Tough on the training ground? Why is tennis number one Iga Świątek taping her mouth?

World number one Iga Świąteková drew attention to herself last week when she practiced with her mouth taped. The unconventional stunt was immediately noticed by the media, who showered the young Grand Slam champion with countless questions. During the tournament in Montreal, the Polish player explained that the purpose was to improve her endurance, as breathing only through the nose is more difficult. But what is it really like and what benefits does breathing through the nose bring to the human body?

There are a number of studies that state that breathing through the nose is more energy efficient than breathing through the mouth. To breathe in the same amount of oxygen, a person uses significantly less energy when breathing through the nose.

“You can definitely feel the difference because whatever you do on the court is just harder and harder with the tape on your mouth. So I think it’s a way to improve my endurance without having to run for long periods of time and do extreme things during training,” the tennis player commented on her taped mouth.

Breathing through the nose is somewhat of a new sports trend. By paying attention to their breath and breathing through their noses, hundreds of thousands of people around the world have been able to get rid of asthma, alleviate their allergies or gain more energy and peace of mind in their lives.

“Nose breathing leads to better overall physical and mental health. The human body is built on breathing through the nose as the primary way to get oxygen into the body. Evidence of this is that when breathing through the nose there is increased production of the gas, nitric oxide, and maintaining a high enough level of carbon dioxide. Both of these gases promote the opening of blood vessels and improve the absorption of oxygen from the air into the lungs, from the lungs into the blood, and from the blood into the cells, a physiologically complicated process that potentially has many obstacles waiting to interfere with oxygen absorption. One of these can be uncontrollable mouth breathing, which causes not enough nitric oxide to be formed and a diminishing amount of carbon dioxide,” says Libor Mattuš, a biohacker and well-known hardier.

In his youth he suffered from asthma, allergies and impaired immunity. But thanks to breathing through his nose and taping his mouth, he was able to get rid of all these ailments. Today, he coaches internationally renowned athletes and proper breathing is one of the basic elements of his work.

“For endurance sports, proper breathing is one of the key factors in the performance of strengthening and activating the breathing muscles. The positive results of breathing through the nose include higher natural activation of the diaphragm. If an athlete is accustomed to using the nose to inhale and exhale for a long time, even during exercise, they also remain calmer overall, even in the stressful situations of a match. Breathing through the nose has mental benefits as well,” says Libor Mattuš of his experience with athletes.

“A person who is tired, both physically and mentally, breathes through his mouth. By breathing through the nose, which is physiologically natural for us humans, the athlete achieves a higher, but also healthier and more sustainable way of training,” adds Mattuš.

However, it’s clear that this trend, aided in part by the popularity of James Nestor’s book Breath, is also gaining traction in the sporting world. So we will probably soon see more athletes who tape their mouths for training to get used to breathing through their noses.

Source: WTA, Libor Mattuš