Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): O equilíbrio melhora se controlares a respiração enquanto corres. - Balance improves if you control your breathing while you run.

Present indicative for very general, factual conditions:
- Se controlas a respiração, o equilíbrio melhora.
- “If you control your breathing, balance improves.” (general rule)
Future subjunctive for conditions that are seen as more “open” or future-oriented:
- Se controlares a respiração, o equilíbrio melhora.
- “If you control your breathing, your balance improves.” (whenever you do it)

Both are grammatically correct; se controlares is very natural in European Portuguese and slightly more formal/standard for this kind of conditional sentence.

You cannot use the bare infinitive controlar here, because se is a conjunction that introduces a finite verb, not an infinitive:

❌ Se controlar a respiração… (ungrammatical in European Portuguese when the subject is “tu”)

What exactly is the se doing here? Is it “if” or something else?

In this sentence, se means if and introduces a conditional clause:

O equilíbrio melhora – “Balance improves”
se controlares a respiração – “if you control your breathing”

So the structure is:
[result] + se + [condition]

This se is:

not the reflexive se (as in levantar-se, ajudar-se, etc.)
not the “whether” se (as in não sei se vem – “I don’t know whether he’s coming”)

You can usually tell it’s conditional when:

se is at the start of a clause
it can be translated by if
it’s followed by a finite verb in the present or future subjunctive (here, controlares).

Why is “your” not written? Why a respiração and not a tua respiração?

Portuguese often omits possessive adjectives when the possessor is obvious from context, especially with:

Parts of the body: lava as mãos – “wash your hands”
Personal actions: fecha a boca – “close your mouth”

Here, a respiração is clearly your breathing (the breathing of the person who is running), so:

controlares a respiração = “control your breathing”

You can say a tua respiração, but it slightly changes the feel:

se controlares a respiração – neutral, natural, general advice
se controlares a tua respiração – a bit more explicit/emphatic about it being your breathing

Both are correct; the version without tua is more idiomatic in this kind of instructional sentence.

Why is it O equilíbrio with the definite article o? Could I just say Equilíbrio melhora?

In Portuguese, we usually must use the definite article with nouns that are acting as the subject of the sentence:

O equilíbrio melhora… – “Balance improves…”

Saying Equilíbrio melhora sounds incomplete or ungrammatical to a native speaker.

You have a few natural options:

O equilíbrio melhora… – “Balance improves…” (generic)
O teu equilíbrio melhora… – “Your balance improves…”
O equilíbrio do corpo melhora… – “The body’s balance improves…”

But dropping the article entirely (∅ equilíbrio melhora) is wrong in standard Portuguese.

What tense is melhora, and why is it used here?

Melhora is the present indicative, 3rd person singular of melhorar:

(ele / ela / isso / o equilíbrio) melhora – “it improves”

Here it expresses a general truth / habitual result:

O equilíbrio melhora… – “Balance improves…” (whenever the condition is met)

Portuguese uses the present indicative in this way much like English does for:

General facts: A água ferve a 100 °C.
Habits: Ela corre todos os dias.
Rules/conditions: Se estudas, aprendes.

So melhora is the normal choice for a general statement about what generally happens.

Why is it controlares (future subjunctive) but corres (present indicative)? Why not use the same tense in both?

The two verbs belong to different kinds of clauses:

Se controlares a respiração
- Introduced by se (if) → conditional clause
- Uses future subjunctive: (se tu) controlares
enquanto corres
- Introduced by enquanto (while) → time/simultaneity clause
- Uses present indicative: (tu) corres

In Portuguese, after:

se (if, conditional) → often future subjunctive (controlares, fizeres, fores…)
enquanto (while) → normally present indicative for general actions (corres, fazes, estás…)

So mixing controlares and corres is completely normal, because they respond to different conjunctions with different tense/mood preferences.

Could I say enquanto estás a correr instead of enquanto corres? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can, but there is a nuance:

enquanto corres
- Simple present
- Describes a general, habitual simultaneous action
- Very natural for general rules/advice
- “while you run (in general)”
enquanto estás a correr
- Present continuous (progressive)
- Feels more situational / in-progress
- “while you’re (in the act of) running”

In a general advice sentence like this one, enquanto corres is more idiomatic.
Enquanto estás a correr would sound more like describing a specific situation: e.g., instructions given during a particular run.

Could I say Quando corres instead of Enquanto corres? Do they mean the same?

They’re close, but not identical:

enquanto corres – while you run
Focuses on simultaneity: during the time you’re running
quando corres – when you run
Focuses more on occasion: on those occasions when you run / whenever you run

In this sentence:

O equilíbrio melhora se controlares a respiração enquanto corres.
Emphasises: during running itself, if you control your breathing, your balance is better.
O equilíbrio melhora se controlares a respiração quando corres.
Sounds a bit more like: whenever you run, if you control your breathing, your balance improves.

Both are acceptable; enquanto corres is slightly more precise for “at the same time as you’re running”.

Can the order of the parts change? For example: Se controlares a respiração, o equilíbrio melhora enquanto corres.

Yes, Portuguese is quite flexible with clause order. All of these are grammatically fine (small differences in emphasis only):

O equilíbrio melhora se controlares a respiração enquanto corres.
Se controlares a respiração enquanto corres, o equilíbrio melhora.
Enquanto corres, o equilíbrio melhora se controlares a respiração.

General guidelines:

If the sentence starts with se or enquanto, you normally add a comma before the main clause:
- Se controlares a respiração, o equilíbrio melhora.
- Enquanto corres, o equilíbrio melhora.
If se / enquanto comes in the middle or end, often no comma:
- O equilíbrio melhora se controlares a respiração.
- O equilíbrio melhora enquanto corres.

Is this sentence specifically about physical balance, or could equilíbrio also mean mental/emotional balance?

On its own, equilíbrio can mean:

physical balance (not falling, body stability)
mental/emotional balance (inner stability)
balance in a more abstract sense (e.g. work–life balance)

In this particular sentence, because of respiração (breathing) and enquanto corres (while you run), a native speaker will normally understand it as physical balance while running.

If you wanted to make the mental/emotional meaning explicit, you’d usually add a qualifier:

O equilíbrio emocional melhora se controlares a respiração.
O teu equilíbrio mental melhora se controlares a respiração.

How would this change in Brazilian Portuguese?

The syntax is the same, but pronoun choice and style tend to differ. A very natural Brazilian version (using você) would be:

O equilíbrio melhora se você controlar a respiração enquanto corre.

Key changes:

Você instead of tu
- Brazilian Portuguese generally uses você with 3rd person verb forms.
se você controlar
- With você, the future subjunctive form is controlar:
  - (se) eu controlar
  - (se) você / ele / ela controlar
- So it looks like the infinitive, but here it’s actually the future subjunctive.
enquanto corre
- With você, the present is você corre → enquanto corre

In everyday Brazilian speech, some people might even simplify further, e.g.:

Se você controlar a respiração enquanto corre, seu equilíbrio melhora.