If you're an athlete of any kind – pro, novice, runner, racquet sports – healthy breathing is as essential to your performance as having the right trail running shoes or understanding nutrition and recovery methods. And yet, many of us struggle with it.
I’ve been teaching yoga for 15 years and when I first started, I was surprised by how many athletes found it difficult to breathe deeply when they got on the mat; after all, when I think of runners and swimmers, I think of deep breathing. As I’ve learned over the years however, both from teaching and examining my own breathing patterns in sport, a lot of us athletes have become experts at bracing our abdominals and diaphragm and breathing only into the upper chest.
