In this post you are going to check your breathing rate, and then in the next post you will apply an exercise to improve it.

DO WE “DEMAND” OURSELVES LIKE THE CYCLISTS OF THE TOUR DE FRANCE?

We often watch with fascination the sporting exploits of the Tour de France cyclists.

It is difficult to pedal for 3 weeks in a row, doing an average of 150 kilometers per day.

However, a chronically tired person sitting on their couch watching the race is likely to have a high respiratory rate, and thus "works almost as hard" as a high-performance athlete.

When a competitive athlete rests, he breathes only six times a minute and has a heart rate of less than 40 beats per minute.

People who are tired breathe too fast all day, and most have a heart rate greater than 70 when resting.

Let us remember that the accessory muscles of respiration (Scalenes, Trapezius, etc.) become fatigued and can become contracted due to the presence of an excessively high respiratory rate (sustained over time).

RESPIRATORY RATE CHECK

Each breath begins when you start to take a breath in and ends when you stop letting it out (just before you breathe in again).

So if you want to know your respiratory rate, count how often you breathe for sixty seconds and you will know it (important to have a parameter)

“ALWAYS” PREPARED FOR ACTION

If you breathe more than ten times a minute, then your body is primed for action in a way that is not compatible with sitting still.

Many people breathe thirteen, fifteen, seventeen, twenty or more times a minute.

By breathing, for example, eighteen times a minute, your respiratory system is "acting" as if you were running through the Palermo Woods, and this is no longer favorable to maintain throughout the day.

In the next post (now yes) we are going to talk about a specific breathing exercise to improve the above.

"It doesn't matter how slowly you go as long as you keep moving." Confucius