Can my workout count as a breath practice?

I recently had a private session with a busy mom who needs to maximize her time.  She doesn’t have the ability to practice yoga, workout, have a full breath practice, and still handle all her other “mom-tasks”.  So after working through some breath practice basics she asked, “well doesn’t a workout count as breath practice?”.  I see her logic there, exercise does challenge your breath in a similar way to most breath practices (when practiced optimally).  However, it’s a bit more nuanced than that.  To understand the gray area, read below.  If you don't want the explanation and just want to jump into the how to, skip to "Putting It Into Practice".

To understand how to make your workout count as breath retraining, we need to get on the same page about a few details.  The first very important detail to understand is why you become breathless when you workout.  It’s a myth that breathlessness comes from lack of oxygen, it’s actually caused by too much CO2!  When your body is moving and muscles are activating, your muscles absorb O2 and turn it into CO2.  BUT your body can only tolerate a certain amount of CO2, so without any thought from you, you just start breathing harder when you hit that CO2 limit in order to quickly offgas the excess.  If you are fairly sedentary, you’ll likely hit that limit much faster than someone who runs marathons.  From a physical standpoint, when I teach breath retraining, it’s always done in a way that helps you INCREASE your tolerance to CO2… which means overtime you’ll be able to move more without needing to breathe as hard. If you don’t ever work to train your breath, this will take much longer to happen.  Anyone who casually goes to the gym without considering how they’re breathing or progressing their workouts will likely just continue to over breathe and never quite increase their CO2 tolerance.  

The next important detail to understand is how you breathe when you move.  This is going to be a little different for all of us.  I like to classify breathing while exercising into 3 different categories.  

Phase 1 Nose/Nose: you’re breathing in and out through your nose.  This should be happening at rest for sure, but also light movement.  Maybe out of a walk or moving through your warm up/cool down.  

Phase 2 Nose/Mouth: you’re breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth.  As you start to ramp up activity, you naturally need to breathe harder.  You might start to find that you cannot keep up movement without some exhales through your mouth. This is where you probably spend a fair bit of your time during exercise and maybe at rest without realizing it.

Phase 3 Mouth/Mouth: You’re breathing in and out through your mouth.  Your exercise is so physically demanding that you can’t possibly continue breathing through your nose on inhales or exhales.  This happens during physically exhausting events such as racing to the finish during a run or a snatch test.  You should reserve exerting this level of effort for very intentional purposes.  

When someone goes from couch to crossfit, they’ll typically go right into that mouth/mouth breathing so that they can keep up with the movements.  This will only further cement the habit of mouth breathing and they’ll immediately start overbreathing whenever their body starts moving.  Breathing is as habitual as anything else you do.  And training your breath to increase CO2 is so uncomfortable because it makes you feel breathless.  But if you continue overbreathing everytime you pick up a dumbbell you will never create change (and they change is sooooo worth it).

In order to understand what movements cause you to be in phase 1, 2, or 3, you need to move your body and observe your breath.  Try going for a run, find the pace, time on your feet, and elevation that puts you into the different breath phases.  

Putting It Into Practice

OK so let’s review, breathing hard happens when we increase the amount of CO2 in our bodies.  And exercise will always increase the CO2 in our bodies.  Breathing hard and fast simply allows us to keep moving at that same pace, it’s a compensation pattern- not an optimization.

Now onto the fun stuff… how do I incorporate all of this into my workouts?  This requires a fair bit of self study (in my opinion one of the best parts of the yogic process).  You can take any workout or movement practice and let your breath be the guide.  If you love kettlebell swings (who doesn’t right?) and you notice that after 6 swings you literally cannot continue without breathing harder, that’s where you want to work.  Do 6 swings, put the bell down, slow your breath back down and then start again.  Try 7 swings, can you do 7 swings without breathing hard?  I want you to find those spaces where you transition from phase 1-2 or 2-3 and work there.  Can you keep up your pace without breathing harder just a little longer than you did in the previous round?

But Danielle! My coach said to do 10 swings on that round, not 6.  OK that’s great, but following YOUR breath gives you the ability to adjust a prescribed group workout to make it specific to you.  I assure you, you can still get all your reps in, it just might take longer at first.  Eventually you’ll find that you can do so much more while your breath stays calm and rhythmic.  Plus you’ll be gaining so many other health benefits that come along with an increased CO2 tolerance.  

You can apply this logic to any exercise.  Going for a walk? Breathe in and out through your nose, slow down when that becomes impossible. Try adding a hill into your walk, or walking longer than usual.  Running? Stay at a pace that allows you to continue moving without moving to the next phase of movement.  What is the pace you need to take where it's hard to nasal breathe, but you can manage? What is the pace you need to take where it's hard to inhale through your nose, but you can manage?  You will without a doubt feel like you’re taking steps backwards in your progression.  But I want you to ask yourself why you’re doing that exercise or movement practice in the first place.  Are you competing for a gold medal in the Olympics? Or are you just trying to improve your health and well-being?  If it’s the latter, which I assume for most of us it is, than an emphasis on how you breathe during your workouts will take you so much farther than just phoning it in and getting through the movements.

I would recommend that your workouts are nose/nose during warm-ups and cool downs.  The main portion of your workout should be either challenging you to breathe in and out through your nose, or breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth (try to keep this to a minimum).  If you're spending the entire workout huffing and puffing you're pushing too far.

So is there ever a time when you should breathe in and out through your mouth? Great question! I’m glad you asked.  Mouth breathing should be reserved for the times that you’re completely exhausting your body for a purpose.  Is this a snatch test? Are you racing the clock to finish your marathon and qualify for another race? Are you running from a cougar knowing that one slow down or misstep will cost you your life? Significant fitness events and life saving circumstances are the two situations that come to my mind for breathing extremely hard.  Your everyday workouts on the other hand? Those should be reserved for functional breathing without exception.  

If you want to learn more about how your breathing might be impact your health and well being, I suggest you get in touch with me and fill out this short form.  You'll receive a custom breath practice within 48 hours of contacting me.