Cardio: Mastering and Enhancing Your Breathing Technique

The power of the breath is an amazing asset to your cardio workouts. How often do you find yourself 'sucking wind' only 10-15 minutes into your run, or bike, or whatever form of cardio activity you perform?

By mastering and enhancing your breathing technique, you can increase endurance and performance.
Take your cardio workout back to basics. Stop trying to kill yourself in every workout. The first step to mastering your breathing is to control your intensity level.

This step may be the hardest to accept and achieve. It requires you to slow down and focus on increasing your aerobic capacity. Your aerobic capacity is your ability to sustain an activity for a period of time and at a specific intensity without driving your heart rate up so high that you begin to breathe heavy and become fatigued. To help monitor this, you will need a heart rate monitor.

Determine your aerobic training zone by using the following formula: 220 minus your age, minus your resting heart rate. (To find your resting heart rate, it is best to take your heart rate first thing in the morning before getting out of bed, for three days in a row and take the average - preferably without being startled awake by an alarm clock.) Take that number and multiply it by 65%, 75%, 80%, and 85%; then add your resting heart rate back in.

For Example:
220 - 27 - 50 = 143
143 x 65% = 92.95 + 50 = 142.95

This person would need to reach a heart rate of approximately 142 to be at a training level of 65%. Once you complete the formula for each percentile, this person's aerobic training zone is between 65%-80%, which is 142 to 164.

Now that you have determined your training zone, you can proceed with mastering your breath. This step should be practiced for the majority of your workouts. In order to truly develop your aerobic endurance, you must dedicate your training to building your aerobic capacity instead of going into every workout with the mentality of "I have to sweat profusely, I have to breathe very hard, and I have to be exhausted." It is these exact thoughts that will defeat your long-term goal - to become a smarter athlete. The object to any fitness goal is to train smart. So, if you workout 5 days a week, 3 to 4 of those days should be dedicated to this step.

How does it work? While jogging, walking, biking, or whatever your cardio exercise may be, focus on maintaining your heart rate at 65%. You may find that this is not the intensity you are used to. DON'T INCREASE YOUR INTENSITY! This is why this step will be the hardest. Many of us do not have the discipline to workout at a lower intensity. Remember that in the end you will be a stronger, better athlete.

While maintaining 65%, concentrate on your breathing. Take deep, slow, diaphragmatic breaths. Try to feel the oxygen enter through your nose and travel down into the abdomen, then exhale slowly. The majority of exercise participants tend to take short, shallow breaths during their workouts. This causes the heart rate to increase, the body has to work harder, and before you know it you are out of breath and need to stop.

By focusing on your breathing you not only train the body to perform more efficiently, but you also train your mind to control the reactions your body has to that activity. You become the master of your workout. So again, take long, slow, deep breaths that go all the way down into the abdomen, and then exhale as slowly as you can. If you want to take it to the next level, try to breathe with your mouth shut.

As your body becomes trained, and your aerobic capacity begins to improve, you will find that your heart rate will drop below 65% at your current intensity. At this point you should praise yourself for the great success - your body is more efficient at utilizing oxygen and you are one step closer to becoming the Master of your breath and workout. Once you have achieved this goal, go ahead and increase your intensity minimally and strive to achieve the same goal: maintaining 65% training level while breathing with control and maybe even keeping the mouth shut.

You will try to perform this for the majority of your workouts. If you workout 5 days a week and you workout at this level for 3 of your workouts, you can easily be more creative with the other two: workout a little bit harder, increase intensity, etc…. This will help to cross train your body.

Most importantly, don't give up, and don't give in to the temptation to "kill, kill, kill." Believe me, it works! I have trained myself to the point that I can run for 30 minutes at an intensity of 6.0 mph with a heart rate of 136-145 and not have to open my mouth once to take a breath. As for my training zone, I am the example set above. It's a great and motivating accomplishment that everyone should experience. Good Luck!