Breath and breathing are an essential part of all disciplines designed to lead human beings to mastery of body, mind and spirit.
Deep breathing is core to hatha yoga – the ancient Indian practice that helps the practitioner to withdraw the mind from the outside world and integrate mind, body and soul through the practice – as well as to almost every other meditation and relaxation method practiced around the world.
But why is breathing correctly so important and how will breathing properly improve your health and your performance both on and off the sports field with virtually no extra effort on your part?
First, understand that oxygen – the most basic fuel for life on this planet – is the reason we breathe. To understand this fully, try holding your breath now for two minutes and see what happens.
How did that feel? My guess is that you didn’t manage the full two minutes. After 60 seconds without oxygen, your mind and body start to go into a state of alarm and, finally, panic. Your mind and body function less and less efficiently as you become more oxygen-starved. Finally, the vital organs will completely shut down and die.
Logic would dictate that if less oxygen has this effect, more oxygen should have the reverse effect, right? Test the theory now by taking 10 really deep breaths through your mouth.
How did that feel? If you feel a little light-headed or dizzy and somewhat nervous, don’t worry. This is completely normal and to be expected.
The 'fight or flight' response
You see, taking large gulps of air through your mouth causes hyperventilation, a condition where the blood becomes super-oxygenated and the carbon dioxide levels in the blood fall below their optimal levels, causing a fall in blood pressure, tingling of the extremities and sometimes even fainting. Your sympathetic nervous system, which reduces digestive secretions, speeds up your heart and contracts your blood vessels, has been activated.
This reaction is more commonly known as the ‘fight or flight’ response because it is exactly what happens when we face an emergency situation. We evolved this response over the course of millions of years to help us deal with threats to our lives as primitive hunter-gatherers.
It puts us in a state of high alertness and gives us a sudden burst of adrenalin-fuelled energy to enable us either to fight the threat or flee from it at rapid pace – a useful reaction when a hungry predator is bearing down on you, intent on making you its dinner!
However, the problem with this reaction is that it is no longer appropriate for most of the situations where we tend to experience it in modern life – when a taxi cuts you off, when you fight with your boss or when you exercise.
If the blood flow to your muscles and brain is restricted and you are feeling faint, you are not in a state to do anything terribly productive, least of all perform at your peak in any activity requiring as much blood flow to your muscles and brain as possible.
Breathing through your mouth when you exercise (or any time, for that matter) is clearly not the optimal way to breathe.
So what is? How do you normally breathe when you are not exercising? Stop now and become aware of how you are breathing. You should be breathing through your nose, which is the natural way of breathing for homo sapiens.
If you have just discovered that you normally breathe through your mouth, keep reading, as the solution to most of the health troubles you are no doubt experiencing is literally right under your nose!
Focus on nasal breathing
Breathing through your nose activates the diaphragm and helps you to draw the air into the deepest part of your lungs, using your full lung capacity to absorb as much oxygen per breath as possible.
By passing through your nasal passages, the air has also been filtered and warmed, so it is in the best state for maximum oxygen exchange to take place.
It also activates the parasympathetic nervous system that does the opposite of the sympathetic nervous system – it slows the heart rate, dilates blood vessels and stimulates digestion. This induces a state of relaxation and a feeling of integration between body, mind and soul that explains why deep, nasal breathing is so fundamental to yoga and other relaxation practices.
Breathing through your nose is clearly the correct way to breathe and so much more efficient when exercising, as it results in more oxygen getting to your muscles and brain, a lowered heart rate and a sense of relaxed calmness (sometimes called ‘the Zone’ by athletes) when compared with breathing through your mouth, which leads to oxygen-starvation and panic.
Learn to slow down
If it is our natural way of breathing, why don’t we do it when we exercise?
As in many other aspects of life, we have lost touch with our own innate abilities and have fallen into ‘bad’ habits. Part of the problem is our achievement-driven minds, which always want more of our bodies and drive the body to the point where it has no option but to breathe through the mouth, an emergency mode of breathing, in order to get enough oxygen.
We need to learn how to slow down, set aside all our expectations of performance for a while and practice breathing correctly while exercising in order to master this new way of breathing.
In this way, exercise will become a ‘meditation in motion’, a deeply rewarding spiritual practice and a stress reliever, relaxer and rejuvenator instead of a source of stress, which for so many people it is.
And perhaps best of all, you will begin to function in everything you do with the same poise, grace and ease with which you exercise.