What are normal blood oxygen levels during exercise

Normally, your blood oxygen level is between 95-100 percent. As you practice intense workouts like distance or endurance running, HIIT, weightlifting, or cycling, your body has to work harder to keep your oxygen level up. That way, your body can continue to move oxygen from your lungs throughout your body and you can maintain proper breathing to help you continue to work throughout the period of exertion. Even once your body is used to it, you need to do what you can to increase your blood oxygen level during exercise.

People who are just starting a vigorous exercise routine of any kind will have to go through a period of lower oxygen level. This is indicated by heavier breathing and greater fatigue as your body gets used to the exertion level. You must fight through this low-oxygen time to get your body used to the higher level of energy needed. It’s important to understand oxygen saturation when you take on a program of intense training, and it can help you mentally to know that the period of difficulty will be alleviated once your body is more used to needing higher oxygen levels.

Continue reading to learn about five ways you can improve oxygen saturation during intense exercise and at other times. 

How to Increase Blood Oxygen Level

1. Get plenty of fresh air. Open your windows if weather permits, and do as much outside activity as you can, even when the weather is not ideal. If you’re a runner, cyclist, HIIT athlete, or any other type of extreme athlete, practice your program outside as much as possible. But don’t limit your time outside to your workout time. Develop hobbies that bring you outside like taking your dog on regular walks rather than just putting them out in the back yard for exercise. Fresh air gives you energy and provides additional amounts of oxygen to your lungs.
2. Eat foods that are rich in iron. Iron is essential for your red cells to perform their job of transporting blood around the body, including the oxygen you need to be active. If you’re experiencing fatigue without any obvious cause, try adding more iron-rich foods to your diet. This can be in the form of leafy green vegetables like kale and spinach, fruits like apples and raspberries, and lean protein such as fish, poultry, and eggs. 
3. Drink more water. Water is crucial to your lungs’ ability to oxygenate and to expel carbon dioxide, or in simple terms, to breathe. In fact, water has an important role in remaining saturated with oxygen. 
4. Train your breathing, which is vital to increase your oxygen level. This isn’t only something you need to focus on when you’re working out. You can improve your oxygen saturation levels at any time by practicing slow, deep breathing. This is one of the results of a meditation practice, which can be beneficial for increasing oxygen levels, but isn’t necessary. You can practice breathing techniques like the 4-7-8 technique to improve oxygen saturation. To do this, breathe in through your nose for the count of four. Then hold this air in until the count of seven. Then breathe out for a count of eight and repeat. Practice this a few times a day, every day, and you’ll find your oxygen levels improved during your daily life as well as during your intense exercise sessions. 
5. Use the AIRWAAV Performance Mouthpiece when you work out. The bite plate and intake bar work together to align your jaw and tongue in such a way that increases the size of your airway 8 to 9 percent. This can immediately lower your respiratory rate by 20 percent or more, which increases blood oxygen levels.

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The AIRWAAV Performance Mouthpiece directions your tongue down and forward and when you bite down, it creates the optimal airway opening. It's patented and scientifically proven with peer-reviewed, published research to provide athletes:

So most of us have heard by now that the new Apple Watch measures blood oxygen levels. This feature, known as a pulse oximeter, reports oxygen saturation (also known as SpO2). This reading can let you know how well your body is processing oxygen, which is key to workout performance, especially if you train hard and if you live or workout in high altitudes. As a snow skier, I know this measurement can be important to track when on the slopes.

This data is not just for altitude performance, though. The tech world has now brought the pulse oximeter to the masses for use in fitness programs. For fitness, the importance of the data that this meter provides cannot be denied. Blood oxygen levels determine how much oxygen reaches the muscles. When you train more often your body will become more efficient for oxygen utilization and through the data, you can see when and how this happens.

Normally humans need 550 liters of oxygen per day, but when you workout the need for oxygen is 2X, 3X or more. Normal levels of oxygen range from 95-100%, but will drop during a workout as your body works to process the need for more oxygen.

A pulse oximeter is non-invasive and can be worn on the wrist now as a feature within a fitness tracker. It utilizes infrared light to measure the % of hemoglobin in red blood cells. Hemoglobin carries the oxygen where it is needed throughout the body. Hemoglobin changes color depending on the amount of oxygen it carries and this is what enables the device to measure the oxygen level. As the hemoglobin changes color, it absorbs a different amount of infrared light.

“In Apple Watch Series 6, the optical heart sensor has been redesigned to add blood oxygen measurement capabilities. During a blood oxygen measurement, the back crystal shines red and green LEDs and infrared light onto your wrist. Photodiodes then measure the amount of light reflected back.” (1) The advanced Apple algorithms record the color of the hemoglobin to determine the level of blood oxygen.

Higher SpO2 means better training recovery. Higher blood oxygen levels can go a long way to prevent over-training. Higher SpO2 will also give you more oomph for aerobic endurance. “A SpO2 of 88 to 92 percent will give you the most beneficial training adaptations without causing undue fatigue.” (2)

Since your blood oxygen levels drop during exercise it is important to train in an environment that enables ease of breathing.  This is why working out in infrared heat is more efficient for your body as opposed to training in a studio that is heated with old school HV/AC systems that blow hot air in allowing higher levels of humidity. Radiant heat from infrared heaters creates a dry environment making it much easier to breath. Good breathing is key to raising your blood oxygen level!

Why not know everything that you can about your health!?

Now that we can easily measure our own fitness data, as a trainer, I would be remiss not to recommend that you invest in a new Apple Watch and make the effort to keep track of your oxygen for training performance.

Does your blood oxygen level drop during exercise?

What should your oxygen level be when exercising?

Is 92 percent blood oxygen level OK?