After my heart surgery, I awakened and came to my senses. I was stiff and sore and wanted to move around, but realized I needed assistance from my wife, Cida, to do basic things, such as eating a meal and walking to the restroom. Shortly after, the doctor checked on me and provided directions in 4 areas: medications (which I did not like), food (the Mediterranean Diet), movement (physical therapy), and breathing exercises, which is the focus of this post.
The nurse gave me a spirometer (device for breathing exercises; see picture below) and said I needed to do the breathing exercises several times per day for around 10 – 15 reps). No problem, I welcomed this directive because I’ve always known that breathing, or more specifically, oxygen, is the key to energy production and how well you do anything. Without proper breathing, it can seriously affect your mental, physical, and emotional states.
The spirometer is an important tool because after surgery you really don’t feel like doing deep breath work. You’re tired and fatigued and still trying to figure out what really happened to you to get in the hospital. It helps you get started in breath work and motivates you to continue.
You may be wondering why utilizing a spirometer is so important? You see, after surgery many patients spend long periods of time lying down on a bed (in my case it was 4 days) and are inactive. This may cause a person’s breathing to be shallow and even painful, but even more serious, could lead to lung collapse, low oxygen levels, and other complications like Pneumonia. I suppose doctor’s think it’s the most practical way to get a person to practice breathing immediately after a surgery. Doing so will provide the following benefits:
- expands your lungs fully
- strengthens respiratory muscles (this is really important)
- improves oxygenation
- helps improve your overall cardiovascular system
Another good thing to know about breathing is that it is an important skill that you can learn and strengthen just like any other skill developed in the fitness center or sportsfield. It can be the standalone skill that you train in to enhance all of the other fitness and athletic skills that you pursue, such as running, swimming, strength training, Zumba, playing soccer, etc. It can even help you better digest food, recover from workouts, sleep, think, and deal with stress.
In addition to using the spirometer, there are many breath exercises that don’t require any devices that you can do. It’s all a matter of implementing correct technique with a variety of available exercises. Some of them are basic and others are more challenging intended for elite athletes.
One concept to keep in mind is mouth breathing versus nose breathing. Most people aren’t conscious of their breathing patterns in every day living and causes them to breath inefficiently. This is critically important to start paying attention to because breathing through the mouth regularly causes you to breathe with shallow and rapid breaths sending your body into a parasympathetic state (fight or flight state). This effect minimizes the healthy exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the body. This is huge because it can make the difference between having a great fitness workout or not. Note: there are times when breathing through the mouth is essential, especially during high-intensity interval training or anaerobic sports like soccer and basketball.
Conversely, breathing through the nose promotes an efficient process of breathing with a lower breathing rate and maximizes the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. Additionally, it promotes the production of nitric oxide (NO), which enhances cardiovascular functioning and circulation.
As I mentioned before, there are many breathing exercises available for you to do. Below is a brief video of me demonstrating 3 breathing exercises to strengthen exhalation muscles: