Do you remember growing up and having your parents drill into you proper manners? I'm talking specifically ones that had to do with your mouth. You know what I mean? [caption id="attachment_4312" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Poor manners cost him a lucrative pro career. 'Chew your food with your mouth closed' 'Don't smack your gum' 'Close your mouth' And besides helping me develop proper manners and etiquette so I won't be a social outcast this also helped me with my sports performance. So thanks mom & dad! But how exactly does chewing with your mouth closed help with sports performance? Well honestly it has nothing to do with the nutrition and more to do with how we take in oxygen and expire carbon dioxide. I've got to give credit to Mr. Sherwin, my high school science teacher, for teaching me some of the following. Below are 4 benefits of nose versus mouth breathing. Benefit #1 - Nasal air is warmed and humidifiedWhen you consider the location and properties of our lungs we know they are in the chest cavity and moist to facilitate inflation, deflation and gas exchange. The more similar the air we breath in is to this environment the better. For example, air taken in through the mouth needs to warmed and moistened before arriving at the lungs. ***I remember when going to university in Regina riding my bike in the middle of winter. In -35 C weather I learned that although you may be tempted to ride quickly to get out of the cold weather more quickly this caused me to breath through my mouth and typically was followed by a sore throat or chest cold. It was a better strategy to bike more slowly and keep my mouth closed. This allowed me take air in through my nose only and...

There's been lots of discussion recently regarding diaphragmatic breathing. Some people are aware of the benefits of this type of breathing and others are probably thinking 'what's the big deal?' At a recent conference in California one of the more veteran presenters at a round table discussion said he didn't understand the big deal everyone was making about breathing. And I can kind of see his point. Sometimes we can get caught up in the minutiae of training and lose focus on the big picture. But in this case breathing is the basis for everything we do. It provides feedback as to the state of our nervous system, the effectivenss of our gas exchange and whether we are leaving anything on the table during athletic performance. But it's more than that. Because 20, 30 or 40 years ago we didn't sit and drive as much as do today. And we didn't specialize in one sport or activity as much as we see going on today. And maybe we lived simpler lives and didn't carry all of the stress that we do now in 2013. So we would therefore expect there to be differences in our posture, our mobility, the type and severity of the injuries we suffer as well as how much stress we are under. As a result there would be benefits to ensuring that we are breathing properly. In fact below are 6 Benefits of Proper Diaphragmatic Breathing. Diaphragmatic Breathing Benefit #1 - Better Gas ExchangeInstead of breathing maybe we should say respiration because with every breath we take in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. If we repsire, as many people do thoracically, we see the shoulders rise up towards the ears and the neck and traps contract. ***quick aside...The new Twilight movie involves the main character Bella getting...