Walk at an easy pace. Use nasal breathing when it feels comfortable, but open your mouth whenever intensity, heat, congestion, or airflow requires it. Mouth breathing during harder exercise is normal — it is not failure.
The nose warms, humidifies, and filters inhaled air and produces nitric oxide. Those mechanisms do not guarantee a performance advantage. Limited exercise studies suggest nasal breathing may feel smoother or reduce perceived effort for some people at submaximal workloads, while hard exercise often requires mouth breathing. Persistent obstruction or unusual breathlessness deserves clinical assessment. © 2026 Ken Hoyer / Body Plus Fitness.