08/18/2020
Check in with yourself. How do you breathe? Have you ever noticed your breathing before? Has there been a change in breathing rhythm? Are you a shallow breather?
There are many causes of shallow breathing including stress, posture, anxiety and physical restriction. Breathing shallow tricks our bodies into feeling stressed and therefore the longer we breathe like this, the more we create a physiological stress response. This can negatively impact our performance.
Breathing techniques are different depending on the sport and can make a big difference in the quality of your performance. By implementing breathing strategies, a performer can improve speed, strength, and endurance, and overall quality. Since abdominal breathing involves significantly fewer muscles, it exerts less energy.
Diaphragm breathing provides benefits during performances as more energy is made available to the rest of the body. It uses the full capacity of the lung, therefore allowing air to enter the rest of the lungs and oxygen to the rest of the body.
It is important to use momentary relaxation tools to reduce activation or anxiety at any point during practices and competition. When the nerves carry worry and stress instead of activations for smooth, coordinated efforts, performance suffers. Relaxation by belly breathing lowers arousal and lets go of excessive muscle tension. This technique can be done quickly because it does not achieve a deep relaxation state, thus one can maintain physical or mental performance.
Look out for our next post on specific breathing exercises for performance
@ Los Alamitos, California
