Breathing properly can positively influence several physiological and psychological factors such as heart rate (HR), blood lactate (BLa), anxiety, and feelings of calmness. Exercise is essential for overall health and recovering from exercise, both during and after, is crucial to maintaining performance. Lowering HR and BLa are indicators of recovering from exercise. Although numerous studies have looked at how proper breathing affects physiological and psychological factors at rest, there are minimal investigations on the effects of diaphragmatic breathing (DPB) and the downshift protocol (DSP) during or after exercise. The purpose of this study was to investigate if DPB or DSP would decrease HR and BLa in between and after high-intensity exercise and whether the DSP would be more effective than DPB.
