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Take A Deep Breath

To exercise effectively, it's all about rhythm and pace

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BETTY UDESEN / THE SEATTLE TIMES Proper breathing has many benefits, including relaxing tension, says Stephanie Dalton of Maya Whole Health Studio. You can feel your lungs expand as you inhale, she says, while the feeling in exhaling is like wringing out your lungs.

BREATH IS AS basic as you get, especially for athletic performance, yet most of us do it at only a fraction of our capability. We hold our breath while swimming. We let it get out of sync while running or lifting weights. We don't exercise our lungs and wonder why they burn when we finally go all out.

Our aerobic capacity generally declines 6 to 10 percent with each decade we age, and genetics plays a major role in lung capacity. But oxygen consumption can improve 8 to 15 percent with training.

Find yourself out of breath easily? It could indicate underlying heart or lung disease, but usually it means you're out of shape.

"If someone fatigues too quickly or they get winded quickly, or develops chest pain or even does not improve with training, they should seek medical attention," says Dr. Steve Kirtland of Virginia Mason Medical Center.

Pulmonologists like Kirtland are trained to diagnose what may be limiting people; they use a variety of tools such as exercise tests that measure how oxygen is processed.

You cannot make your lungs stronger. They are not muscles. But training improves how efficiently muscles process oxygen. Generally, a cyclist will be more efficient in using oxygen when cycling than he or she would be swimming or running. Still, says Kirtland, exercise of any kind improves cardiac response and health.

Experts recommend training at about roughly two-thirds of your maximum heart rate for 30 minutes about two or three days a week. (To determine your "submax" level, subtract your age from 220). Training at this level helps avoid chance of injury and muscle fatigue so you can train longer.

Breathing is never as critical as it is in swimming.

Victoria Scott, a Seattle personal trainer, grew up swimming. She worked as a lifeguard and swim instructor and also wrote swimming books for the Red Cross. After she finished her first triathlon in 1994, at age 46, she tried talking friends into doing one with her. Almost everyone said they would if it wasn't for the swimming leg — because they couldn't breathe while doing it.

In fact, so many said it that Scott was inspired to launch her career as a personal fitness trainer and to eventually become a certified USA Triathlon coach. She has been teaching people to "breathe" ever since, with the front crawl stroke, which she says is the most efficient stroke.

In other words, newbies take in too much air and don't have enough time to let it out while still under water. So they turn their heads (rotating the body, actually) to take the next breath.

"That's when we start survival swimming. Our bodies go vertical, and we do weird things with our arms and our kick to hold our head up long enough to finish our exhale. And then inhale when our mouth is still out of the water."

You must establish a breathing rhythm. Scott breathes on her right side every stroke. She simply sips air because she will be up for another breath in two seconds. She rotates her head, shoulders and upper torso to the right 50 to 55 degrees with her left eye and ear in the water as she takes a breath.

Once she has caught the proper rhythm, keeping both arms doing the same thing and using her kick to stay horizontal, she can play with the pace — breathing every other stroke or alternating her breathing between the right and left sides.

In Pilates, you are taught to take full, deep breaths. They are that integral to moving efficiently through the exercises. The breathing pattern is designed to get circulation flowing more robustly and improve power and focus.

"Pilates breathing has many benefits that our day-to-day, unconscious breathing does not provide," says Stephanie Dalton, founder of Maya Whole Health Studio. "It relaxes tension in our bodies, gives our blood a better exchange of oxygen, and employs our abdominal muscles. And it helps not only with the body, but with the mind and the spirit."

As you breathe in, focus on expanding the side and back ribs. The diaphragm contracts and relaxes. Pilates breathing gets the diaphragm moving downward during the inhale, allowing space for air to fill the lungs, she says.

As you breathe out through the mouth, focus on blowing out all the air as if you were wringing out your lungs. This contracts the abdominals connected to the ribs and helps recruit the lower abs.

Richard Seven is a Pacific Northwest magazine staff writer. He can be reached at rseven@seattletimes.com. Betty Udesen is a Seattle Times staff photographer.