Increase Stamina Through Breathing Exercises
Breathing exercises can increase stamina and endurance for many activities. Various breathing exercises have application to runners, swimmers, martial artists, vocalists and others. For instance, triathletes and swimmers benefit from bilateral breathing. Runners benefit from chi breathing. Advanced breathing techniques have a common ground in core breathing. The goal of the core exercise is to take the emphasis off of the shoulders and chest when breathing and do diaphragmatic or core breathing to enhance relaxation and diminish fatigue, thereby increasing endurance and stamina when performing. Refining your breathing is an excellent fitness exercise.
Instructions
1. Assess and refine your in breath. On the in breath, imagine your rib cage opening or expanding. Optimally you should be lying on your back with your eyes closed for concentration. Place your hands on your rib cage below the line of the solar plexus. Take in air through your mouth. Your shoulders and chest should not move. Your ribs should move outward on the in breath and you should feel both sides of your rib cage expanding. This is an indication that your diaphragm, and thus your core, is being recruited in your breathing. If you notice one side moving more than the other, this is common. Right handed people tend to inhale more to their dominant side and vice versa with left handed individuals.
2. Assess and refining your out breath. Your out breath should be accompanied by your rib cage deflating or compressing like an accordion. Lie on your back, place your hands on your sides just at the pelvic brim and press in with your fingertips. The muscles you feel there are your rectus abdominus. These are part of your obliques. Now cough. You should feel these muscle contract and tense up. Feeling tension is what you want to avoid when training your out breath. You want to exhale comfortably and smoothly. Some coaches will tell you to breathe out through your nose when performing, while others say breathe out slowly through your mouth. The main goal is to let the air out relaxed and comfortably without tensing. You also want to push air out of the core by visualizing the pelvic floor. The top of your core is the diaphragm. The bottom of your core is the pelvic floor. When deflating, the pelvic floor contracts.
3. Use mental imagery to enhance your breathing exercises. The energy in your body follows your mind or thoughts. On the out breath, energy or chi is going to your muscles and tendons. This is one reason why runners, swimmers and vocalists want to have an exhale phase longer than the inhale phase.
4. Incorporate meditation into your practice. Meditation cannot be overemphasized when it comes to training yourself to breathe from your core. The mental imagery and breath control practiced during meditation will enhance your actual breathing when performing. Increased stamina is gained by all of the tenets associated with effective core breathing. Relaxation, concentration and visualization will all add to your performance and confidence.
5. Practice muscle relaxation exercises. You can do this by tensing or contracting the muscles and parts of the body you want to relax. As you press forward in your study of core breathing and muscle relaxation for stamina, you will become acutely aware of which muscles need to be relaxed and when they need to be relaxed. To get a feel for the targeted muscle groups like the neck, shoulder and chest, tighten these muscles voluntarily for five seconds, then relax them. Repeat several times. Use this technique in different places and times such as at home and while waiting in line at the sports complex or at the grocery store or whenever you have a few minutes. Performing both breathing and muscle relaxation not only enables increased stamina but can also ease stress and enhance your state of mind.
Tags: core breathing, your cage, your core, enhance your, muscle relaxation, pelvic floor