Feeling Low-Energy? Try Strengthening Your Breathing Muscles

Fatigue is your worst enemy as an athlete—pro or amateur. It's not lack of heart motivation or "not wanting it bad enough." It's a question of running out of energy, of not being able to catch your breath. You don't pay attention to your breathing when you are just walking around; however, you have no choice but to notice it when things go wrong. You've been there. You're in the thick of things, and you're breathing as hard as you can, and it feels as if you just can't get enough air. Then doubt creeps in. You try to shake it off, but soon you cross that line from no longer playing to win to just praying to make it through with your dignity intact.

Scientific studies have shown that respiratory muscle training has indubitably led to better performance. Often, the heavy, can't-catch-your-breath tired feeling has to do with the very breathing muscles fatiguing. "Perceived fatigue" is the sensation of being tired but one that is fleeting; often, it leaves you angry as you look back and see you just needed a few seconds to recover.

Imagine 600 big water cooler bottles lined up. All in all, you're talking about your breathing muscles working to move 3,000 gallons of air (or 11,000 liters) in and out of your body every day.

You have about 10 pounds of breathing muscles just languishing, that is to say, not being trained functionally. You are not training these muscles when you do cardio. Your lungs are burning on that obstacle course, but are you "training" them? Nope. The notion that you are working your breathing muscles when training couldn't be further from the truth. 

Why? To work out a muscle, you have to push it to exhaustion, and to do this you, have to train breathing muscles separately from your sport. If you don't work on your inspiratory and expiratory breathing muscles separately, you are running on three cylinders. By overlooking breathing, you are unknowingly sleeping on a mattress full of money.