Why is it that we don’t often breath to our full capacity, we take shallow breathes and rarely take full breath

Question

Why is it that we don’t often breath to our full capacity, we take shallow breathes and rarely take full breath

In: 680

Answer 1

Under normal circumstances, we don’t *need* to take a full breath on every inhalation; our body gets enough oxygen to maintain organ and cell function through normal respiration.

Taking a deep breath (or a series of shorter breaths) *is* helpful if you expect to exert yourself in some way, though, because you’ll want that extra oxygen in your bloodstream to offset the expenditure of O^(2) from increased muscle use and respiratory requirements.