Changes in Breathing Patterns During Exercise

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Changes in Breathing Patterns During Exercise

Exercise is part of daily life as every physical activity, from planned sports, exercise training, and hobbies such as walking and cycling to daily activities such as cleaning and gardening, count as exercise (Banerjee, 2022). Exercise alters breathing patterns, respiratory rate, and tidal volume in an individual. According to Lu et al. (2020), breathing patterns and timing differ from one exercise to the other. Most breathing patterns are based on regulating the pressure build-u during inhalation, while the other patterns are aimed at maximizing oxygen uptake by the body when exercising. This paper discusses the changes in breathing patterns that occur when exercising.

When the body is at rest, the breathing pattern is 500mL per breath, 12 breaths per minute, and ventilation of 6 L/min (Hallett et al., 2018). Also, inhalation happens for one to one and a half minutes and exhalation for one and a half to two seconds. In between, there is an automatic pause of almost no breathing that takes one to two seconds. This breathing pattern is known as Eupnea. Exercising changes breathing patterns from Eupnea to hyperpnea. The breathing pattern changes when one starts an exercise to hyperpnea. Hypernea entails breathing more deeply in order to increase air volume to meet the body’s metabolic needs. Usually, hyperpnea may or may not involve a change in breathing frequency. Usually, when one is exercising, the muscles work harder, and the body utilizes more oxygen and releases more carbon dioxide. In order to cope with this increased oxygen demand, an individual breathing rate increases from 12-15 breaths per minute when at rest to about 40-60 breaths when exercising. Also, the speed of air circulation increases so that the body takes up more oxygen to the muscles to keep them moving. Breathing patterns during exercise can be affected by other factors that impair respiratory function, resulting in a pattern of quick and shallow breathing.

Although exercising causes changes in breathing patterns, it is important to note that breathing patterns differ with different exercises. The pattern breathing for runners has been found to be different. They tend where to breathe with patterns of steps, both for inhaling and exhaling. The logic is that the movement of the body and respiratory organs is timed. The breathing is also different with variations in gender. When comparing the body dimensions, males during exercise have been found to have higher resting breathing patterns than females (Cory et al., 2015).

References

Banerjee, M. (2022). Effect of Exercise on Respiratory Rate among College Going Females Having Different Body Composition. American Journal of Applied Mathematics and Computing, 2(1), 25–28.

Cory, J. M., Schaeffer, M. R., Wilkie, S. S., Ramsook, A. H., Puyat, J. H., Arbour, B., … & Guenette, J. A. (2015). Sex differences in the intensity and qualitative dimensions of exertional dyspnea in physically active young adults. Journal of Applied Physiology, 119(9), 998-1006. https://doi.org/10.1152%2Fjapplphysiol.00520.2015Lu, Y., Li, P., Li, N., Wang, Z., Li, J., Liu, X., & Wu, W. (2020). Effects of home-based breathing exercises in subjects with COPD. Respiratory care, 65(3), 377-387. https://doi.org/10.4187/respcare.07121Hallett, S., Toro, F., & Ashurst, J. V. (2018). Physiology, tidal volume.