Benefits of Running: Higher Body O2 Only with Nose Breathing
What
are the benefits of running? Running
or jogging is the most natural way to
increase body-oxygen levels and this is the main benefit of any physical exercise.
The increased level of oxygen can be easily measured using the body oxygen
test. Better results means better physical health and even elimination of
chronic diseases, such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, asthma, and bronchitis.
Indeed, if the body oxygen level remains the same
after weeks or months of running, there would be no improvements in
symptoms and required medication.
In order to get the most benefits of running, a person needs to
have the crucial main
requirement for any physical exercise: more oxygen in body cells after
exercise. This result is easy to achieve with strictly nasal breathing (in
and out) during running. Then your breathing after exercise will be lighter
providing more O2 for brain and body cells.
Nasal breathing ensures absorption of nasal NO (nitric oxide) and that immediately lowers the heart rate (for the same intensity of exercise). Additional benefits of running with nose breathing include increased CO2 levels in the blood and slower breathing after exercise, which provides more O2 in body cells. Furthermore, running with nose breathing mimics high-altitude training due to mild hypoxia. You do not need to go to mountains: get more benefits of running due to nose breathing in and out.
Soviet and Russian MDs tested thousands of patients and found that exercise with nasal breathing prevents acute exacerbations due to chronic diseases (no exercise-induced asthma, no heart attacks, no strokes, and so on) and improves oxygen transport due to increased CO2 and NO levels in the lungs and the arterial blood.
| Lifestyle factor: | Body oxygen < 30 s | Body oxygen > 50 s |
| Energy level | Medium, low, or very low | High |
| Desire to exercise | Not strong, but possible | Craving and joy of exercise |
| Intensive exercise with nose breathing | Hard or impossible | Easy and effortless |
| Typical mind states | Confusion, anxiety, depression | Focus, concentration, clarity |
| Craving for coffee, sugar and junk foods | Present | Absent |
| Addictions to smoking, alcohol, and drugs | Possible | Absent |
| Desire to eat raw foods | Weak and rare | Very common and natural |
| Correct posture | Rare and requires efforts | Natural and automatic |
| Sleep | Often of poor quality; > 7 hours | Excellent quality; < 5 hours naturally |
How to get the most benefits of running
If you want to experience these benefits of running, but have little or no recent experience in running or jogging, you have to start very slowly. Too often, Buteyko students, after they achieve decent daily CP numbers due to breath work (e.g., up to 30 s or even more), experience failure in their running attempts due to injuries.
Why? Their respiratory and cardiovascular systems are able, at over 30 s CP, to experience positive effects of 1-2 hours of running. Furthermore, after doing breath work, these students have very high energy level and desire to exercise. However, since they did not do running during recent days or weeks, their muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones are not fit yet for such a long and intensive challenge.
Hence, it is crucial to consider the following suggestions, for maximum
running benefits, when you begin jogging:
- Start with walking for up to 30-60 minutes per session for 3-5 days
and make a slow transition to power walking or fast walking for another
3-5 days.
- After this initial period, add only 5 min of very light and easy
relaxed jogging or running at the end of your power walk (e.g., instead
of 30 min power walk, do 25 min of fast walking and then 5 min of very
light and relaxed comfortable running with nose breathing only).
- Increase the duration of running by about 2 min per session only so
that your ligaments and tendons can readjust themselves to this
physical load increase. Hence, the amount of running will increase very
gradually: 5 min, 7 min, 9 min, 11 min, and so forth. In about 2-3
weeks you should be able to run for 30 min without any negative
effects.
- Always use running shoes with soft sole. (Consider barefoot walking
and barefoot running since these are nearly ideal Buteyko exercises.)
- If you later start to have longer running sessions (up to 30 min and
more), run on a soft surface (e.g., grass, sand, snow, or gravel), but
not on hard surfaces like roads and concrete pathways to avoid
injuries.
This approach is similar to Graded Exercise Therapy, which has been used in clinical practice with very limited success due to negative mouth breathing, which cancel main benefits of running for most people.
Keep in mind that for breathing retraining and higher body oxygen levels, it is smart and useful to do some "uncomfortable" or "ascetic" things (like taking cold shower with certain rules, sleeping on hard beds, sleeping in a sitting position, and running when it is windy, raining or snowing), but running with pain in your knees or feet is not a good idea. Graduality is the key to success in getting the most benefits of running.
For advanced students who are interested in getting the most benefits of running, here is an excellent gadget to train with resistance (as at high altitude), but with high body CO2. It is called Training Mask. Here is its review and physiological effects: Training Mask.
Web pages about cardiovascular endurance, physical exercise, running, body
building, and sports:
- Cardiovascular endurance
and body O2 levels: How brain and body
oxygenation influence cardiovascular endurance, desire to exercise,
fitness-related lifestyle factors and physical health
- Physical health: It is impossible
without high body-oxygen levels since low tissue
oxygenation promotes chronic fatigue, diseases and abnormal states of the mind
- Breathing techniques for
running: Which breathing techniques provide maximum body oxygenation at rest
and during running?
- Benefits of physical activity:
The main benefits of correct physical activity for health are due to more oxygen
in body cells. Learn how to exercise correctly to get maximum benefits from
exercise and sports
- Benefits of running correctly include
increased cell and body-oxygen levels provided that you run with nose breathing
only (in and out) mimicking some effects of high-altitude training
- Effects of
exercise on the respiratory system: They are short-term and long-term and
mainly depend on your breathing route: mouth vs. nose breathing
- Effects of lifestyle factors on sport
performance are individual, but they all relate to increased O2 levels in body cells
- How to build more body muscle
with less diet protein: Bodybuilding does not require as much protein in one's diet to build
muscles if the body cells are well oxygenated due to correct breathing 24/7
- Natural bodybuilding requires high body oxygen levels in order
to be safe, beneficial for health, and really natural
- Graded exercise therapy: How to
Make It Very Effective: Graded exercise therapy can be very beneficial, if it is
done with one old key rule: nose breathing only
- Training Mask: Most advanced forms of physical exercise
to boost body oxygenation, VO2max, endurance, and health.
Short sport and fitness articles: Breathing at rest, cardiovascular endurance
and sport performance:
- Simple
breathing exercise for higher VO2max
- Changing
VO2max by breathing differently at rest
- Exercise is
joy only when the body is oxygenated at rest
- When exercise is 100% safe
for chronic diseases
- Why modern man gets
little, if any, benefits from exercise
- Which
exercise parameters increase body oxygenation
Reference pages: Breathing norms and medical facts:
-
Breathing
norms: Parameters, graph, and description of the normal
breathing pattern
- 6 breathing myths: Myths and superstitions about breathing
and body oxygenation (prevalence: over 90%)
- Hyperventilation: Definitions of
hyperventilation: their advantages and weak points
- Hyperventilation syndrome:
Western scientific evidence about prevalence of chronic hyperventilation in patients with chronic conditions
(37 medical studies)
- Normal minute ventilation: Small and
slow
breathing at rest is enjoyed by healthy subjects (14 studies)
- Hyperventilation prevalence: Present in
over 90% of
normal people (24 medical studies)
- HV and hypoxia:
How and why deep breathing reduces oxygenation of cells and tissues of
all vital organs
- Body-oxygen test (CP test)
: How to measure your own breathing and body oxygenation (two in one) using a simple DIY test
- Body oxygen in healthy:
Results for the body-oxygen test for healthy people (27 medical
studies)
- Body oxygen in sick
: Results for the body-oxygen test for sick people (14 medical studies)
- Buteyko
Table of Health Zones: Clinical description and ranges for breathing zones:
from the critically ill (severely sick) up to super healthy people
with maximum possible body oxygenation
- Morning hyperventilation: Why people feel
worse and critically ill people are most
likely to die during early morning hours
References: pages about CO2 effect:
- Vasodilation: CO2 expands arteries and arterioles facilitating perfusion
(or blood supply) to all vital organs
- The Bohr effect:
How and why oxygen is released by red blood cells in tissues
- Cell oxygen levels: How alveolar CO2 influences
oxygen transport
- Oxygen transport: O2 transport is controlled by
vasoconstriction-vasodilation and the Bohr effects, both of which rely on CO2
- Free radical generation:
Reactive oxygen species are produced within cells due to anaerobic cell respiration caused by cell hypoxia
- Inflammatory response: Chronic inflammation
in fueled by the hypoxia-inducible factor 1, while normal breathing reduces
and eliminates inflammation
- Nerve stabilization: People remain calm due to calmative or
sedative effects of carbon dioxide in neurons or nerve cells
- Muscle relaxation: Relaxation of muscle cells
is normal at high CO2, while hypocapnia causes muscular tension, poor posture
and, sometimes, aggression and violence
- Bronchodilation: Dilation of
airways (bronchi and bronchioles) is caused by carbon dioxide, and their constriction
by hypocapnia (low CO2)
- Blood
pH: Regulation of blood pH due to breathing and regulation of other bodily fluids
- CO2: lung damage: Elevated carbon
dioxide prevents lung injury and promotes healing of lung tissues
- CO2: Topical carbon dioxide can heal skin and tissues
- Synthesis of glutamine
in the brain, CO2 fixation, and other chemical reactions
- Deep breathing myth:
Ignorant and naive people promote the idea that deep breathing and breathing
more air at rest is beneficial for health
- Breathing control: How is our
breathing regulated? Why hypocapnia makes breathing uneven, irregular and erratic.
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