The Cardio and mask conundrum

 

I was talking to a friend who was annoyed with having to wear a mask during cardio exercises. (Most gyms require that). It just made sense to me, I was also definitely of the opinion that wearing a mask during cardio exercises defeats the purpose of cardio. Mainly because I had experienced it too earlier, but, I didn't have an explanation for it at the time.

As humans, we like a rational explanation. On the back of my mind, this thought was running, and while buying my groceries the answer suddenly hit me. This was my mental exercise of the day. 

Like Feynman says, we just have to go a little deep and everything seems so beautiful. One of the main benefit of cardio exercises like running, swimming, etc. is a much improved lung capacity. It just forces you to breathe deeper.  Have you ever seen a decent runner or a swimmer with a bad lung capacity ? If you measure the oxygen saturation levels of blood in a decent runner or a swimmer, it will almost always be 99 or 100. 

Due to our habits, most of us don't breathe correctly. We breathe either through just our lower lungs or just through our upper lungs. Cardio exercises force you to breathe deep. Breathing deep does not mean ballooning up the chest, it just means both lower and upper lungs expand and contract. 

The truth is, to experience this benefit of running, we just have to spend 5-10 minutes of breathing deeply in fresh air. So much more simpler no!  

 Let's analyze what happens when you breathe deeply - first the oxygen intake is tremendously increased, and the carbon dioxide exhaled out is too!, and if in running a park, plants that are around love it, it's their food!. Our cells thrive on oxygen, that's one of the things we can't change!

 The function of lungs in simple words is to take blood from the heart as input, process the oxygen from it, and get rid of carbon dioxide from the body. The more oxygenated blood supplied to the lungs, the easier it is for the lungs to do its job. 

Now, add the condition of wearing a mask. The act of cardio exercise will pump more blood to lungs. You exhale a huge amount of carbon dioxide. With a mask, you inhale it back! The result is the lungs has a lot more blood to work with than earlier due to heavier breathing, but with a much larger concentration of carbon dioxide than it is used to due to re-inhalation of exhaled breath. Your heart wants to get rid the extra inhaled carbon dioxide quicker, so it will pump more quickly, heart rate will increase even more, now you are in an infinite loop of pumping blood to the lungs faster with extra carbon dioxide, and the runner will feel tired so much more quickly. Instead of oxygenating the body, we just "carbon dioxidized" the body! 

It's not so much of a problem as for regular runners. Because, most people will feel very awkward and just remove their masks and run. But, for beginner runners, it can be a problem. Exercise is never meant to be a process to exhaust ourselves. It's supposed to be a pleasurable thing, our cells love exercise!, basically because they're going to get more oxygen (good food). Imagine how we feel after a satisfying meal after a hard day's work. Just the act of oxygenating our blood with fresh air literally boosts our immune system.

One more important point is to never ever hold the breath until the point of discomfort. That's a discussion for another post. But, let's not treat exercise as an exhaustion routine, it just helps!. 

Some of us who are sensitive to smell, can even feel the ewww! smell of inhaling back our own exhaled breath. I'm not suggesting to discard masks during normal routine stuff, but running with masks on can be counterproductive.