Breathing

Learning to control your breathing is a powerful tool that can help you ease nerves before a big event, improve your accuracy, and even enhance your athletic performance. Often overlooked, breathing is not just a basic bodily function—it's a practice that, when refined, can serve as both nourishment and medicine for your body.

The Importance Of Breathwork

Breathing is essential for life, yet many of us take it for granted, not realizing its full potential. By practicing and training your breathing, you can reduce stress, improve focus, and elevate your sports performance. But what exactly is "breathwork"?

Breathwork is a broad term encompassing various breathing techniques that intentionally alter your breathing rhythm. In yoga, this practice is known as "pranayama." It's also a key component in other body-mind activities like Pilates and meditation. However, breathwork isn’t just for yoga enthusiasts or meditators; it's widely used by athletes across different sports to gain a competitive edge.

Even elite military forces, such as the Navy SEALs, utilize breathwork techniques to manage extreme stress and make quick, accurate decisions in high-pressure situations. Scientific studies, including those using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), have shown that breathwork can significantly alter brain activity, particularly in areas responsible for processing emotions and stress.

How Breathing Works

When you breathe, your lungs fill with oxygen, which is then dispersed into the bloodstream and pumped by the heart to the rest of your body. Simultaneously, carbon dioxide, a waste product, is transported from the blood to the lungs for exhalation. This "gas exchange" process is fundamental to life and plays a crucial role in athletic performance.

In sports, where success often depends on breath control—such as swimming, free diving, and precision sports like archery or biathlon—effective breathing is essential. Learning to breathe efficiently during exercise or to control your breath before a competition offers several benefits, regardless of your sport.

1. Calm Nerves Before Competitions

Many athletes experience heightened stress before a challenging training session or competition. This is due to the activation of the sympathetic nervous system, which triggers the "fight or flight" response—raising your heart rate, increasing blood pressure, and releasing stress hormones.

Practicing nasal breathing before competing, where you breathe in slowly and exhale through your nose, can help activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which calms the body. One effective technique is square breathing, a simple yoga method where you visualize a square and follow these steps:

Inhale slowly through your nose for four seconds, filling your lungs.

Hold your breath for four seconds.

Exhale through your nose for another four seconds, emptying your lungs.

Pause for four seconds before starting the cycle again.

Square breathing helps calm your nervous system and keeps you focused on the present moment.

2. Improve Swimming Speed

In swimming, breath control is crucial. Coordinating your breath with your arm movements can make or break your performance. The more times you breathe, the more movement you create, potentially slowing you down. Strengthening your breath control and your ability to hold your breath can help you swim faster and more efficiently.

3. Increase Endurance

Strengthening your respiratory muscles, which contract when air enters your lungs, can improve your overall strength, endurance, and reduce respiratory fatigue. A controlled clinical trial published in the Journal of Sport Sciences found that runners who trained their respiratory muscles daily for four weeks were able to run longer distances. Breathwork can enhance endurance in running, swimming, rowing, and cycling.

4. Enhance Accuracy in Precision Sports

In precision sports like archery and biathlon, where success depends on millimeter-perfect accuracy, breath control is vital. Breathing moves your abdomen, chest, and shoulders, which in turn moves your equipment, making it harder to shoot accurately. Learning to coordinate your breathing with your movements is essential for anyone practicing these sports.

5. Reduce Injury Risk

Competitive stress can lead to increased muscle tension, a reduced visual field, and greater distraction—factors that increase the risk of injury. By controlling your breathing, you can help manage this stress and reduce the likelihood of injury.

Getting Started With Breathwork

Here are some tips to incorporate breathwork into your routine:

Practice Yoga: Breathwork is a key component of yoga. Follow your instructor’s breathing cues to become more aware of how breath affects your practice.

Square Breathing: Start your day or unwind after work with square breathing. Once mastered, use it during stressful moments to calm your mind.

Strengthen Respiratory Muscles: Incorporate breathing exercises to enhance performance in running, cycling, rowing, or swimming.

Let your breath become your best ally, helping you to stay focused, calm, and at your peak performance.