How Optimal Breathing Techniques Help Improve Oxygen Utilization in EWOT Sessions?

We all know the importance of breathing, yet most of us underestimate its impact on our health and performance. Did you know the way you breathe affects oxygen delivery, energy levels, and endurance?

Breathing the right way can improve your oxygen utilization and help you get the most out of your workouts and daily activities.

Have you heard of Exercise with Oxygen Therapy (EWOT), a fitness approach that combines the goodness of oxygen and exercise?

This powerful method improves oxygen delivery, boosts endurance and accelerates recovery. However, getting the most out of the EWOT sessions isn’t just about inhaling higher levels of oxygen—optimizing how you breathe can take your EWOT sessions to the next level. Wondering how? Read on to find out!

Understanding Oxygen Utilization in EWOT

EWOT, as the name suggests, involves breathing higher concentrations of oxygen while exercising. This increases oxygen in the bloodstream. How well your body uses oxygen is the major factor in reaping the maximum benefits.

When you breathe optimally, oxygen gets delivered to your tissues and cells efficiently and this improves your endurance, brain function, and overall well-being. Suboptimal breathing, on the other hand, can limit your oxygen uptake and compromise performance.

How Breathing Gets Affected When You Have Lung Problems?

It’s no brainer that lung problems such as asthma, Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and respiratory infections can significantly affect breathing efficiency and oxygen utilization. Let’s take a look at how it affects your breathing. 

• Restricted airflow and oxygen intake: Conditions like asthma and COPD cause airway constriction. So taking deep breaths becomes difficult. This limits the amount of oxygen reaching your bloodstream. The result? Reduced endurance and physical performance.

• Impaired Gas Exchange: Lung diseases can damage the tiny sacs responsible for oxygen exchange (alveoli). When the function of alveoli is impaired, even inhaling higher oxygen levels during EWOT sessions may not be fully absorbed and this results in suboptimal performance.

• Increased Breathing Effort: If you have lung diseases, you know how labored the breathing is. You will have to put extra effort to maintain adequate oxygen levels. This extra energy expenditure makes you feel fatigued faster and affects exercise performance.

• CO2 Retention and Oxygen Utilization: If you have COPD, there’s a chance of carbon dioxide building up in the bloodstream. This causes imbalance in the oxygen–carbon dioxide balance. Symptoms include shortness of breath and daytime fatigue. CO2 retention also affects the efficiency in transporting and utilizing oxygen.

By now, you understand the importance of optimal breathing techniques, especially for those with compromised lung function. By practicing targeted breathing exercises, you can improve oxygen uptake, reduce breathlessness and reap the maximum benefits of EWOT.

You might be thinking, “I don’t have lung disease, so how does my breathing impact the effectiveness of EWOT sessions?”

Well, here’s the thing—even if your lungs are healthy, incorrect breathing patterns during exercise can affect your performance. Simply put, learning to breathe optimally can benefit anyone—whether you have healthy lungs or a respiratory condition—get the most out of your workouts.

How EWOT Improves Oxygen Utilization

Here’s how EWOT improves the way your body uses oxygen:

• Improved Oxygen Delivery: EWOT, as you may know, floods your bloodstream with oxygen. When combined with optimal breathing techniques, oxygen delivery becomes even more effective. This ensures that muscles and organs get the oxygen they crave. 

• Better Lung Efficiency: Try this: place one hand on your chest and the other on your belly. Take a deep breath. Which hands move more? If your chest moves more, you might be relying on shallow breathing, and this reduces lung efficiency. Engaging in EWOT sessions on a regular basis helps train your lungs to work more efficiently.

• Improved Blood Flow: Did you know that the way you breathe impacts your blood circulation? Yes, you read it right! Shallow breathing can lead to poor oxygenation. On the other hand, when you take deep, diaphragmatic breaths, your circulation improves. With each breath you take while doing EWOT, oxygen-rich blood reaches your cells, tissues and organs with less strain on the heart. This is particularly beneficial for people with cardiovascular or lung-related conditions.

• Faster Recovery and Reduced Fatigue: Let me ask you a question: after a short sprint or jumping jacks, how long does it take for your breathing to return to normal? The faster you recover, the better your oxygen utilization! Higher oxygen availability as in EWOT accelerates the removal of lactic acid and metabolic waste. This reduces post-workout soreness and fatigue. When EWOT combined with correct breathing practices further improves recovery.

• Increased ATP Synthesis: When your body utilizes more oxygen, the mitochondria in your cells synthesize more ATP, your body’s energy currency. What does this mean? More energy, better endurance and improved physical performance.

Simply put, more oxygen during exercise means more ATP and sustained exercise performance. 

The Role of Optimal Breathing Techniques

First, let’s see what an optimal breath looks like. Breathing optimally involves your belly (diaphragm in particular), ribs, chest, and shoulders in the form of a wave that is moving in the upward direction.

From the image, you can see the pear, cone, and diaphragm (represented by the red line) in action. 

During the breathing cycle, the rib cage and diaphragm work in tandem to facilitate the exchange of air. On the inhale, the diaphragm contracts, flattens, and moves downward, and the rib cage expands. When you exhale, the diaphragm relaxes and returns to its high dome shape, pushing air out of the lungs while simultaneously massaging the heart. In addition, the collapsing of the rib cage also contributes to the expulsion of air during exhalation.

If you practice the following optimal breathing techniques, you can improve your oxygen uptake and utilization during your EWOT sessions:

Diaphragmatic Breathing

Diaphragmatic breathing, also known as belly breathing, engages your diaphragm rather than just relying on shallow chest breathing. This technique helps you inhale more oxygen, improve lung capacity, and reduces unnecessary strain on your body. Optimal Breathing Techniques focus on helping you learn the right way to breathe by focusing on the power of your diaphragm.

• EWOT Benefit: Increased oxygen absorption and delivery to working muscles.
• Related Reading: Diaphragm Function Development Information

Nasal Breathing

Breathing through your nose warms, filters, and humidifies the air you breathe. This optimizes oxygen exchange and nitric oxide production. Nitric oxide improves the dilation of blood vessels and in turn boosts blood flow and transport of oxygen. 

• EWOT Benefit: Improved oxygen absorption and cardiovascular efficiency. 
• Related Reading: Nose Breathing Vs. Mouth Breathing - What’s the Correct Way?

Rhythmic Breathing

Synchronizing your breathing with movement improves endurance and minimizes breathlessness when doing high-intensity exercises. This way you can sustain your performance and prevent premature fatigue.

• EWOT Benefit: Greater stamina and reduced energy wastage

Additional Tips to Improve Oxygen Utilization

• Always maintain a good posture while engaging in exercise.
• Hydrate your body well.
• Don’t skip 5-minute warm-up breathing sessions.
• Monitor your oxygen saturation using a pulse oximeter or heart rate monitor to track improvements.

 

Want to master the art of breathing right? Look no further than the Optimal Breathing Self-Mastery Kit, a complete self-help guide that can help you unlearn and relearn the way you breathe.

The Takeaway

We breathe around 20,000 times a day, yet many of us don’t think much about this subconscious process. However, practicing optimal breathing techniques helps you perceive breathing as more than just inhaling and exhaling—it’s the tool to optimize each breath you take.

When it comes to EWOT and exercise in general, the right way of breathing can enhance the benefits. Take a moment to reflect on how you currently breathe during exercise. Are you maximizing your oxygen intake, or do you tend to breathe shallowly? In your next workout session—be it an EWOT session or your regular exercise routine—focus on deep, diaphragmatic breathing. Observe how it affects your endurance and recovery.

By practicing optimal breathing, self-checks, and small daily improvements, you can take charge of your oxygen utilization and take your workout (EWOT) sessions to a whole new level. Are you ready to breathe better and perform at your peak? Let’s do this!