Oxygen saturation is a measure of how much oxygen is currently being carried by your blood as a percentage of your maximal oxygen carrying potential. Increasing your level of oxygen saturation with targeted techniques during exercise can help to keep your muscles working harder for longer, enabling you to push past performance plateaus and move to new heights of fitness.
Instructions
Improving Oxygen Saturation During Exercise
1. Monitor your breathing during cardiovascular exercise to ensure that you are utilizing your lungs at their full capacity. According to the site Military.com, you should aim to time your inhalations and exhalations in a 3:2 ratio while running. This means that you should be breathing in for the amount of time it takes you to run three steps while you should be breathing out for the amount of time it takes you to run the subsequent two steps. Ensuring that you are always spending more time inhaling than exhaling will improve your overall rate of oxygen saturation, improving performance.
2. Monitor your breathing during strength and resistance training to continue to use your full lung capacity, improving your oxygen saturation level. Aim to time your breathing so that you are breathing in during the eccentric (lowering) phase of a lift and breathing out during the concentric (lifting) phase. An example of this would be breathing in as you lower yourself to perform a pull-up and breathing out as you lift yourself back up.
3. Regulate your breathing during your rest periods to increase your level of oxygen saturation. This means that you should focus on taking deep, slow breaths using your diaphragm to pull air deep into your lungs. No matter how winded you are from an exercise, force yourself to stop panting by breathing deeply through the nose until your heart rate slows, increasing the level of oxygen being sent to your muscles and your overall oxygen saturation.
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