Purposeful breathing strategies during running may improve tolerance, performance, and lower barriers to long-term enjoyment by addressing respiratory limitations.
Do breathing strategies improve tolerance, performance, and psychological states in runners?
This review proposes a theoretical framework for using breathing strategies during running to mitigate exercise-induced dyspnoea and improve performance and enjoyment.
Running is among the most popular sporting hobbies and often chosen specifically for intrinsic psychological benefits. However, up to 40% of runners may experience exercise-induced dyspnoea as a result of cascading physiological phenomena, possibly causing negative psychological states or barriers to participation. Breathing techniques such as slow, deep breathing have proven benefits at rest, but it is unclear if they can be used during exercise to address respiratory limitations or improve performance. While direct experimental evidence is limited, diverse findings from exercise physiology and sports science combined with anecdotal knowledge from Yoga, meditation, and breathwork suggest that many aspects of breathing could be improved via purposeful strategies. Hence, we sought to synthesize these disparate sources to create a new theoretical framework called “Breath Tools” proposing breathing strategies for use during running to improve tolerance, performance, and lower barriers to long-term enjoyment.
Harbour et al. (Thu,) conducted a review in Exercise-induced dyspnoea in runners. Breathing strategies (Breath Tools) was evaluated. Purposeful breathing strategies during running may improve tolerance, performance, and lower barriers to long-term enjoyment by addressing respiratory limitations.