Question

What are the benefits are for taking supplemental oxygen before vs during vs after exercise and if any of these are preferable over another?

Answer 1

During exercise, your body uses a lot more oxygen than normal and requires fast replenishment. In response, your heart rate and breathing rate increase to transport more oxygen to your working muscles and surrounding tissues, however as the intensity of exercise increases,  we start to run out of oxygen, we enter an anaerobic phase of exercise, where lactic acid is produced, energy starts to run out, and your body’s central nervous system limits your ability to push your muscles any further, this results in fatigue.This state of fatigue can reduce your overall perfomance.By using supplement oxygen we can expand our body’s access to oxygen and overcome this problem.This particular process is known as oxygen loading. Important point to consider is that, since oxygen is metabolized very quickly by the body, oxygen loading must take place just minutes before or during exercise to be effective.

But taking oxygen after exercise can also be helpfull, 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 have a cool down process, during cool downs, we get more oxygen into the body after intense exercise where it can speed up the recovery process.

In summary taking supplement oxygen before and during exercise may increase power output, fight fatigue, allow your body to maintain higher levels of performance for longer periods of time, delay the production of lactic acid, fatigue and overall increases your perfomance.

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.