For most it is easy to underestimate the value of stretching and breathing, but the more you learn about the science of stretching and breathing, the more you see there really is something to this.

The connective tissues covering the body, occasionally become attached to one another. and when that happens it can limit your range of movement, and it can begin to hurt to move. This is why stretching can be so important, it pushes muscle groups to their limits, and in doing so pulls apart the groups that are not supposed to be connected. Which makes it easier to move and makes them stop pulling on each other which means it stops hurting to move.

understanding oxygenation is a bit more complex, it relies upon understanding how your cells get energy out of food. Your body does the same thing to food that fire does, it breaks apart the carbon carbon bonds and replaces them with carbon oxygen bonds. You literally exhale a significant portion of your food. And the reason oxygenation is so important is because without that oxygen, you cannot react to fuel. Something a lot of people don't know is that oxygen needs a moment to get from your lungs into your blood, so if you simply just exhale it immediately, then it often will not oxygenate very effectively. This is why people are taught "square breathing", where your instructed to hold the oxygen in for 3 to 5 seconds or longer. this gives the oxygen more time to get into your blood, the hemoglobin of your red blood cells can hold up to four oxygen molecules. Often it is only holding one or two, so learning how to breathe more effectively can effectively double or possibly even triple the amount of energy your brain cells and your muscles have available. The value of disability is hard to appreciate without experiencing it firsthand.