Unlocking the Power of Conscious Breathing

We hit the gym, train in sports, and encourage our children to stay active—all in pursuit of better cardiovascular fitness, muscular strength, endurance, and flexibility. But in this race toward physical excellence, have we forgotten one essential element—breathing?

Breath is the foundation of life, yet it’s often overlooked in fitness routines. Ancient wisdom from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali emphasizes the transformative power of conscious breathing:

“By learning to control your breathing, by understanding how the respiratory system is integrated with your body, by using conscious breathing in all your pursuits, you will improve nearly every aspect of your life.”

Whether you’re a fitness enthusiast, a recreational walker, a mountain biker, an actor, a singer, or a dancer—placing breath at the heart of your practice can unlock potential you never imagined.

Why Breath Matters

Conscious breathing not only enhances physical performance but also promotes mental clarity, reduces stress, and boosts overall well-being. It helps create a mind-body connection that turns workouts into mindful experiences.

Training with Breath Awareness

At our training programs, we emphasize breathing techniques alongside physical exercises for both kids and adults. From enhancing stamina and focus to fostering relaxation, learning how to breathe better is a skill that benefits all aspects of life.

Next time you lace up your shoes for a workout or step into a yoga class, remember: fitness isn’t just about movement—it starts with a single, mindful breath. Breathe deeply, train consciously, and watch yourself thrive.

“During exercise, the body’s demand for oxygen increases and our breathing volume or ventilation must also rise,” explain Matthew Pine and Mark Watsford, both from the human performance laboratory at the University of Technology, Sydney. “This requires numerous muscles surrounding the lungs to contract in a highly coordinated manner. As the intensity of exercise increases, these respiratory muscles must contract more forcefully and more rapidly to keep pace with the body’s substantial increase in metabolism.”

However, in the same way that a stronger heart can push out more blood with each pump and as a result doesn’t have to beat as often, a stronger diaphragm and intercostals mean you can slow your breathing rate down and even get more oxygen to your muscles.

“By increasing the strength and stamina of your respiratory system, your breathing becomes more efficient, requiring less energy—which leaves more energy for the motor muscles and whatever task or activity you’re involved in. Therefore, you can take slower, deeper breaths, getting more oxygen out of each breath; you don’t have to work as hard to get it, because you don’t have to breathe as many times to get the same amount of oxygen.”

The performance improvement may also be due in part to improved focus. “When you are focused on your breath, you become intimately in touch with your mind, body, and emotions and very much in the moment, which improves performance. Athletes in most sports could improve their performance by undergoing respiratory muscle training. It is also clear that the greater the stress on the respiratory system, the larger the improvement in performance.”

During high-intensity exercise, when the respiratory muscles become fatigued, the body switches to survival mode and “steals” blood flow and oxygen away from locomotor muscles. As a result, these locomotor muscles become fatigued and performance can suffer significantly.

Increasing the strength of the muscles involved with breathing, say study authors, through breathing-resistance exercise, can prevent this fatigue during sustained exercise situations, resulting in better performance.

The study goes on to say that if the diaphragm and intercostals aren’t exercised, they atrophy—just like any other muscle in the body. “For most adults, their breathing has slowly moved higher and higher into their chests over the years, so they’re taking little sips of air into the tops of their lungs and are barely using the diaphragm. In fact, if you’re not actively exercising it, the older you get, the more difficult it is to get it unstuck.”

Performance Breathing

Incorporating breathing methods into workouts is really nothing new. Yogis have been doing it for centuries, Pilates instructors for decades. And who hasn’t used breathing to aid in moving heavy weight—inhaling on the eccentric phase and exhaling on the concentric phase. Like yoga, though, the point of performance breathing is to help center and focus you, as much as it is to strengthen the respiratory muscles.

“Sports,” says Karlene Sugarman, M.A., author of Winning the Mental Way (Step Up Publishing, 1999). “It’s a vital stepping stone to peak performance [whether you’re working out, giving a presentation, or dealing with your children]. The [individual] that is mentally and physically relaxed and has ‘quiet intensity’ is the one that is going to come out on top.”

One way to achieve this quiet intensity is through breath control.