Proper breathing during training. Proper breathing during exercise How to breathe correctly when pumping muscles

Inhale through the nose, exhale through the mouth - right? Correct, but not always. Breathing plays an important role in sports, because if you breathe incorrectly, you lose oxygen and therefore strength. At every lesson, my fitness trainer repeats over and over again, like a mantra: “Don’t forget to breathe! Exhale through your mouth!” For the exercises that we perform at this time, this is correct. But such a rhythm is absolutely not suitable for, for example, running or yoga.

Each activity has its own rhythm and depth of breathing, which fills our lungs with oxygen and our body with the energy necessary for training.

So, inhale for “one”, exhale for “two-three-four”?

Run

Recent studies have shown that correct technique breathing has a positive effect on speed and performance. So your chances of reaching the finish line first increase if you breathe correctly.

There is no “golden rule” that is ideal for all runners. Alison McConnell, a breathing expert and author of Breathe Stronger Perform Better, says many people prefer the "two kicks, one breath" approach. That is, one inhalation per two steps and one exit per two steps - a 2:2 rhythm.

McConnell also recommends breathing through your mouth, since breathing through your nose during a running workout is difficult. Some people disagree with her and give their own reasons for breathing through the nose. Dr. Roy Sugarman believes that breathing through the nose increases the concentration of CO2 in the blood, which creates a calming effect. In addition, breathing through the nose in cold weather warms the cold air and reduces the likelihood of catching a cold, and also reduces the number of allergens that enter the body along with inhalation.

Therefore, you can try breathing through your nose and through your mouth and choose the option that is easiest to escape with. If you do breathe through your mouth, in cold weather you need to slightly raise your tongue to the roof of your mouth while inhaling: this way, cold air will not immediately enter your throat.

Football, basketball and other team games

Breathing rhythm during active team games, such as football or basketball, is very different from the measured rhythm during running that you choose for yourself. During these games, not only do you move in jerky motions, but you also get a decent dose of adrenaline, which makes your heart race, which in turn affects your breathing.

McConnell says the muscles we use to inhale and exhale are an integral part of the core stabilizing and postural control system. This means that you intuitively take a deep breath and tense your core when you expect an impact or heavy load. This not only helps you stand, but also protects your spine.

When running across the field, you should breathe through your diaphragm (the most efficient muscle for breathing) and not through your chest. Your chest should move from bottom to top, from back to chest and to the sides, says physical therapist Anna Hartman. In addition, deeper breathing calms you down, provides the necessary fuel for your muscles and, accordingly, an advantage over your opponents.

Power training

Correct breathing important not only for aerobic exercise. Anyone who has done strength exercises with weight lifting at least once knows that if you breathe incorrectly or even hold your breath, you will quickly become exhausted.

The standard is one inhalation per effort, and then exhalation. This rhythm helps the body to gather itself before working with weights and protects the lumbar spine. How to breathe while bench pressing? Exhale deeply and long as you lift the weight, then inhale at the top position or as you lower the weight to your chest. Remember that once the weight is lifted, it does not disappear anywhere and the body must be kept in constant tension. This mechanism is a bit like the one that comes into play during contact sports, and it acts as a safety net for your spine.

And don't forget to exhale! Holding your breath increases blood pressure chest. This is good for maintaining a stable position, but if you go too long without breathing, blood flow to the heart will decrease, which can lead to high blood pressure.

During FT training, our standard breathing pattern is inhale on the chest press and exhale on the chest press. Moreover, inhalation and exhalation are done as long as the bench press lasts.

Yoga

It's time to relax and do yoga. Breathing plays a very important role in yoga. Everything is tied to him. There are several options for relaxing through breathing.

1. Vritti itself or “equal breathing”. This is breathing during which the inhalation is equal in duration to the exhalation. This style of breathing calms the nervous system, lowers blood pressure and relieves stress.

2. Ujjayi (victorious spirit). During this breathing, you will make a slightly hissing sound (almost like Darth Vader). During this breathing, you inhale and exhale through your nose, slightly squeezing your throat.

What not to do? When it comes to poses in which it is difficult to maintain balance or stand for a long time, we usually begin to hold our breath. This should not be done under any circumstances. Just accept this as a sign that you are tired and take a short break.

In yoga there are a huge number of different breathing practices and if you have chosen a good instructor, he will definitely tell you how to do it correctly. Just remember that you cannot hold your breath while doing exercises unless the trainer tells you to do so.

I hope this short review will help you achieve best results during training and will point out weaknesses. This is especially true for running, since it often happens that the legs would still run and run, but breathing no longer allows it.

Proper breathing during training, how to breathe correctly when power loads, breathing when running, how to restore breathing after running, swimming and proper breathing.

The desire to look beautiful, have a slim waist and toned muscles, and feel cheerful forces us to devote time to training. Some people prefer to go to sports. gym, others train at home. Wherever your classes take place, special attention should be paid to proper breathing, the technique of which can be mastered at home. Many experts say that proper breathing during exercise is the basis for the effectiveness of any workout. What are the dangers of improper breathing when performing physical exercises? The result of improper breathing will be:

1. Reduced effectiveness of the exercises performed.

Not sufficient quantity oxygen entering the blood slows down the process of fat breakdown, and it becomes more difficult for you to get rid of extra pounds.

2. Improper functioning of the cardiovascular system.

Due to insufficient oxygen, the heart works with some interruptions. During exercise, a person who breathes incorrectly gets tired 2 times faster.

How to master breathing techniques during training? A few tips will help you with this!

Proper breathing during training

Before starting your workout, take 2-3 deep breaths. During classes, you need to adhere to the main rule: make an effort while exhaling. When inhaling, AT increases ( arterial pressure), so at this moment it is important to eliminate unnecessary load. In addition, performing this or that exercise requires concentration, and coordinating your movements while exhaling is much easier.

Tip for a beginner: practice breathing properly before starting the exercises. You need to inhale with your diaphragm, not your chest, using your lungs fully. In this case, breathing should be smooth and deep, and the exercises themselves should be performed slowly. It must be said that breathing during strength exercises, running, swimming or aerobics is somewhat different. Some types of training require frequent, intermittent (shallow) breathing, while others require slow, smooth breathing. Once breathing correctly becomes a good habit, you can start doing the exercises. At first, you will have to control your breathing; after a while, breathing correctly will become your habit.

How to breathe properly during strength training

Beginning athletes should inhale and exhale the air like “wow!” without holding their breath. It's important not to overdo it. The main thing is not loudly, but correctly! By performing a small load during training, you can breathe freely. When performing exercises with heavy weights (dumbbells, barbells), the effort should be made exclusively while exhaling. For example, when lifting weights, you should inhale while your arms are bent, and exhale while lifting.

Some trainers advise holding your breath, but this point is quite controversial, especially if you have problems with blood pressure (BP). During push-ups, maintaining the correct breathing pattern will not be difficult: inhale on straight arms and exhale on bent ones. It is important to keep your back straight when doing push-ups without overstraining your muscles.

Breathing while running

While running, a person's need for oxygen increases almost 10 times. Not paying enough attention to cardio is tantamount to the benefits of sports training there will be less harm. This is why it becomes important to monitor your breathing while running. You should also start your workout with a warm-up, during which you should also breathe correctly. At the moment of tension - inhale, at the lowest tension - exhale. For example, when bending over, exhale; when lifting, inhale. Immediately before jogging, you can perform “ventilation”. To do this, take 10 deep breaths/exhalations for about 1 minute.

During training, it is recommended to inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth. This technique allows you to inhale clean air, which is purified in the nasal mucosa, and exhale as much carbon dioxide as possible, providing better ventilation of the lungs. Breathing exclusively through your nose is wrong. Not enough oxygen passes through the nose, causing oxygen starvation. Breathing only through the mouth is also incorrect. This can overcool the respiratory system.

In addition, without being cleaned through the nasal mucosa, all microorganisms and dust penetrate the bronchi and trachea and settle there, causing infectious diseases. Many professional runners It is advised to use methods of alternating inhalations and exhalations at certain time intervals. For example, you can inhale through your nose for a while, exhale through your mouth, and then vice versa. This will control the amount of air entering the lungs.

1. Don't chew gum while exercising.
2. If you start to feel out of breath, slow down your running pace.
3. If you have side pain, you should slow down, walk for a few minutes, and then resume running.
4. Don't run right away long distances, start your training with small runs.
5. Don't stop immediately after finishing your workout. Walk for a few minutes, gradually normalizing your breathing.

To restore your breathing after running, you should take several deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth.

A small test will help you learn how to breathe correctly when running. To do this, you will need to perform several sequential steps:

1. We lie on our backs;
2. We place one hand on the chest and the other on the stomach;
3. We take several deep breaths/exhalations.

If during breathing there is a movement of your hand on your stomach, then you are breathing correctly - with the diaphragm, there is no lack of oxygen. If the hand on the chest moves, breathing is incorrect. There is a lack of oxygen. This test will help you learn how to breathe from your diaphragm, ensuring the greatest effectiveness in your training.

Swimming and proper breathing

Breathing properly in a pool is quite difficult. Improper breathing contributes to rapid fatigue and constant tension in the muscles of the back and neck. Once you master the correct breathing technique, you can swim comfortably in any way and at any distance.

When swimming, inhale through the mouth and exhale through the nose. You need to exhale for a long time, this helps free your nose from trapped water. When swimming breaststroke, be sure to inhale for each stroke. Butterfly involves inhaling every second stroke, and crawl involves inhaling all the time under one hand or alternately under each hand. While floating on your back, you can breathe in the way that is comfortable for you, following a certain rhythm and without delays. In any case, you need to breathe evenly, rhythmically, without interruptions.

It is especially difficult for beginners to master breathing techniques. In this case, it will be relevant (especially for children) to perform special exercise: while standing in the water, you need to take a deep breath and dive headlong under the water. Count to 15 and surface. The exercise should be repeated 10-15 times, gradually increasing the number of dives up to 25 times. Breathing training in this way will help you master faster technique correct breathing, prepare the lungs for a certain load in the water.

Fitness expert Dr Alex Hutchinson breaks down the science behind how to breathe properly during exercise.

Birds do it, and horses do it too - so it's natural to expect that humans should synchronize their breathing with rhythmic activities such as running, cycling or rowing.

Indeed, decades of research have shown that there is a definite relationship between the rate of steps and the rate of breathing: in the most different types sports; both for beginners and professionals; both at low and high speed.

Some scientists believe that unconscious synchronization makes movements more efficient . Based on a number of recent experiments, it has also been hypothesized that if you force yourself to breathe in a certain pattern, it can cause a negative effect.

Horses maintain a constant proportion, a 1:1 ratio, between strides and breaths because their lungs and breathing muscles oscillate rhythmically every time their hooves hit the ground. The same thing happens to birds when they flap their wings. In humans, due to upright walking, the situation is different: the vibration effect that occurs with each step does not directly affect the respiratory muscles.

However, a series of experiments conducted in the 1970s on a treadmill and exercise bike showed that some (but not all) subjects naturally began to breathe so that their breathing synchronized with the frequency of their movements.

The ratio of complete steps (counting each time the right foot touches the ground) and complete respiratory cycles (counting each exhalation) varies greatly from person to person: observations give results of 1:1, 2:1, 3:1, 4:1 and even 5 :2. The most common result among runners is two stride cycles per breath cycle.

An experiment carried out by Swedish scientists in 1993 showed that Runners appear to expend slightly less energy when their breathing is coordinated with their pace. , a discovery that has led some coaches to teach athletes to focus more on breathing. Since then, numerous studies have been conducted to determine whether synchronized breathing actually facilitates movement and helps conserve energy, but the results were contradictory.

For more than 20 years, it has not been possible to detect any clear connection, so if it actually exists, then this effect is too small to be of practical significance. However, the idea that there is a “correct” way of breathing is still very common.

Newer research has found that trying to consciously control your breathing is not only fundamentally different from simply allowing your breathing to automatically adjust to the rhythm of your movement, but can also have Negative consequences. In 2009, German scientists from the Institute of Sports Sciences in Münster observed runners who had to alternately focus on either their breathing or their surroundings.

When subjects concentrated on their breathing, they breathed deeper and slowed their breathing rate from 37 breaths per minute to 30. As a result, they spent almost 10% more energy than when they did not monitor their breathing and just looked around .

The researchers concluded that Our body is able to automatically select the correct breathing rate on a subconscious level, but when we try to think about it, we only make it worse for ourselves.

One way or another, it will be useful for novice athletes to familiarize themselves with some recommendations regarding proper breathing. For example, if you breathe through both your nose and mouth at the same time, you can get more oxygen than through your nose or mouth alone.

A When lifting weights, it is important to synchronize your breathing: as you exhale, lift the weight, while inhaling, lower it; and most importantly, do not hold your breath under any circumstances.

But in general, if you find yourself panting during a new cardio exercise, it's likely because you started too quickly, not because you're breathing incorrectly. Slow down, think about something pleasant, and everything will work out on its own.

Usually we don’t think about how we breathe, we don’t track the depth and rhythm of our breathing. However, it makes a big difference during strength training. Proper breathing allows you to increase the stabilization of the spine, normalize blood pressure and provide the muscles with enough oxygen.

So how to breathe correctly? First, let's look at the breathing method itself, and later we'll talk about continuity and delays.

Diaphragmatic breathing

One of the mistakes that prevents you from practicing and getting excellent results is fast, shallow breathing.

To check if you are breathing correctly, do a short test. Stand up straight, place one palm on your chest and the other on your stomach, and calmly take a few breaths in and out. Under which palm do you feel the movement? If your stomach rises, you breathe deeply, using all your lungs; if your chest, you breathe shallowly. Deep breathing is also called.

The diaphragm is a muscle that separates the chest and abdominal cavities and serves to expand the lungs. It accounts for 60 to 80% of the work on ventilation of the lungs.

As a child, everyone breathes deeply. Due to sedentary work, stress, uncomfortable clothing, breathing changes with age and becomes shallow. During such breathing only top part the lungs fill with air. Since there is less air flow, breathing becomes faster, increasing pressure on the neck and shoulders, which are already stressed in people with sedentary work.

The diaphragm, on the contrary, becomes weaker, due to which sufficient intra-abdominal pressure is not created, bad pressure is formed - the center of the abdomen falls inward, bringing the lower ribs and pelvis closer together.

In addition, when you breathe quickly and shallowly, you force your body to work harder to get the same amount of oxygen as when you breathe calmly and deeply. This reduces the efficiency of your movements - you spend more strength, although this is not required.

Therefore, it is worth working on your breathing at least while doing the exercises. Try to breathe deeply and evenly. When you inhale, your stomach should inflate. Yes, you will have to concentrate more on your body, but for the sake of good posture, relieving tension in the muscles of the neck and shoulders and more economical movement, it is worth doing it.

To get ready for strength training with proper breathing, pay attention to how you breathe during the warm-up. Try to perform all exercises with rhythmic deep breathing. This way you will quickly learn to breathe correctly.

Exhale for effort, inhale for relaxation

This is the most popular breathing advice you hear in and out of the gym: inhale when you do the easy part of the exercise, exhale when you push it.

Strong and safe movement is only possible with a rigid spine, which transmits force from large muscle groups. The spine is strengthened by tensing the core muscles - the rectus and oblique abdominal muscles, the pelvic floor muscles, and the back. During inhalation, it is impossible to tense other core muscles well, which means it is difficult to provide the spine with the necessary rigidity.

When exhaling, on the contrary, it is quite easy to tense your core muscles. Breathing affects them reflexively, through the nervous system. The muscles tense, fixing the spine and helping to develop maximum strength. That is why the effort must be performed while exhaling.

If you pay attention to your breathing while heavy exercise, you may notice a brief cessation of breathing at the moment of maximum effort. This is quite natural. Brief breath-holding is used by experienced powerlifters and weightlifters to lift heavy weights. This breathing technique is called the Valsalva maneuver, but it should be used very carefully.

Is the Valsalva maneuver dangerous?

The Valsalva maneuver is a procedure that creates high pressure in the middle ear, chest and abdominal cavities. It is used in otolaryngology to test the patency of the Eustachian tubes and in cardiology to identify heart pathologies. This maneuver is also used in powerlifting and weightlifting and helps athletes lift heavy weights.

The Valsalva maneuver used in strength sports is as follows: a person takes a deep breath (about 75% of the maximum possible), and then, at the moment of maximum effort, holds his breath for several seconds and tries to exhale air through a closed glottis. Breathing is held throughout the repetition, exhalation occurs after completion.

The Valsalva maneuver increases pressure in the chest. Through the diaphragm, it is transmitted into the abdominal cavity, which creates good support for the back and helps resist forces that tend to move the spine. As a result, the athlete can lift more weight and the risk of injury is reduced.

Effects of the Valsalva maneuver on the body

However, the Valsalva maneuver is often criticized because it increases blood pressure that is already high during strength training, which can cause pain.

Opinions differ on this issue. Dr. Jonathon Sullivan, a professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Wayne State University, believes that only those who already have problems with the cardiovascular system should be wary of using the Valsalva maneuver.

In another study Effects of Weightlifting and Breathing Technique on Blood Pressure and Heart Rate. Using this technique to raise a one-time max has been found to cause only minor changes in blood pressure. The Valsalva maneuver is only suitable for lifting really heavy weights for low repetitions.

Using the Valsalva maneuver for multiple repetitions with light weights can cause dangerous increases in blood pressure, rupture of blood vessels in the eyes and face, headaches, temporary blurred vision, and may cause fainting or cerebrospinal fluid leaks.

The last problem was described in the article Don't Hold Your Breath. Vishal Goyal and Malathi Srinivasan, MDs, of the Department of Medicine at the University of California.

A 50-year-old patient complained of headaches in the projection of the nose, continuous cough and constant unilateral nasal discharge. As a result of the tests, doctors discovered a leak of cerebrospinal fluid and damage to the nasal ethmoid bone. It turned out that the patient performed chest presses every day with a weight of 90–136 kilograms. At the same time, he held his breath during the bench press.

Doctors suggested that the patient's problems arose precisely because of the Valsalva maneuver. The training increased blood pressure and destroyed the meninges, which caused meningocele and cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhea.

The Valsalva maneuver does help lift heavy weights, but it should not be used if:

• you are a beginner who does not have the required equipment and a trainer who can monitor correct execution Valsalva maneuver;
• you prefer exercises with light weights and high repetitions;
• you had problems with the cardiovascular system;
• you had problems with intracranial pressure.

Strengthening the core and continuous breathing

For medium loads, it is worth using continuous breathing without delay - exhale for effort, inhale for relaxation.

Start exhaling a little earlier, a moment before maximum effort. This way you can do more.

Breathing should be smooth and rhythmic. Don't stop at the extremes. Immediately after inhalation, exhale without short delays.

To ensure maximum shell rigidity, try using the anchoring method. The term was first used by Dr. Stuart McGill, a trauma and rehabilitation specialist. lumbar region spine. Bracing is the activation of the entire core muscles to create a rigid midsection, provide core stability and reduce the risk of injury.

Before lifting weights, imagine that you are about to get hit in the stomach. Tighten your abdominal and back muscles. This will create a rigid corset that you need to hold throughout the entire exercise. At the same time, breathe continuously, exhaling with maximum effort and further strengthening your core.

There is another theory about breathing during... Dr. Stuart McGill and Dr. Mel Stiff believe that proper exercise technique will automatically force the body to breathe correctly, without any need for your supervision.

But this is only true for perfect technique. If you can't boast of one, work on your breathing as well as your technique.

Results

1. Try to develop diaphragmatic breathing. Breathe like this during the warm-up to get used to it and tune in.
2. Use the Valsalva maneuver only for a few reps at maximum weight.
3. For high-repetition exercises, use continuous, smooth breathing, inhaling for the easy part of the exercise and exhaling for the maximum effort.
4. Along with continuous breathing, use bracing - tensing your core muscles to stabilize your core during exercise.

If you have any tips for breathing during strength training, please leave a comment.

Many of us mistakenly believe that breathing does not matter much: the main thing is to find your own tempo-rhythm, which will help you cope with heavy physical activity. Actually this is not true. It turns out that improper breathing not only slows down the process of weight loss, but also causes irreparable harm to our body. Without controlling the technology, we limit the access of oxygen to our brain, which threatens the most tragic consequences: blood pressure rises, nausea appears, and in addition - a very real threat of a heart attack or stroke. Therefore, it is quite obvious that you will have to breathe correctly not only for pleasant sensations, but also for your own health.

Breathing during strength training

The basic rule of breathing technique when strength training– make an effort while exhaling. The fact is that our body is designed in such a way that when we inhale, blood pressure rises, regardless of what you are doing now, and therefore, if at the moment exercise stress much more than everyday, the risk of a sharp rise in pressure increases several times. If we are talking about difficult exercises(for example, “plank”), then here you can make a small exception and completely hold your breath. One of the most difficult variations of this exercise is the plank with your feet fixed on a basketball ball. As you understand, it is very difficult to maintain balance in this position, so stop breathing for ten to fifteen seconds, and balancing will become much easier for you.

However, if you periodically hold your breath to perform this or that training, you will need to master a special technique, otherwise such experiments can lead to dizziness and even loss of consciousness. After you have returned to your normal breathing rhythm, pedal an exercise bike for a couple of minutes at a speed of 10 km/h, walk on a treadmill without complex programs, but at a fairly fast pace.

How to breathe during cardio training

Each runner has a unique breathing pattern, which is why there can be no clear rules on how to truly breathe correctly. However, you still have to choose your own, individual rhythm. For example, sprinters breathe quickly and shallowly, but if you dream of running a marathon, then you will need to take rare and deep breaths.

As for other types of cardio training, everything is quite simple: you must regulate your breathing in accordance with your sensations. Simply put, you can breathe in the way that suits you best. If a lack of oxygen occurs, then most likely this is not the consequence of incorrect technique, but a sign that the chosen workout turned out to be too difficult for you and will have to be interrupted. You can determine how difficult this or that exercise is for you by looking at your own heart rate - if it is close to the maximum, you should be careful. However, if you are a young athlete and, although you are breathing heavily, overall you feel good, you can continue training without fear for your own health.

Swim and breathe

It turns out that the breathing technique in water is considered the most difficult. The fact is that for a beginner, learning to exhale into the water is a task that is sometimes completely impossible: it causes such unpleasant sensations that a feeling of panic may even arise, so inexperienced swimmers prefer to simply constantly keep their heads above the water, which is fundamentally wrong . The trouble is that such experiments, firstly, will not allow you to swim far, and secondly, they will greatly reduce the effectiveness of the training as such. In addition, constantly raising your head above the water can cause overstrain of the muscles of the back and neck, which can lead to severe pain.

Usually, when swimming, you take a short and powerful breath through your mouth: fill your lungs completely with air at one count, but you need to exhale for a long time, through your mouth and nose at the same time: this helps to free yourself from the water that has entered the nostrils. In breaststroke, a breath must be taken on every stroke, in butterfly - perhaps on every second stroke, in freestyle - on the second, third, fifth or seventh, all the time under one hand or alternately under the right and left. And only while floating on your back, you can breathe as you like, but it is advisable to adhere to the same rhythm, without holding your breath (