerting yourself.

Now that you’re not holding your breath, you need to think about how to breathe. There are two main points to remember. One is to take deep breaths, filling your whole chest and available area. Taking short, shallow breaths is a good way to quickly make yourself dizzy or breathless so, even when you’re running, make sure you’re taking deep, even breaths. If you start to lose control of your breathing, slow down until you’re able to take long breaths again.

The other point to remember is that you should always be breathing in through your nose. It can be tempting to breathe through your mouth to get air faster but breathing through your nose regulates the speed at which you breathe and also regulates the air temperature. Breathing through your nose increases the amount of oxygen that actually makes it to your cells so that you can keep going longer.

With proper breathing techniques, you should see your stamina increasing and your exhaustion decreasing. But remember that your body might need a little help with your workout. A protein and collagen supplement like Gym & Tonic can greatly increase your workout experience by giving your body the energy it needs to get through the exercise and the collagen it needs to fuel and heal your muscles. With Gym & Tonic you could see shorter recovery times and better results.