Yawning while exercising

[Kate Abernethy]

Hi, does anybody have any solutions to this?

 

I've seen lots of possible reasons (lack of oxygen, cooling the brain, heart disease, etc etc) all of which have not been proven as the cause of yawning while exercising.

 

So if you have managed to stop it, please pass on your tips! Thank you.

[Keilani Gutierrez]

try experimenting with how much you should inhale and exhale. 

 

sometime's during exercise, ill notice myself taking in longer inhales than exhales, other times, i'll exhale longer than i'll inhale. 

 

this has a grounding in chinese medicine, but from what i can recommend, just experiment with the inhale/exhale timing. 

 

don't deprive yourself of oxygen, yet some core exercises feel totally different when you compress your air for a brief instant. (something i do during FL and mn PE)

 

edit: as a note, when i mean compression, i mean on the initial ascent, not at the top. in ab compression exercises like the Mn PE's, it's best to have empty lungs to get every last bit out of the exercise. (when empty, you can compress more) 

[Marcos Mocine-McQueen]

For me it's usually a simple fix: drink water. I certainly can't support that with science and it's only anecdotal. When I drink up, however, the yawning stops. 

[Kate Abernethy]

Thank you for the tips KeilaniG and mmm. Changing my breathing made me feel sick/faint so I'd rather not do that. I will give drinking during a workout a go.

 

Strangely I actually didn't yawn at all in today's session, it could be something to do with intaking bad carbs (chocolate cake) half an hour beforehand. I don't normally do this! As they get mentioned so much, it seems like pre-workout pop tarts are the answer 

[Vinni Williams]

It may be that you did not get enough sleep the night before. Some of my workout days I will yawn a lot too. What time of the day are you working out?

[Kate Abernethy]

It could be that. I'm up at 5.30am and do a short RC PE1-6 session at 6am, a main 60-90min workout at noon, then in the evening stretching and the exercises I'm too embarrassed to do at the gym (deck squats and the sPL IMs). My day work is desk patrol. I'm in bed by 10.30pm. 

Thinking about this, maybe I should drink more coffee. I have three/four mugs a day. Thanks for your info, it seems to be quite a common activity (yawning while exercising).

[Joshua Slocum]

Thinking about this, maybe I should drink more coffee. I have three/four mugs a day. Thanks for your info, it seems to be quite a common activity (yawning while exercising).

That's already quite a sizable amount. I don't think it would necessarily hurt you to drink more, but you're drinking enough that I don't think more would help. In fact, drinking less might help as it could increase the quality of your sleep. 

 

I experience an effect similar to what KeilaniG described: when I breathe more deeply, I yawn less. 

[Kate Abernethy]

That's already quite a sizable amount. I don't think it would necessarily hurt you to drink more, but you're drinking enough that I don't think more would help. In fact, drinking less might help as it could increase the quality of your sleep. 

 

I experience an effect similar to what KeilaniG described: when I breathe more deeply, I yawn less. 

That makes sense - I'll drop the 6pm coffee and should probably get to sleep earlier. Ironic, sleeping away most of the rest of my life! 

[Joshua Slocum]

That makes sense - I'll drop the 6pm coffee and should probably get to sleep earlier. Ironic, sleeping away most of the rest of my life! 

You don't have to sleep earlier. But the sleep you do get will be more effective if there isn't a bunch of caffeine floating around in your system . 

[Keilani Gutierrez]

You don't have to sleep earlier. But the sleep you do get will be more effective if there isn't a bunch of caffeine floating around in your system . 

and to add to what Josh has said, that also includes anything that would stimulate your central nervous system. be it coffee or anything containing an amount of sugar that would cause you to feel "woken up" before going to sleep( I used to feel like that even when going to bed at 12-1am, when i drank soda)

[Paul Gray]

I have this habit also, but I think my body as a whole is generally fatigued with long days working and commuting in and out of the city and then going to the gym and finishing myself off.  But also another thought popped up - you're not on any medication that possibly causes this?

[Kate Abernethy]

No, not on any meds, am a clean-living non-smoking no alcohol no drugs person. Maybe it's just getting older! Thanks for your post, I've done the same. It's time to take a holiday :-)

[Blairbob]

 Need more sleep/rest. 7hrs a night.

[Marcos Mocine-McQueen]

As far as caffeine intake, the timing matters a lot. Taking it late in the day tends to be more troublesome for sleep. Also, sipping the coffee slowly over a longer period of time tends to have better effects. By that I mean that instead of pounding a full mug first thing, then pounding another one several hours later, drink them slowly. Take a small sip every few minutes. Even if you don't reduce the amount of caffeine you drink you can reduce the crashes by spreading it out.

 

I try to spread a fairly large cup of coffee out between 6 a.m. and noon. After lunch I switch to green tea.