Benefits of Running Correctly: Increased Body O2 Levels

Running man in a park 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 health and prevent or fight chronic diseases (heart disease, cancer, diabetes, asthma, bronchitis and many others). 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 most benefits of running for health, the crucial main requirement for any physical exercise is more oxygen in body cells after exercise. This result is easy to achieve with strictly nasal breathing (in and out) during running. Nasal breathing ensures absorption of nasal NO (nitric oxide) and that immediately lowers 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 that 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 most benefits of running: beginning running tips

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 a hard surface like roads and concrete pathways to avoid injuries.

This approach is similar to Graded Exercise Therapy that has been used in clinical practice with very limited success due to negative mouth breathing effects that cancel main benefits of running.

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 most benefits of running.

Web pages about cardiovascular endurance, physical exercise, running, body building, and sports:
- Cardiovascular Endurance and Body Oxygen Levels: How brain and body oxygenation influence cardiovascular endurance, desire to exercise, fitness-related lifestyle factors and physical health
- Physical Health: 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
- How to Build More Body Muscle with Less Diet Protein: Bodybuilding requires less protein in diet to build muscles if the body cells are well oxygenated due to correct breathing 24/7
- 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.

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 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

References: CO2 Effects Web Pages
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 and oxygen transport are controlled by alveolar CO2 and breathing
Oxygen Transport depends on breathing and these two effects (Vasoconstriction-Vasodilation and the Bohr effect) are parts of two diagrams that summarize influences of hypocapnia (low CO2 content in the blood and cells) on circulation and O2 delivery
Free Radical Generation takes place due to anaerobic cell respiration caused by cell hypoxia. Hence, antioxidant defenses of the human body are also regulated by CO2 and breathing
Inflammatory Response is controlled by breathing since hypoxia leads to or intensifies chronic inflammation through over-expression of the hypoxia-inducible factor 1, while normal breathing reduces these processes
Nerve stabilization takes place due to calmative or sedative effects of carbon dioxide in neurons or nerve cells
Muscle relaxation or relaxation of muscle cells is normal at high CO2, while hypocapnia causes muscular tension, poor posture and, sometimes, aggression and violence
Brochodilation - dilation of airways (bronchi and bronchioles) by carbon dioxide, and their constriction due to hypocapnia
CO2: Best Natural Cough Suppressant and "home remedy" since it calms urge-to-cough nerve receptors located in the tracheobronchial tree and larynx
Blood pH regulation and regulation of other bodily fluids
CO2: Lung Damage Healer: Elevated carbon dioxide prevents injury and promotes healing of lung tissues
CO2: Skin and Tissue Healer
Synthesis of Glutamine in the Brain, CO2 fixation, and other chemical reactions
CO2 myth "CO2 is a toxic waste gas" myth
Breathing control How is our breathing regulated? Why hypocapnia makes breathing uneven and erratic?

Reference Web Pages: Breathing norms, Medical Graphs and Tables about Breathing Rates (Minute Ventilation) and Body Oxygen in Healthy, Normal and Sick People
Breathing norms Parameters, graph, and description of the normal breathing pattern
6 breathing myths 6 myths about breathing and body oxygenation (prevalence: over 90%)
Hyperventilation Definitions of hyperventilation: their advantages and weak points
Hyperventilation Syndrome in the Sick. Table 1. Western scientific evidence about prevalence of CHV (chronic hyperventilation) in patients with various chronic conditions (34 medical studies)
Normal Minute Ventilation in Healthy Subjects: Easy and Light Breathing (14 Studies)
Hyperventilation Prevalence Present in Over 90% of Normal People (24 medical publications)
HV and hypoxia How and why deep breathing reduces oxygenation of cells and tissues of all vital organs
Body oxygen test How to measure your own breathing and body oxygenation (a simple DIY test)
Body oxygen in healthy Table 4. CP (body oxygen level) in healthy people (27 medical studies)
Body oxygen in sick Table 5. CP (body oxygen level) in sick people (14 medical studies)
Buteyko Table of Health Zones with clinical description of most common zones
Morning HV Morning hyperventilation effect or how and why critically ill people are most likely to die during early morning hours

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