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Whether you're a casual gym-goer, a mall walker, a mountain biker, an actor, singer or dancer, putting your breath at the core of your discipline will help you achieve far more than you ever thought.  During exercise, the body's demand for oxygen increases and our breathing volume or ventilation must also rise.  This requires numerous muscles surrounding the lungs to contract in a highly coordinated manner.  As the intensity of exercise increases, these respioratory muscles must contract more forcefullly and more rapidly to keep pace with the body's substantial increase in metabolism.  By increasing the strength and stamina of your respiratory system, your breathing becomes more efficient, requiring less energy.  Therefore you can take slower, deeper breaths, getting more oxygen out of each breath, you don't have to work as hard to get it, because you don't have to breathe as many times to get the same amount of oxygen.  Most people hold their breath when they lift something heavy or do a difficult movement and that's exactly what you don't want to do.  It's important to inhale on the eccentric phase and exhale on the concentric phase.  In other words breath out when you lift, push, or pull a weight and inhale during the negative phase.  So for your next workout try inhaling through your nose and exhaling out your mouth for the duration of the exercise.  It my seem hard at first but in the long run it will help you with your strength and stamina.