The Role of Breathwork in Athletic Performance and Recovery

As someone who has spent years teaching breathwork to athletes and high performers, I’ve seen how transformative it can be. Athletes spend hours refining technique, building strength, and dialing in nutrition. But many overlook one of the most critical performance tools they have: their breath.

The way you breathe affects endurance, power, recovery, and your ability to stay composed under pressure. Breathwork is not just about taking deep breaths. It’s about training the breath the same way you train your body: with intention, structure, and progression. Through breath training, you can improve CO2 tolerance, optimize oxygen delivery, and build a more resilient nervous system.

How Controlled Breathing Enhances Endurance and Strength

Whether you’re an endurance runner, a lifter, or somewhere in between, your ability to perform is directly tied to how efficiently you deliver oxygen to your muscles. Most people assume breathing is all about oxygen, but in reality, your tolerance to carbon dioxide is what dictates how well that oxygen gets used.

When I work with athletes, one of the first things I look at is their breathing mechanics and their CO2 tolerance. If you're breathing fast and shallow, you’re likely offloading too much CO2. That disrupts oxygen delivery, shortens your endurance, and leads to early fatigue. By improving breathing efficiency, you delay fatigue and stay sharper for longer.

Research backs this up. Studies show that proper breath control improves VO2 max, which is a measure of how much oxygen your body can use during exercise. Breath holds and nasal breathing help condition the body to tolerate higher levels of CO2, making your oxygen delivery system more effective.

When it comes to power, breath holds during heavy lifts help stabilize the core through intra-abdominal pressure. I teach diaphragmatic breathing to all of my strength-focused clients. It not only helps control tension but also improves muscular endurance by keeping oxygen supply steady and reducing unnecessary strain.

The Impact of Oxygen Efficiency on Recovery and Performance

Most athletes focus on recovery through nutrition, supplements, or rest, but breathing plays a huge role here, too. After a tough workout, many athletes stay in a heightened state of stress because their breathing is still rapid and shallow.

Switching to slow, nasal breathing after training can shift the body into parasympathetic mode, the state where healing happens. Slower breathing calms the heart rate, lowers cortisol, and helps reduce inflammation.

A 2023 study in Frontiers in Medicine found that structured breathwork reduced oxidative stress and inflammation in athletes. The athletes who practiced breath control recovered faster, experienced less soreness, and had a lower risk of overtraining.

I’ve worked with clients who struggled with delayed recovery for years. Once they added recovery breathing into their routine, their post-training fatigue and soreness decreased significantly.

Breathwork Techniques I Teach Athletes

Here are three of the breath techniques I most often recommend to athletes. Each one targets a different area of performance.

1. Nasal Breathing for Endurance 

This is foundational. Nasal breathing helps maintain better CO2 levels, filters air, and boosts nitric oxide, which supports blood flow and oxygen delivery. I often recommend athletes train with their mouths taped shut during low-intensity workouts to build this habit.

How to Practice:

• Breathe only through your nose during easy runs or workouts

• If it feels too difficult, slow your pace

• Gradually increase the intensity while staying nasal

2. Box Breathing for Focus and Stress Management 

Competition brings pressure. Box breathing is a reliable way to stay centered and focused before a performance.

How to Practice:

• Inhale for 4 seconds

• Hold for 4 seconds

• Exhale for 4 seconds

• Hold for 4 seconds

• Repeat for a few minutes to reset your nervous system

3. Recovery Breathing for Faster Healing 

Post-exercise breathing habits are often overlooked. I teach a version of slow recovery breathing that helps shift the body out of fight or flight and into repair mode.

How to Practice:

• Inhale through your nose for 5 seconds

• Exhale through your nose slowly for 7 to 10 seconds

• Continue for 5 to 10 minutes after training

This is one of the easiest ways to speed up recovery without any equipment or supplements.

Real Athletes Seeing Real Results

I’ve worked with athletes across sports, from professional cyclists to strength athletes. One cyclist I coached cut his recovery time nearly in half by applying breathwork consistently. A powerlifter told me that learning to breathe properly under the bar eliminated cramping and helped him lift heavier with less effort.

These aren’t outliers. When you train your breath, you build efficiency and resilience into your system.

I’ve also had fighters, triathletes, and sprinters come through my programs and leave with better endurance, better focus, and better control under stress. Breathwork makes the body and mind more adaptable, and that carries over into performance.

Want to Bring Breathwork into Your Training?

Breath training doesn’t require fancy gear or hours of time. What it does require is consistency and a willingness to learn. If you’re serious about improving your performance, breathwork is one of the simplest and most effective ways to do it.

I offer private coaching and an in-depth certification program called The Language of Breath, where I teach athletes and coaches how to integrate breathwork into their training and recovery plans.

To get started, visit jessecoomer.com and explore available coaching sessions and programs. Whether you're chasing a personal best or just trying to feel stronger and recover faster, breathwork can be a key part of your toolkit.

Train your breath like you train your body. The results will speak for themselves.