Weird title right? But, any athlete, any person who has been told to take a deep breath has probably asked themselves this question. We typically hear, “breathe in your nose and out of your mouth” which is very much correct but the proper way to do so, and why, helps make the technique more effective.

Let’s start with the “boring” stuff. We have a thing called a nervous system, that gets activated when there is any sense of danger like running from a bear, or the need to amp ourselves up for a game or practice. Every person has one of three responses that show in various ways: fight (engage), flight (abandon), freeze (shut down). These are originally meant for a means of protection from harm, just as other animals do.

Now, as an athlete, fighting (unless you are in MMA) will typically get you suspended or kicked out of a competition, flight will keep you from focusing on the competition and freeze is never good when needing to compete. At the snap of a finger, anything can trigger this and it usually happens when we are met with an obstacle or expereince that was unplanned for, or that we feel we do not have the proper tools to overcome. On a much more simple note, when being an athlete, increased heart rate will increase the odds of these factors affecting you and fatigue you faster than normal.

This is why we breathe. We breathe to regulate our nervous system, keep our functioning and competitive brain on and keep our bodies doing what we need it to do to succeed. Now, you got this far, so I will leave you with a trick that I talk about in my book. while breathing in your nose and out of your mouth will regulate the body, sometimes the mind will be a rebel. To trick it and align it with your body again, once you finishing expelling the air out of your mouth, you will say the word “one”. This will keep your brain occupied, instead of focusing on what adversity you are facing and even help regulate the body even quicker.

Whenever your feel that you are in a pinch or you are working on your breathing, try it out and see how it feels. Give it a week or two and notice if there is a difference for you!

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-Malique Taylor