Breathe In – Breathe Out
Breathing is a natural, normal, unconscious process. We breathe in oxygen and nitrogen and breathe out carbon dioxide. However, if you stop breathing for just a minute or two at the most, you become unconscious forever.
Respiration rates ( breathing rates) are somewhat dependent on your level of activity. When at rest your breathing will slow down. When you are exercising your respiration increases. How much oxygen you breathe in is important as you require more when energetic than at rest. Breathing in oxygen is not the only thing you take in. You are also breathing small amounts of small particulate that is airborne.
When you exercise outdoors you will breathe in large quantities of pollutants that are generated from all types of sources. Even in the mountain air you will have various plant and tree pollen that is in the air. When exercising indoors, the types and levels of airborne pollutants increases exponentially.
If you exercise at a club or gym type facility you have interesting mixture of airborne contaminants. Things such as skin flakes coming off of the people around you, dust mite feces, dust generated when people are using exercise equipment and running on the floors, particulates being circulated through the HVAC system and body odor from your exercising neighbors.
For people with severe allergies or respiratory issues, being indoors and breathing large amounts of air just increases the chance that you will inhale enough particulate and airborne contaminants. This means that while you are exercising to stay healthy you are also breathing in unhealthy air.
Most health clubs don’t use any type of air filtration other than a standard duty air filter in their air handlers and HVAC equipment. These filters will take care of the larger dust particles but do nothing for the small respirable size particles.
When you exercise in your own home, however, you do have the ability to control the levels and types of airborne contaminants that you breathe in.
There are high end, high performance HEPA based portable systems that can be placed anywhere in the home or basement when you exercise. These portables will help maintain a cleaner environment in a bedroom or workout area. True, commercial grade HEPA filters will remove 99.9% of all airborne particles 0.3 microns or smaller. In addition, many have some form of odor or gas reducing material to assist in removing odors and gases in the environment.
Exercising should be done on a daily basis. It is important to remember that staying healthy is an important part of “life” routine. When you exercise you breathe a lot. Make sure you are breathing contaminant free air. Your health depends on it.
Pure Air Systems has been making HEPA and Carbon based air filtration systems since 1985. They offer a complete line of systems that can either be attached to your existing HVAC unit or used on a stand-alone basis. PAS also offers a line of portable HEPA systems. For more information on the PAS equipment please go to our website at: wwww.pureairsystems.com