Craig Inaba and the O+ Team |

We all know that our bodies need oxygen to survive, but we often overlook its importance in exercise capabilities and muscle performance. High level athletes in every sport are turning to portable oxygen options for infusing their bodies with this much-needed energy molecule before, during and after exercise. Once you understand how valuable oxygen is to your muscle performance, you may want to do the same. Whether you want to learn how to get more oxygen or want to increase ATP in you muscles, you can oxygenate then dominate with Oxygen Plus (O⁺).

What Happens To Your Muscles When You Exercise?

Cellular respiration is the process in which your muscles use oxygen to produce ATP energy. The process is simple. Your body obtains oxygen from the ambient air you breathe. It enters the blood stream and is carried to your muscles, where some of it is used immediately, and the rest is stored by a compound called myoglobin. Whether you’re exercising or not, the oxygen in your body is used to break down glucose and create the fuel for your muscles called ATP.

During exercise, your muscles have to work harder, which increases their demand for oxygen. This is why your breathing and heart rates increase: To help pull more oxygen into your bloodstream. As you exercise, the oxygen that reaches your muscles never leaves, but rather converts the available glucose into ATP.

So what occurs when your body runs out of oxygen or your other systems simply can’t deliver it to your muscles quickly enough? Your muscles begin converting glucose into lactic acid instead of energy, anaerobic exercise takes over, power output drops and fatigue sets in. Unfortunately, anaerobic exercise can only sustain temporarily before your muscles run out of energy completely and become fatigued.

Oxygen also plays a huge role in the recovery process because it helps restore pre-exercise ATP levels and helps your liver break down lactic acid into simple carbohydrates. This is why so many high level athletes do “cool downs.” Cool downs get more oxygen into the body after intense exercise where it can expedite the recovery process.

No matter how you look at it, the more oxygen you have in your body during and after exercise, the better you will perform and the faster you will recover. Incorporate Oxygen Plus recreational oxygen before your next workout to give your body the oxygen support it needs to recover better and faster.