Ensuring you manage your breath correctly during exercise can bring a multitude of benefits to you and your workout. Knowing what these benefits are and applying the right technique could just be a bit of a game changer.
Benefits:
· Allows your body more control to actively engage your muscles.
· Keeps you calm and alert throughout your workout.
· Maximises your workout and fitness ability.
· Improves your blood circulation and heart health.
Generally, during an exercise:
· Avoid holding your breath. We need regular oxygen to feed our muscles and avoid an increase in blood pressure and other potential issues.
· Inhale through your nose as you prepare (muscle lengthening part of the movement).
· Exhale through your mouth on the exertion (muscle shortening part of the movement).
· For example, during a squat, inhale through your nose as you lower yourself down and exhale as you come back up to standing. During a bicep curl, inhale as you lower the weights, extending / lengthening the arm and exhale as you raise the weights to curl.
· During core exercises you should continue to breathe freely (inhale and exhale) to help stabilize your body and maintain your position for longer which also makes your exercise more effective. As you inhale, naturally everything expands so as you exhale there’s more space to engage your deep abdominals (like tightening a corset around your torso).
· Also, if you can relax your pelvic floor as you inhale and contract your pelvic floor (drawing it upwards) as you exhale, you’ll be strengthening those super important muscles and delivering yet another long term health benefit.