Relationship between exercise and correct breathing

There is a deep relationship between exercise and correct breathing. Whether you are performing yoga or a regular workout session, if your breathing is not correct, then your entire workout session would be of no use. During aerobic activities like swimming, running, yoga, etc. a good pattern of breathing makes sure that your working muscles will continue to receive oxygen that they truly require to contract.

According to a number of researchers, yoga techniques for stress would be a success only if you are breathing correctly while performing the same. Proper breathing is very important and the same is considered to be central to non aerobic forms of exercises such as weightlifting, tai chi, yoga techniques for stress, and pilates.

How does breathing during exercise work?

Upon inhaling, the air is pulled into microscopic air sacs into the lungs where oxygen gets delivered into the red blood cells and carbon dioxide is then transferred from the blood to the air. This oxygen-rich blood flows to the heart which then pumps it out into the body. You exhale carbon dioxide.

A majority of people tend to make a number of breathing mistakes while they exercise. The following are the common mistakes which people make while they are performing yoga techniques for stress:

• Taking shallow breaths
• Holding their breath
• Breathing very rapidly
• Breathing very deeply
• Inhaling or exhaling at an incorrect time.

This incorrect pattern of breathing affects the exercise or yoga that you perform and the same has adverse effects on your overall health.

Here is how to breathe correctly for the exercises such as yoga and stretching:

• Yoga:

         Yoga is known to be a combination of postures, stretches as well as breathing patterns. It is therefore very important to follow correct inhalation and exhalation techniques while you are performing any yoga asana for one purpose or the other. It is therefore recommended to inhale deeply from your belly or diaphragmatic breathing in order to increase your ability to concentrate as well.

• Stretching:

People usually tend to hold their breath when they perform stretching exercises including static stretching as well as dynamic stretching. It is therefore recommended to stick to the pattern of normal breathing during the time of stretching. This is going to improve your experience of stretching and would also give you better results.

Thus, it is recommended not to overlook the patterns of breathing while you perform any yoga exercise and to learn to breathe properly in order to get better results.

It is important to note that, breathing influences stress hormones, and can help us improve our coping ability along with exercise performance.

Having said that, we need to take home one important point and understand the fact that, not all standard breathing techniques and especially breath holding methods may not be suitable to all.