Breathing – Jenna Jamieson, Author

Breathing fuels your muscles, so practice breathing!

By Jenna Jamieson | October 17, 2014 | Comments 0 Comment

Last week when I was working out, I was thinking about how important and helpful it is to know what breathing pattern works best for your body, which highly depends on the person and the exercise. If you understand the importance of your breathing during exercise, you will be more likely to succeed and get through your workout. It’s something that I have practiced before (as odd as that may sound) because without proper breathing you cannot fully conquer a workout. Working out is as much about breathing as it is getting your heart rate up and moving your body because breathing fuels your muscles and keeps your body going during your workout.

Here are a few tips on breathing that will help you get through your workout more efficiently. See the chart below for a visual that will help explain the process of how and why breathing matters during your workout.

1. Remember that breathing gives your muscles the energy they need to keep up with the pace, speed, and challenge of your workout. Think of it like this: similar to consuming food to keep your body going and nourished, breathing keeps your muscles going when active. Putting junk food such as chips, cookies, sugary drinks, etc into your body makes your body feel lethargic, energy deprived, and lazy while breathing poorly such as taking shallow or short breaths, holding your breath, or not breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth when you exercise does the same thing to your muscles that poor eating does to your body. It makes it harder for your muscles to get through the workout just like junk food makes it harder for your body to function properly and can create problems such as diabetes, heart attacks, and other health related problems. If you do not practice breathing properly you can face shortness of breath during exercise, asthmatic symptoms, fainting, dizziness, or even headaches.

Breathing (Deep, steady breaths)

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Energy to fuel muscles

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Assists YOU with keeping steady, consistent pace

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Helps challenge and push you farther

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See better results over time

2. Deep breathing. Find your breathing pattern and what will work best for you during your workout. The best way to do this is to practice breathing at your normal, resting heart rate to recognize how fast, slow, deep, or shallow your breaths are. Then, consider taking deep breaths which help get more oxygen to your muscles. It is important to be aware of how you breath because this will help you feel more at ease when you exercise as well as ensure you have enough energy to continue through your workout without experiencing dizziness, headaches, or even fainting. Realize that it can often times be a learning curve to change your breathing pattern so be patient. Lastly, as a quick tip, if you ever get to a point where you feel you have reached the peak of your workout or need a quick dose of energy, sometimes taking one big deep breath will help you regain momentum to push forward.

3. Breathing patterns can change based on the type and intensity of the exercise and workout you are performing. For example, cardio workouts will require a more rigorous breathing pattern to keep up with the movement, speed, and intensity of your workout. In yoga, you can practice breathing that is similar to mediation and slow breathing techniques that will have a calming effect on your mind and body. Keep this in mind while working out so that you are getting the maximum benefits during your workout (i.e. burning max calories during cardio workouts and gaining ease and relaxation during yoga workouts). These are just examples, there are many other types of workouts that you can adjust your breathing for based on the speed, length, intensity, and movement.

It may seem hard to believe that something as involuntary and regular to us as breathing can impact our workout so much, but proper breathing is key to help you maximize your results and maintain a safe workout. Shall I say, happy breath-ercising?

~jj

Breathing, Form, & Rest Time

By Jenna Jamieson | October 16, 2013 | Comments 0 Comment

Today’s tip focuses on breathing, form, and rest time. Often times, people struggle with maintaining the stamina and energy to go for a long trail run or workout without getting too exhausted 10-15 minutes after starting. One thing that really helps me (and is a learned technique over time) is to maintain controlled breathing. In order to do this, you really need to find a steady rhythm and flow (which often takes time and patience to develop), but counting your breaths as you breath in and breath out can sometimes be helpful. Further, steady, controlled breathing while exercising will help you conserve energy and push you through your workout. This will help you gradually improve your stamina and energy over time, which in turn will allow you to go for longer runs, maintain higher intensity workouts, and make you feel less exhausted during your workouts. Be patient because finding your rhythm and flow for controlled breathing can be challenging when first starting out.

Next thing to think about is your form when you are doing exercises. Along with your breathing, stretching and increasing your flexibility will really help move you forward in your workouts. It helps warm up your body and prepare you for what is ahead without using too much energy too soon. Additionally, remember that while you may feel more successful when you do many reps of each exercise, if you are not using the correct form when doing exercises such as squats, push-ups, lunges, etc. then you are not only hurting yourself, but you aren’t utilizing your energy efficiently to obtain maximum results. In order to use the correct form, go at a slower pace if necessary and modify or adjust exercises to fit your level and lifestyle. For example, do “girl” push-ups at first if you need to and work your way up to doing a normal push-up. I like to remind myself that when exercising, “quality” of correct form, trumps “quantity” of reps per exercise. Eventually, once you master your quality it will become second nature and you can then begin quality and quantity at the same time during your workouts! 😉

My last part for today, is to remember that rest time throughout your workout and at the end of your workout are as important as your actual workout! It is very important to stay hydrated when exercising, so I always have a water bottle alongside me. In order to refrain from stopping frequently to take drinks and rests (which also means a break in your heart rate), I have timed, controlled breaks to maintain a steady pace for myself. For example, I might give myself five 30 second breaks during a 45 minute workout, but do whatever works best based on your fitness goals and lifestyle. During your 30 second rests, remember not to take big gulps of water when you rest as this can lead to heavy breathing, using more energy. Instead, take several small sips when you take your 30 second rests to conserve your energy and give you additional energy to continue. Lastly, a great way to help yourself ease into your post-workout is to have a post-workout routine. Rather than ending a long run with sitting on the couch to return your heart rate back to its normal rate, walk for 3 minutes or have a stretching routine. This is important because you don’t want to stop a workout with your heart racing, but rather you want to steadily bring it back down. For example, I do crunches and hand weights to slowly allow my body to return to normal. Happy exercising2behealthy! 🙂

~jj