Aerobic exercise makes breathing

The core role of aerobic exercise on breathing is to adjust your originally passive, shallow, fast, and easily disordered breathing into an active, deep, and controllable state. During short-term exercise, it can match the body's oxygen consumption needs without interruption. If you persist for a long time, even the breathing efficiency in the resting state will be significantly improved, and you will rarely have to pant or feel tight in the chest.

Two months ago, I helped a friend lead a running group for newbies, and I met a girl who had just graduated. She had been sitting in an office for a year, and she had to hold on to the railing for half a minute to climb to the third floor. She took a breath and her shoulders were so high, as if someone was holding the back of her neck. She was gasping for breath when she warmed up and expanded her chest before running. I have been jogging with the group for three weeks, and each time I was asked to lower the pace to 8 points. If I can't run, I can walk without forcing myself. Last week, I saw her climbing the fifth floor carrying two bags of express delivery, and she was not out of breath. She said that now that she sits at work for an afternoon, she doesn't always feel like there is a stone on her chest like before, and she has to take a big breath to feel comfortable.

Regarding the principle behind this, the exercise physiology circle and the exercise rehabilitation circle have actually always had different opinions. Mainstream exercise physiologists believe that the core is to improve the endurance of respiratory muscles: aerobic exercise such as jogging, swimming, and brisk walking does not consume oxygen in sudden bursts like strength training. It continuously and steadily increases the oxygen uptake demand of the body. The diaphragm and external intercostal muscles responsible for breathing will grow accordingly. With regular exertion, the muscle fiber endurance becomes stronger, and naturally you no longer need to rely on shrugging to pull the chest, and the volume of moisture that can be inhaled each time will also increase - to put it bluntly, it is the "balloon" of your lungs. In the past, you could only blow a sharp point each time when you breathed shallowly and quickly, but now you can blow it out completely and use the full capacity.

The sports rehabilitation specialist’s view is more toward “pattern correction”: many people do not have respiratory muscle weakness, but sit for long periods of time, are tense, and are accustomed to the wrong chest breathing pattern. Even if their lung function is normal, they will not be able to use the lower part of their lungs. Can you try running for half an hour? If you keep shrugging your shoulders and panting, your shoulders will be so sore before your legs that you can't lift them up. Your body will naturally sink to the shoulders and use your abdominals to drive your breathing. This is equivalent to spending dozens of minutes repeatedly correcting your breathing pattern. After practicing for a long time, your muscles will form a memory, and your daily breathing will naturally sink.

I have been running for almost 6 years myself, and based on the experiences of running friends around me, in fact, the two statements are not conflicting at all, and may even affect you one after the other. When I first started running 3 kilometers, I deliberately counted my breaths. I had to take three breaths every 100 meters. The wind rushed into my throat and my lungs felt like they were burning. Now if you are running a half-marathon with a stable score of 6 points, you will take three steps, one inhale, three steps and one exhale. There is no need to change the rhythm throughout the whole process. Even if you rush to the bridge with a large slope at the end, you will not be so chaotic that you can't breathe, and you will rarely even take a breath.

But that doesn’t mean that as long as you do aerobic exercise, your breathing will become comfortable. I’ve seen a lot of people get into trouble. A while ago, a girl danced fat-burning exercises along with a live broadcast. In order to keep up with the rhythm of the movements, she held her breath the whole time. Her chest felt tight for two days after the dance. She went to the hospital to check for respiratory muscle spasm. At this time, it is better to stop and regulate your breathing first before moving, otherwise it will burden your breathing after practicing for a long time.

I didn't dare to run for more than half a month after I was cured of COVID-19. Even when I took two quick steps, my chest felt tight and my breathing felt like a broken bellows. The community doctor told me not to worry about increasing my intensity. I walked slowly around the community for 40 minutes every day. I didn't need to count my breaths while walking. I just wanted to make sure that my stomach was bulging when I inhaled and deflated when I exhaled. After walking like this for half a month, I really regained the feeling of breathing smoothly before. Even when I suffer from allergic rhinitis during the change of seasons, I rarely gasp and hold my chest like before.

In fact, breathing is something that humans are born with, but long periods of sitting, lying down, and long-term stress make us forget how to breathe well. To put it bluntly, aerobic exercise helps you regain this instinct. You don't need to pursue any standard breathing rhythm, and you don't have to force yourself to run or walk for as long as you want. When you move, your breathing is not suffocated, panicked, or uncomfortable, which is the most appropriate state.