Training is hard work and can be exhausting. But exercise can also help improve sleep and maintain more regular sleep patterns. A yawn, which is usually associated with tiredness or boredom, is an innate reflection of the central nervous system, that is, the brain. That means you can't control when and where you yawn. So just because you yawn a couple of times during a workout, it doesn't mean you should try to stop it.
3 reasons why you yawn during training
You are stressed or anxious
There are people who defend the idea that yawning increases the amount of oxygen you take in; however, a yawn can increase blood flow to the brain , which can improve focus and concentration.
Maybe you're about to start a workout or big athletic event, and you could start yawning as a way to improve your focus and concentration. That's because yawning can cool your brain temperature .
Before a workout, competition, or event, you may have anxiety and stress, but the good kind of stress, and that could lead to a yawn. Your body's fight or flight response kicks in and a yawn opens your jaw, increasing blood flow to the working muscles.
A runner, for example, may yawn in the moments leading up to a race due to anxiety. That yawning should stop once you move, because running is a steady state exercise . When you're in a steady state of aerobic exercise, your brain knows that you need to breathe constantly.
A yawn interrupts that constant breathing. In other words, your body prioritizes breathing over increasing blood flow or cooling down your body temperature, another reason you may be yawning during a workout.
You're too hot
Perhaps the main reason you yawn during a workout is to lower your core body temperature. This is called thermoregulation. When you breathe in a large amount of ambient air that is colder than your body temperature, it helps lower your core temperature and brain temperature.
This happens because when you yawn, the muscles in your jaw contract, which increases blood flow to those muscles. When you swallow cold air, you cool the blood in the jaw muscles, which is then sent to the brain and other parts of the body. This is a type of insensitive perspiration: perspiration that does not involve loss of pure water or associated loss of solute.
Researchers in a May 2014 study in Physiology & Behavior recruited 120 pedestrians to walk during winter (December to March) and summer (June to October) and found that participants who walked in the summer reported more yawning than those in winter. This study supports the evidence that yawning is used as a means of thermoregulation.
But when the room temperature is higher than the core temperature, yawning will decrease , according to a January 2013 review published in the International Journal of Applied and Basic Medical Research.
You are doing high intensity work
Whether you yawn during a workout depends on what you are doing. Exercises that most frequently cause yawning include high-intensity interval training (during rest interval) and those that target large muscle groups, such as lifting heavy objects for the lower body .
If you yawn during a HIIT workout, it will be during your rest or lighter workload interval.
If you really feel like you need to reduce your yawning frequency, you can try methods to better thermoregulate. Methods that have worked include drinking cold water / liquids, rinsing your mouth with ice water (which has been shown to be very effective for sick populations, such as multiple sclerosis), wearing moisture wicking clothing, and using adequate ventilation to reduce ambient temperatures.
Is it necessary to go to the doctor?
Yawning is a reflex and there is generally no reason to try to prevent it from happening. But if you experience excessive yawning during a workout, it could indicate something more serious.
If you yawn excessively during moderate to vigorous activity, that yawn can cause lightheadedness or dizziness. It could mean very low blood pressure or an overactive vagus nerve .
Low blood pressure is associated with a number of underlying medical conditions. Some of them include pregnancy, bed rest, medications, allergic reactions, and problems with the hormone-producing glands.
An overactive vagus nerve can be caused by extreme stress . The nerve works overtime to lower your heart rate and blood pressure, but in some cases, it lowers your blood pressure too much, causing a serious drop, according to an article in the Society for Science and the Public.
