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Besides all the mental health benefits, adding breathwork to your routine boosts physical performance and enhances your overall exercise experience. If you don’t exercise regularly, you could start with breathwork, which will get you fit enough to get fit.
Controlled breathing techniques have been shown to improve your heart rate variability (HRV). This is an important indicator of stress resilience. HRV reflects the balance of the autonomic nervous system – what your body does behind the scenes. In particular, the healthiness of your heart rate, blood pressure, respiration rate, digestion, and even sexual arousal.
In summary, regular breathwork is helpful, not just for managing stress, but it also improves your body’s capacity to handle physical and emotional challenges.
Here’s how:
- Improved Stress Resilience:
As we said, increasing heart rate variability (HRV) through breathwork helps manage stress. A higher HRV means a more resilient body capable of adapting more efficiently to life’s demands, including physical stress from exercise. This means you can keep going longer in your workouts. - Better Recovery:
Breathwork can promote faster recovery by reducing stress-related impacts on the body. Effective stress management through breathing exercises can help reduce cortisol levels and promote relaxation, which is vital after intense physical activity. - Improved Oxygen Efficiency:
Controlled breathing improves oxygen uptake and use, which is vital during workouts. This means your muscles receive oxygen more efficiently, enhancing your performance and endurance. - Focused Mental State:
Breathwork can improve mental focus and concentration and improve performance, whether you’re playing sport or in the gym. Being mentally present during exercise can help you execute movements with better form, speed and power.
Leading Platforms for Breathwork
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Breathwork is experiencing a global revival, thanks to a renewed focus on self-care and holistic health. This resurgence is supported by emerging science and a broader cultural shift towards mental wellness. Hoorah.
Modern technology has undoubtedly played a huge part in this, here are some of the key online players:
- Soma Breath:
Known for its invigorating guided sessions that combine rhythmic breathing with meditation and music, tailored to energise or relax. - Breathwrk: This app provides a range of excellent breathing exercises aimed at specific outcomes like reducing anxiety or improving sleep. This makes it very convenient to integrate breathwork into a busy schedule.
- Insight Timer (ooh, free):
Another good one. It has a varied library of free breathwork sessions, ideal for pinpointing your favourite kind of style/instructor. - Unyte: This exciting multi-modality programme focuses on biofeedback, neuroplasticity, and vagus nerve stimulation. Its guided sessions help people achieve specific mind states through interactive experiences.
The digital explosion of breathwork means you can access these practices from anywhere – at home, at work, or on the move. Online platforms offer a variety of sessions, from quick stress-relievers to comprehensive courses that delve deeper into breathwork’s therapeutic benefits.
With stress and anxiety currently at epidemic levels, the ease-of-use and accessibility of these platforms make breathwork a valuable tool to improve mental and physical health.
With the support of these digital services or a real-life breathwork teacher, anyone can start practising breathwork and experience its incredible benefits.