Discover Breathing Tips

HOW TO BREATHE BETTER WHEN HIKING

In this video, you are going to learn how to breathe better when hiking. A good breathing technique will help you to walk better, reduce cramps, dizzy spells, and tiredness.

To improve your breathing when hiking, remember these 3 points: breathe through your mouth, use your stomach to help breathing and maintain good body posture.

Firstly, breathing through your mouth. When you are hiking, your body needs to use more oxygen to make your muscles work, so it is important to breathe as efficiently as possible.

Do a test: try to breathe deeply, first just through your nose, then just through your mouth. You will find that breathing through your mouth is a lot more effective.

So breathe through your mouth, except if you are in a hot and dry environment. In this case, breathing through your nose will keep your mouth moist.

Secondly, use your stomach to help you breathe. This breathing method does not come naturally, but it is more efficient than using the rib cage to breathe.

So as to practice using your stomach to breathe, place one hand on your thorax and the other on your stomach.

Inhale, inflating your stomach making sure you move your thorax as little as possible: Now you are using your stomach to breathe.

Thirdly, make sure you maintain good posture. Walking posture is important because your lungs can inflate quicker.

When you are walking, avoid being hunched over under your rucksack. The ideal posture is keeping a straight back, knees slightly flexed with your body slightly bent forwards

You will breathe much better if you use this posture.

To summarise, your breathing technique can be improved by breathing through your mouth, using your stomach and by making sure you maintain good body posture.