Rev Your Metabolism Through Belly Breathing

Your breath contains oxygen and that in turn is what feeds every single cell in your body.  If you want to improve your metabolism, then make an effort to do some quality breathing.  This is an inhalation that begins in the belly as opposed to your chest. Before you know it, you will be running up that hill and never be gasping and bending over because your body has run out breath again!

Train Your Breath To Be More Efficient

To train your breath so that your body makes more efficient use of oxygen as a tool you need to give the muscles that you use for breathing a bit of a work out. In fact, you should work out these muscles every single time you take a breath to train yourself to breathe from deep below the diaphragm.

The muscles that you must train are the diaphragms which are the big curved muscle that separates the chest from the abdominal wall and the muscles sandwiched between your ribs called the intercostal muscles.  It is these two sets of muscles that allow you to expand your muscles as much as possible when you inhale and thereby also increase your oxygen.

Be a Belly Breather

Most people have believed since childhood that breathing is a function of the chest and that if your chest is not moving up and down then you are not breathing correctly.  This what causes shallow breathing, gasping and oxygen deprivation while you are working out.  It also expends energy in the upper carriage and shoulders that could be used elsewhere, causing you tire out sooner than you like.

To tell whether or not you are committing the sin of belly breathing run hard and fast until you are a bit out of breath.  Stop and place your hand on your chest? Is it heaving? Then you are not breathing from the belly.

The way to start breathing from your belly is to start thinking of it like a balloon that you are blowing up with your breath. Place your hand on your stomach and practice taking breaths that move your stomach, as opposed to your chest, up and down. Breathe from your belly every day to build up the strength of the muscles in your diaphragm in general so you have more of a capacity to take a deep breath.

Three Ways to Improve Your Breath

There are a three main ways to improve your breathing during exercise. 

Breathe through your mouth. First of all, if you are jogging then try breathing through your open mouth. Your mouth is bigger than your nasal passages and you will be able to take in more oxygen so you can nourish your tissues.

Breathe in rhythm with your footfalls. Each time you take a step with one foot breath in and then, as your other foot hits the ground breath out.  This works especially well with runners and joggers.

Do a chest extending exercise.  Before you work out expand your chest capacity by standing with your feet apart at the same width of your shoulders. Relax your shoulders and bend slightly at the knees. Inhale deeply from the belly and sweep your arms up in the air until your biceps are parallel with your ears. As you exhale, lower your arms slowly to your sides. Do this five times while focusing on taking in as much oxygen as your belly will hold.

Repeating these three chest-opening and diaphragm opening exercises every day can really help you expand lung capacity and breathe properly.

For more information about the Healthy & Active Program please visit our website at www.healthy-active.com. You may also call us in Toronto at (41) 440-2217 and ask for Adrienne Wright Bulow or Dr. Michael Rahman or email us at adrienne@healthy-active.com.