Breathing is an essential part of life. The lungs are like sponges – they cannot get bigger on their own. Muscles in your chest and abdomen tighten or contract to create a slight vacuum around the lungs. When you exhale, the muscles relax and the lungs deflate on their own, much like an elastic balloon will deflate if left open to the air.
The lungs primary function is to exchange air of oxygen and carbon dioxide, which is essential for the body to function. Your breathing changes depending on how active you are and the condition of the air around you. For example, you need to breathe more often when you do physical activity.
Breathing correct and focusing on breathing in the right situations has a big effect on general health.
Our breath can heal us from stress
You can train to become better to control your breathing patterns. When focusing on our breath we can pack more air in our lungs and we can decide to breath through our nose. Meditation will focus on how you breathe to train your lungs, but also to clear negative thoughts. This technique will improve mood and stress.
Meditation uses deep breathing and this way of breathing in and out has shown amazing benefits on stress. Deep breathing is a relaxing technique capable getting more oxygen in to the body. Having enough oxygen in the brain is crucial to brain function – that is why it will improve the mood and to reduce the levels of stress. The brain uses about three times as much oxygen as muscles in the body do.
When you test the deep breathing it also shows that it helps on pain. Deep and slow breathing techniques, as a component of various relaxation techniques, have been reported as complementary approaches in the treatment of chronic pain syndromes. So if you are ever in pain or get an injury, then use a deep breathe technique to relax, clear out stress and have less pain in the moment.
Slow and deep breathing affects the brain and the cardiovascular, respiratory, and gastrointestinal systems.
Training your breath as an athlete
Did you know, that the breathing muscles are able to be training? Now you do! Different lung exercises has big benefits for athletes who want to increase oxygen consumption. By doing this, It will improve sport performance, respiratory muscle strength and endurance. Swimmers who dive usually train their lungs to hold their breath for longer.
Deep breathing exercises will increase lung capacity. Low knowledge on breathing exercises and dysfunctional breathing is relatively common in athletes, especially in young athletes. Weak lung muscles can cause from increased losing breath from exercises, physical tests or from chronic symptoms, like asthma. It will show as difficulty breathing, difficulty “catching my breath”, or an inability to take deep breaths in. Additional symptoms can include cough, stridor/wheezing, throat tightness, chest tightness/pain, anxiety and dysphonia.
Certain exercises can help the lungs work more efficiently. Breathing exercises and exercises of the lunges muscles can help a person use their lungs to their fullest capacity. Just like aerobic exercises help improve the health of the heart, breathing exercises can make the lungs function more efficiently.
For instance, the British Lung Foundation say that deep breathing can help clear mucus from the lungs after pneumonia, allowing more air to circulate. Regular exercise can help improve the symptoms of asthma in the long term. People will also be able to avoid some symptoms or asthma attacks by training on specific techniques.
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