Breathing is if not the most important thing an athlete can do in sports. There are so many benefits that athletes don't think of that can help in times of need. Breathing can be used from calming the heart rate, to increasing blood flow, helps manage pain and to increase performance.
1. Calming the Heart Rate:
Using breathing techniques to calm heart rate is a very good technique to do when you are feeling frustrated, anxious, discouraged or even heart rate in getting out of control (Schrader, 2024). During competition, if any athlete is feeling any of the symptoms listed above, just a simple breath can be the difference between succeeding and failing. When athletes focus on controlling there breathing, it allows their muscles to relax, which improves mobility. It also allows athletes to clear their mind to focus on the task at hand. The last and most important thing about controlling your breathing for athletes is understanding that slow breathing is smooth and smooth breathing is fast (Schrader, 2024).
2. Increases Blood Flow to the Muscles and Brain:
First, got to understand what oxygen does in the body. Oxygen is transported in the body by red blood cells to the organs in the body to produce energy for the body (Dostie, 2024). The more our blood cells can carry oxygen in the organs in the body the better our organs will work; it will boost immunity and also speed up healing of the body (Dostie, 2024). The next reason breathing is so vital to blood flow in the body is the more oxygen that is in the blood, the bigger our blood vessels are, and allows for more waste to be taken away from the muscles (Dostie, 2024). Lastly, increased blood flow will also help with improving blood pressure in the heart and reducing stress (Dostie, 2024).
3. Helps manage Pain:
In today's society most people think that in order to manage pain, they need to take pain medication to find relief. If fact our body will naturally defend against that just by breathing. The more oxygen we can get into our blood the more our blood can take away and dispose of. This is done by the blood absorbing toxins from either an infection or any other injury that causes damage to the muscles (Dostie, 2024).
4. Increased Performance:
I am guessing a majority of people who watch sports see athletes taking a deep breath to calm themselves down before they do something. This is calm the body down, but it is also to get as much oxygen in the blood and to the muscles in our body to help the body perform at its best. Muscles get fuel and energy from oxygen that we breath in and that oxygen is carried to our muscles by our red blood cells. The more blood and oxygen our muscles get the better we will perform.
In conclusion, even if you are not an athlete just the simple task of breathing can have major benefits to your body. These range from lowering heart rate, lowering blood pressure, increasing blood circulation, pain management, and increased clarity and performance (Dostie, 2024). All of these things are essential to our everyday life from talking, to walking and even running. Next time don't take the little things for granted because it's as easy as taking a deep breath to pay major dividends to your health.
References:
Schrader, J. (2024, June 16). Breathing: The secret sauce for Optimal Sports Performance. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/sport-between-the-ears/202406/breathing-the-secret-sauce-for-optimal-sports-performance#:~:text=Slow%2C%20rhythmic%20breathing%20stabilizes%20the%20body%2C%20including%20heart,foul%20shots%2C%20and%20pitching%20or%20hitting%20a%20baseball.?msockid=157b192e197e6387058a0c4418f862e7
Dostie, F. (2024, November 20). Breathing to improve blood circulation. Francis Dostie. https://francisdostie.com/breathing-circulation/
Add comment
Comments