Breathing is the secret to better sports performance!

Runners think about training their heart and their legs, but they usually forget about their lungs. A strong respiratory system can improve your performance. It's a simple equation: breathing better equals more oxygen for the muscles, which equals more stamina.

Need more air? Deep breathing can help you run further with less effort. Just as we can train our hamstrings and calves to improve our uphill leg capacity, the same can be done for the muscles used in breathing.

“Exercise improves the conditioning of the diaphragm, the muscle that separates the chest from the abdomen, and the intercostal muscles, which are between the ribs and allow you to inhale and exhale,” said Everett Murphy, MD, a runner and pulmonologist at Olathe Medical Center, in Kansas City, Missouri. “When you take a breath, 80% of the work is done through the diaphragm. If you strengthen your diaphragm, you can improve your stamina and are less likely to get tired,” he adds.

A study conducted by researchers at the Centre for Sports Medicine and Human Performance at Brunel University, England, recently measured the fatigue levels of marathon runners' muscles – respiratory and leg muscles. They found a direct relationship in runners whose breathing was difficult and the wear on their leg muscles, meaning the greater the breathing difficulty, the harder the legs worked during the run.

The key to preventing muscle fatigue is to breathe fully. “When you breathe more deeply, you use more of your lungs, which allows you to get more oxygen to feed your muscles,” says Dr. David Ross, a pulmonologist at UCLA Medical Center. “When I’m running, I focus on alternating slow, deep breaths to strengthen my diaphragm.”

Most runners are “chest breathers” and not “abdominal breathers.” Every time you inhale, your abdomen should fill like a balloon. And every time you exhale, that balloon should deflate. When you breathe only with your chest, your shoulders become tense and move up and down. This energy, which is wasted in this process, should be conserved for running!

Chest breathing can be a difficult habit to break, especially when you’re concerned about maintaining pace. One way to try to work on abdominal breathing is when you are not running, and this breathing training you will eventually transfer to your runs.

Some runners use Pilates and Yoga techniques to improve breathing. Experts state that Pilates increases flexibility, strengthens muscles, and improves breathing; however, in any sport, always do resistance strengthening activities, for example, weight training. So, to run, breathe!

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