Using breath analysis to understand why we heat up during exercise.

The way you breathe offers the most holistic picture of your body. It reveals how every system critical to your training, including your cells, lungs, heart, and blood circulation, is working and which one(s) is keeping your performance from improving. That’s why breath analysis (AKA VO2max testing, metabolic testing) is the most accurate way of pinpointing where you need to focus your training and developing the nutrition and training plan that’s guaranteed to improve your performance. 

Breath analysis is also instrumental in identifying why your core body temperature may be increasing during training and developing the regimen that can help you regulate heat better. 

How breath analysis will find why you are heating up

Oxygen is the most critical element that keeps your body alive and moving. It’s the element your cells use to break down nutrients (e.g., fats, carbohydrates, and protein) and releases the energy they contain to power your vitals (e.g., brain, liver, heart function) and body movement (e.g., running, cycling). This process is called metabolism and involves your cells, lungs, heart, and blood circulation.

Ensuring there is enough oxygen supply to your cells is critical as it determines the type of metabolism that takes place, namely aerobic or anaerobic. When all systems work effectively, there is enough oxygen delivery to your cells, allowing aerobic metabolism (stems from the Greek word “aeras” which means air and alludes to the presence of oxygen) to be the dominant method for energy release. Aerobic metabolism is the process by which your cells use oxygen to break down nutrients. It’s energy-efficient and produces low heat levels. However, when a disruption occurs at any part of the oxygen chain, cells will gradually switch to anaerobic (means without air and alludes to the absence of oxygen) metabolism due to lower than needed oxygen supply. Anaerobic metabolism does not require oxygen for the release of energy but produces high amounts of heat. Heat, in turn, disrupts ATP turnover and hinders your ability to maintain your exercise intensity. Moreover, heat buildup forces your body to divert blood flow from the working muscles to your skin in order to dispose of heat, thus limiting the oxygen delivered to them and the power they can produce. Therefore, finding what’s blocking oxygen supply to your cells is vital to understanding what’s causing you to heat up!

How breath analysis can help you manage heat better

Breath analysis is the only tool capable of scanning how your lungs, heart, blood circulation, and cells are working individually and in unison, allowing you to find the one(s) that’s limiting oxygen supply and ultimately causing you to heat up. Here are a few examples:

-Lung 

The most common lung problems are rapid breathing (AKA hyperventilating), inability to expand and contract your lungs effectively (AKA shallow breathing), and lung surfaces that cannot absorb oxygen effectively. They limit the amount of oxygen your lungs can supply to your body and render them your limiting factor. Moreover, shallow breathing can also cause your core body temperature to increase since exhalation is a crucial mechanism for expelling heat. Breath analysis detects such problems and provides the building blocks for breathing training you need to overcome them. A personalized breathing regimen includes training at specific breathing frequencies (i.e., maintaining a breathing cadence) or applying the necessary. 

-Heart limitation

A leakage in one of the heart’s valves, a blockage in one of the heart’s arteries, or swelling of the heart (AKA hypertrophic heart) are the most common conditions limiting the amount of oxygen-rich blood circulating in your body and rendering your heart your limiting factor. Although such conditions are less common among athletes, breath analysis can provide early warning and lead to further medical evaluation before they become life-threatening.  

-Cell limitation 

The impaired mitochondrial function will limit your cells’ oxygen uptake, making them less efficient in using fat, more reliant on carbohydrates, and ultimately your limiting factor. Training at the correct exercise intensities based on fuel utilization (i.e. fats and carbohydrates burn ratio) is the most effective method for overcoming this problem. Breath analysis is the most accurate method for pinpointing your training zones based on fuel utilization and the optimal exercise intensity to improve your running or cycling economy and fat-burning efficiency. 

Conclusion

Breath analysis should be the starting point for every personalized training and nutrition program since it provides the only method that reliably pinpoints your limitations and the plan you need to overcome them. Combining breath analysis with core body temperature monitoring takes biometrics screening to a new level by identifying the systems in your body that fail, cause you to heat up, and eventually hinder your performance. PNOĒ and CORE have now made access to these insights accessible to everyone giving every athlete the level of personalization previously available only to Olympians.