“If you don’t control your breathing, your breathing will control you.”
Exercise and physical activity place exceptional demands on your body. Different sports have unique demands on your body and this includes breathing. Long endurance events require respiratory muscle fitness to sustain many hours of exertion. Crossfit style high intensity, shorter duration workouts lead to a sharp rise in carbon dioxide levels that can limit your ability to complete the next round.
HIGH PERFORMANCE BREATHING AND FITNESS
"Breath work can change your mental state in as little as 5 minutes"
From a biochemistry perspective we inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide (CO2). Oxygen is necessary to many metabolic activities in every cell in our bodies. Cellular CO2 is produced in the process of using oxygen, but it also has many metabolic and signalling roles. A certain concentration of CO2 in the blood is needed reduce for red blood cells to release the oxygen that it picked up in the lungs. A too low concentration of CO2 leads to a lower level of oxygen in our organs and tissues. By increasing our tolerance to CO2, we can increase the oxygenation of organs and tissues and help us breathe less.
We should be able to perform everyday activities, including low intensity warm-up and aerobic exercise with nasal breathing only. As we increase the intensity of exercise or become more fatigued, we need to move more air in and out of our lungs. Secondary breathing muscles assist our primary breathing muscles to increase the chest volume. At some point, the build up of CO2 becomes too high and this limits out performance. Knowing when to switch to mouth breathing and how to offload excess carbon dioxide will increase your ability to perform and recover not only between sets but also after. Valuing your breath training as much as your other muscular training will increase your performance.
Your ability to tolerate higher levels of carbon dioxide will delay the increase in breath rate that is required to manage the increased acidity. This will delay the necessary increased workload by your breathing muscles which will further drive fatigue.
However, it is important to bring the nervous system back to a calmer state before we leave the gym. This sets the tone for the rest of the day and help us be in a better position to deal with daily life. A short recovery protocol emphasising down-regulation principles is designed to up-regulate the parasympathetic (rest and digest) state.
During these sessions you will learn how to:
(sessions are tailored to your demands)
Improve respiratory muscle function & endurance
Maximise oxygen delivery before, during & after training
Manage carbon dioxide levels to reduce anxiety and increase performance
Prepare your respiratory physiology for exercise
Manage the breathing demands of different sports
Recover after exercise
Recognise signals for readiness