You need to breathe better!

What you’re most focused on during a workout is probably the burn you feel or the resistance you’re working against. Unless you’re really out of breath, what you’re less likely to be focused on — but ought to be — is your breathing.

“Breathing is, of course, critical for life,” says Dr. Corbin Hedt, a physical therapist at Houston Methodist. “Our bodies need oxygen to function properly, and breathing is what does that for us. It becomes more important during exercise, a time when our bodies are in need of more oxygen than usual. But breathing is easy to neglect when all of your concentration is on completing your workout.”

Ignoring your breathing during exercise becomes a problem when it leads to making mistakes that can affect your workout.

Why proper breathing during exercise is important
To understand why breathing properly while exercising is so important, it helps to start by looking at what happens in your body when you breathe:

Your lungs take in the oxygen and move it into your bloodstream
Your circulatory system distributes this oxygen throughout your body
Your muscles then use the oxygen delivered to create the energy needed to function optimally

Put another way, the oxygen you breathe acts as fuel for your body.

“When you exercise, you’re increasing your body’s need for oxygen because it’s now working harder,” explains Dr. Hedt. “Optimal breathing ensures an adequate supply of oxygen reaches your organs and tissues, helping to maintain a high level of performance but also to reduce the chance of your body needing to overcompensate (hyperventilate) afterwards to get these systems back to normal.”

It’s why improper breathing during exercise can lead to:

Reduced workout performance
Delayed muscle recovery
Situations that put your health at risk

In regard to the latter, a lack of breathing during exercise can cause a huge spike in your blood pressure, which, depending on the circumstances, can be incredibly dangerous.

“Maybe you’ve heard of someone passing out while doing a super heavy deadlift,” warns Dr. Hedt. “This can happen if the person is so focused on their lift that they hold their breath, causing their blood pressure to go haywire.”

And even in the absence of a scary event like this, the unnecessary blood pressure spike that can occur from accidentally holding your breath during a workout isn’t particularly healthy.