Would you like to get more health benefits from your aerobic workout?
Would you like to burn more fat during your workout? Would you like
to reduce exercise-related fatigue and injury? Would you like to
increase your endurance and stamina? Would you like your workout to
help improve your breathing?

If your answer is "yes" to any or all of these questions, then there
is one simple thing you can do: don't let yourself
become "breathless" during your workout. When we become breathless,
we undermine our breathing coordination, burn sugar instead of fat
for fuel, and become tight and tense (which can promote injury).

The simplest way to know whether you are exercising too intensely and
becoming breathless is to try to speak several sentences out loud
while you're working out. If you can't do it without gasping for
breath, then your workout is no long "aerobic"--it is, or is about to
become, "anaerobic," which means that it is proceeding without oxygen
and you are no longer burning fat for fuel.

A simple way to ensure that you are working out at a level that will
not make you breathless is to inhale and exhale only through your
nose. If you try this you will quickly discover, especially at the
beginning, that you will have to work at a less intense rate during
your workout. Gradually, however, your breathing coordination will
improve and you will be able to do more and progress more rapidly.

Another way is to use your pulse rate as a guide. In his book "The
Portable Personal Trainer," Eric Harr suggests that we subtract our
age from 180 to determine the upper limit of our pulse rate during
exercise. The key is to stay below this number. He also suggests
using a "heart-rate monitor" to ensure that we don't go above this
number. He does point out, however, that because of individual
differences this number may not be accurate.

For myself, I do only as much as I can do while breathing through my
nose, use a heart-rate monitor, and check occasionally to be sure
that I can speak a few sentences while working out. At the beginning,
breathing only through my nose seemed to slow me down quite a bit,
but after only a few weeks I found that I could progress much more
rapidly than I was able to when I allowed myself to become breathless
during the workout.

For more breathing-related health tips be sure to sign up for my free
newsletter at the website listed below.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/authentic-breathing-news/

With my best wishes,

Dennis Lewis
http://www.authentic-breathing.com