How Performance Breathing Improves Physical Performance Up to 64%
- Jun 12, 2025
- 5 min read
Stefan Peter is an expert in Mindset and Personality Development and certified Breathwork and Yoga trainer. He holds a Masters Degree in Sports Health and Leadership plus certifications in High-Performance Sports Psychology and Athlete Development from FC Barcelona. As a high-performance coach he is mainly working internationally with professional soccer players, teams, and coaches.
When we think of improving physical performance, even pro soccer players and pro athletes often only focus on strength training, nutrition, and recovery protocols. But there is a fundamental lever for peak performance that’s often overlooked: our breath.
In my opinion, the reason breathwork doesn’t get as much attention is simply because it’s not as flashy or exciting as other performance-enhancing strategies. Not yet. Because I can already see this is about to change quickly. Breathwork is gaining momentum real fast, and I’m absolutely convinced it’s on the verge of becoming a huge trend in the performance world and beyond very soon.
How you breathe can drastically shape your physical output, your endurance, repeated sprint ability, focus, concentration, sleep, and recovery. In recent years, science has revealed just how tightly breath is woven into our physiology and brain function. More than ever, elite athletes, coaches, and high-performers are using breathwork as a performance edge. Liverpool FC and the English National Team are just two recent examples of breathwork being used by pro soccer players.
Let’s explore why your breath may be the most underutilized performance tool, something you can train every day without having to spend a single dollar.
Breathing isn’t just about oxygen
It’s a common myth that breathing is all about getting more oxygen in. While this is not completely wrong, the key player in physical performance is actually carbon dioxide (CO₂). This gas is not just waste; it actually plays a crucial role in regulating how much oxygen reaches our muscles and brain.
This is called the “Bohr effect.” For this article, I’ll try to keep it simple, so I’ll only give you what I think you really need to know to start breathing better, without going into the biological details.
The key thing to remember is: when you breathe too fast or too shallow, especially through the mouth (a common pattern under physical or mental stress, not just for athletes, but for a large percentage of people), you blow off too much CO₂. The result? Less oxygen is released to the tissues, meaning your brain and your muscles get less oxygen. On the other hand, if you keep just a little more CO₂ inside your body by, for example, breathing through the nose as much as possible, you can easily improve oxygen delivery to the brain by an incredible 10%, and this really makes a difference in focus, clarity, mental, and, over time, also physical performance, once the body adapts.
In my breathwork courses and weekly Zoom breathwork classes, I teach how to do this safely and easily in order for you to get more out of your gym sessions, help you concentrate better, and get into flow states more easily.
Overbreathing, also called "hidden hyperventilation," often decreases performance, increases fatigue, and can even contribute to anxiety or brain fog.
Light, low, and slow: The three pillars of efficient breathing
If overbreathing works against us, what does efficient, performance-enhancing breathing look like?
It comes down to three simple qualities: Light, low, and slow.
Light: Breathing should be subtle, almost invisible, through the nose only, especially at rest.
Low: Breathing should come from the diaphragm, not the chest. Diaphragmatic or “belly” breathing engages the body’s most efficient respiratory muscle and promotes better oxygen exchange, core stability, and improved posture, such as preventing back pain.
Slow: An ideal cadence for many people is around 4–6 breaths per minute, such as inhaling for 4 seconds and exhaling for 6. This pattern optimizes heart rate variability (HRV), balances the nervous system, and improves focus and emotional regulation.
Together, this “light, low, and slow” approach trains the body to use oxygen more efficiently, conserve energy, and access calm, powerful states of performance.
"Most people think sweating or using the bathroom clears out toxins, but did you knowthat 70% of detoxification happens through your breath?"
Even athletes still underestimate breathing
Breathing is still massively overlooked in terms of performance improvement:
Tired legs at the end of the game? What if I told you it’s often due to weak breathing muscles stealing blood from your limbs, making you gas out too early?
87.5% of pro athletes breathe dysfunctionally (according to a 2022 Japanese study).
Breath-hold training can boost repeated sprint ability by up to 64% (according to a 2018 study).
Breathwork is the fastest way to regulate your nervous system.
Most soccer players need 6–7 minutes to feel present in a game, breathing gets you there faster!
Do you want to know if your breathing is functional and how you compare to pro athletes?
Check out my explanation video here and do the test, it only takes 5 minutes and is suitable for everyone, not just pro athletes: Click here to watch the video.
Final thoughts: Breathing as a skill, not a reflex
Breathing is not just automatic, it’s also a trainable skill that can help you improve your physical and mental performance, as well as your emotional balance. In the next article, I will write more about the emotional aspect and how to regulate your nervous system through breathing.
Just like strength or mobility, it improves with practice. The athletes and performers who master their breath don’t just get a small edge. They gain access to more energy, more clarity, and more control over how they show up, both physically and mentally.
So the next time you think about performance, ask not just how hard you are training, but how well you are breathing.
Because your breath is not just air, it’s access to your best self and your best performance.
Stefan Peter, Pro Soccer Mind-fulness Coach and Breathwork Trainer
Stefan Peter is an expert in Mindset and Personality Development and certified Breathwork and Yoga trainer. He holds a Masters Degree in Sports Health and Leadership plus certifications in High-Performance Sports Psychology and Athlete Development from FC Barcelona. As a high-performance coach he is mainly working internationally with professional soccer players, teams, and coaches. He is the creator of the Emotionset Method, a groundbreaking 1-on-1 coaching approach designed to help athletes overcome emotional and mental barriers that limit performance. Inspired by his own journey - especially the mental challenges he faced after the early loss of his father he dedicated his life to supporting athletes and non athletes not just in reaching their potential, but in doing so with greater self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and inner balance. His philosophy moves beyond the outdated “no pain, no gain” mindset, instead fostering environments where high performers can grow through presence awareness, focus, purpose, and joy. His work blends cutting-edge sports psychology with ancient coaching wisdom, creating a holistic and human-centered approach to peak performance.
