Optimize Your Breathing
An Integral Study Guide
When respiration is disturbed, the mind becomes disturbed. By regulating respiration, the practitioner achieves steadiness of mind.
Hatha Yoga Pradipika 2-2
Whether for mental health, physical health or athletic performance, proper breathing is an integral component in the optimization of each.
The two main purposes of optimal breathing are to regulate oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange and to regulate the nervous system. These two mechanisms have far reaching impacts on numerous other aspects of our physiology including our mental states and our capacity for healing and rejuvenation.
One way to think of this is through considering the link between the breath, sleep and the mind. Healthy breathing, healthy sleep and healthy mental states are all integrally connected to each other such that improvements in any one positively impacts the others.
Conversely, unhealthy breathing (shallow, quick, mouth breathing), unhealthy sleep (snoring, apnea, insomnia, lack of deep/REM stage sleep), and unhealthy mental states are equally linked in a bidirectional feedback loop.
Optimal Breathing Physical Health Benefits:
Optimized immune function
Reduced inflammation
Improved circulation
Deeper, more restorative sleep
Increased energy during the day
Experience relief from symptoms of autoimmune disorders, arthritis, fibromyalgia and migraine
Manage airway disorders like asthma and COPD
Control blood pressure
Alleviate symptoms of chronic illness such as post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome and MS
Optimized metabolism,
Enhanced sports performance and recovery
Optimal Breathing Mental Health Benefits:
Reduce and regulate stress levels
Prevent or recover from burnout
Assisting in relief of depression, anxiety, and other psychiatric disorders such as phobias and post-traumatic stress disorder
Increase concentration and willpower
Enhance the mind/body connection
Feel happier and more creative
Some factors that you can address which may be negatively impacting your breathing:
Posture
Stress and anxiety
Food intolerances/mucous-producing foods
Allergies/air pollution
Parasites in the lungs and throat and nasal passages
Poor nutrition
Some medications
Nasal/sinus problems such as a history of broken noses
Over-training the abdominals which restricts the diaphragm
Grief
Pain such as low back pain
Posture and Breathing:
Poor posture can contribute to poor breathing and poor breathing can contribute to poor posture.
When we sit too many hours and don’t get enough movement, we tend to slouch. When our posture is poor from lack of exercise, our head comes forward and our chest drops downward, crowding our organs. This tends to encourage shallow chest-breathing rather than the healthy, deep breaths that start with our diaphragm. The poor posture and shorter shallow breaths that are part of the sedentary lifestyle activate the fight or flight system.
Improper exercise can also cause the same problems such as in someone who does too many pressing exercises (push-ups, bench press).
If you know or suspect posture is an issue for you seek assistance from a therapist or coach with expertise in this area of exercise. (See the Integral Fitness coaching link at bottom). Physical Therapy, Corrective Exercise Training, Pilates, Yoga are some example modalities worth exploring that can address posture as well as breathing mechanics .
Along these lines, two extremely valuable techniques for improving the strength, endurance and awareness of the diaphragm are Pilates Lateral Breathing and the Full Yogic Breath techniques.
Proper Breath Mechanics
Breathing should be
Through the nose as much as possible even during exercise (if you are a mouth breather look into mouth taping!)
Deep into the abdomen using the diaphragm. Not shallow into the upper chest.
Subtle and barely noticeable as opposed to heavy, big breaths or sighing
Slow and controlled with exhalations slightly longer than inhalations
Cause the lower ribs to gently expand horizontally (or laterally) and not lift vertically
Assessing Your Breathing:
Measure your current breathing functionality with The BOLT (Body Oxygen Level Test) Score
1. Sit straight without crossing your legs and breathe comfortably and steadily.
2. Take a small, silent breath in and out through your nose. After exhaling, pinch your nose to keep air from entering.
3. Start your stopwatch and hold your breath until you feel the first definite desire to breathe.
4. When you feel the first urge to breathe, resume breathing and note the time. The urge to breathe may come in the form of involuntary movements of your breathing muscles, or your tummy may jerk or your throat may contract.
5. Your inhalation should be calm and controlled, through your nose. If you feel like you must take a big breath, then you held your breath too long.
The time you just measured is called the "control pause" (CP) or BOLT Score, which reects the tolerance of your body to carbon dioxide.
Here are the criteria for evaluating your score:
• 40 to 60 seconds — Indicates a normal, healthy breathing pattern and excellent physical endurance.
• 20 to 40 seconds — Indicates mild breathing impairment, moderate tolerance to physical exercise and potential for health problems in the future (most folks fall into this category).
To increase your CP from 20 to 40, physical exercise is necessary. You might begin by simply walking with one nostril occluded. As your CP increases, begin incorporating jogging, cycling, swimming, weightlifting or anything else to build up an air shortage. See other techniques below.
• 10 to 20 seconds — Indicates signicant breathing impairment and poor tolerance to physical exercise; nasal breath training and lifestyle modications are recommended. If your CP is less than 20 seconds, never have your mouth open during exercise, as your breathing is too unstable. This is particularly important if you have asthma.
• Under 10 seconds — Serious breathing impairment, very poor exercise tolerance and chronic health problems
To increase the BOLT score:
Nose breathe at all times.
Avoid taking large breaths while sighing, yawning, and talking.
Practice breathing exercises in this article appropriate to your health and fitness.
It should increase 3-4s the first week and slow down afterwards. Integrate it into exercise to increase it. It can take 6 months to reach 40s.
Breathwork Techniques
Please remember that none of the information presented here is meant to be comprehensive. The intent is to put a spotlight on information that is well researched, very practical and with proven benefits. However, it is up to the reader to follow up with your own personal study of the topic to be sure of contraindications, proper technique and that anything undertaken matches your current medical and/or fitness limitations.
Intermittent Hypoxic Training
Intermittent Hypoxic Training (IHT) has two main variations:
Hyperventilation (relatively fast, increased volume and resulting in hypocapnia or decreased carbon dioxide levels)
Hypoventilation (relatively slow, decreased volume and resulting in hypercapnia or increased carbon dioxide levels).
Most people would do well as to incorporate some form of both styles into a daily Integral Life Practice for maximum benefits.
The Wim Hof Method
The complete Wim Hof Method consists of breathing, cold therapy and commitment. His breathing technique uses the first variation of IHT listed above relying on hyperventilation (or hypocapnic breathing) and extended breath holds.
The basic technique is as follows:
30 hyperventilating breaths followed by a breath hold of 30 seconds to 3 minutes depending on ability. This constitutes 1 round and is repeated for 3 to 4 total rounds.
This extremely simple and effective exercise leads to:
both hypoxia (decreased oxygen to tissues) and hypocapnia
temporary alkalosis (increased overall pH level),
altered, euphoric mind state (seriously like wow man!) and
activates hormesis (the innate “good” stress response such as the release of norepinephrine), causing positive adaptations
Do not be fooled by its simplicity. This method is definitely worth exploring.
Yoga Pranayama
Other common and effective hyperventilation techniques include Kapalabhati (Skull Shining) pranayama and Bhastrika (Bellows Breath or Breath of Fire) pranayama. In my personal experience the Wim Hof technique has been superior in benefits to those more traditional yoga techniques.
A word of caution: Whether from breathwork, aerobic type exercise or chronic over breathing (due to poor breathing mechanics, many people already over breathe), too much oxygen too often can prematurely damage your cells by the production of excess free radicals during the metabolic process (oxidation). Free radicals damage lipids in your cell membranes, protein, and DNA. (See future article on oxidation)
This brings us to the second variation of Intermittent Hypoxic Training, namely hypoventilation techniques. These can be loosely characterized by techniques that simulate high altitude training through restriction of the volume of oxygen taken in.
Hypoventilation (hypercapnic or under breathing) creates a state of hypoxia and hypercapnia (increased carbon dioxide levels) as well as increased nitric oxide levels. In effect, you are reducing oxygen intake and forcing your body to increase your blood’s oxygen carrying capacity and maximum volume of oxygen you can use (VO2 max). Simultaneously, you are reducing the body’s sensitivity to carbon dioxide leading to a delayed onset of breathlessness and fatigue, and therefore, better oxygenation day and night.
Techniques vary but all come in some form of light or reduced breathing through the nose, and are often combined with moderate duration of breath retention after exhalation. The increased carbon dioxide and nitric oxide levels in the blood allows for increased saturation of oxygen entering the tissues and organs of the body and a widening of the blood vessels.
This increase in carbon dioxide can improving hemoglobin concentration by 10%. High carbon dioxide also creates even greater contractions of the spleen, resulting in an increase in the release of red blood cells. Also, by holding the breath, nitric oxide (NO) can pool in the nasal cavity, ready to travel to the lungs.
Ujjayi Breathing
A specific example of simple hypoventilation IHT is the proper practice of Ujjayi breathing. It is commonly practiced incorrectly by exaggerating the sound made by exhaling. The correct technique is as follows:
Both the inhalation and the exhalation take place through the nose with the tongue at the top of the pallet.
The inhalation is soft.
During the exhalation, the back of the throat gently constricts allowing the elongation of the exhalation further than normal.
The exhalation to inhalation ratio is 2:1 or much higher.
The breath is quiet.
Simulate High-Altitude Training While Exercising
Walk and hold: After a minute of continuous walking, gently exhale and pinch your nose to hold your breath. When you feel a medium-strong level air hunger, release your nose, inhale through it, and minimize your breathing for about 15s. Then allow breathing to return to normal. After 30s, repeat 8-10 times. Approximately 12 minutes to complete.
Count the paces so you can measure improvement. To improve the times you should relax the body. If you can’t recover after 3-4 normal breaths you’ve held too long.
While running: 10-15 minutes into your run, gently exhale and hold your breath until you feel the medium-high strength air hunger. Typically ranges between 10-40 paces. Return to normal nasal breathing for a minute and repeat 8-10 times.
You can also do these exercise while cycling and swimming.
In summary, the simplest way to practice hypoventilation IHP is to continually nasal breathe, wear tape over the mouth both at night and during light aerobic training if you need to train yourself to nasal breathing, and routinely perform moderate duration breath hold exercises (after an exhalation) for progressively longer times during walking or light activity.
For further study on the hypoventilation IHT techniques for improved health as well as more advanced exercises for enhanced athletic performance look to Patrick McKeown and Oxygen Advantage and/or the Buteyko Method as excellent resources.
Side note on Nitric Oxide (NO):
NO is known to be broadly antifungal, antiviral and antibacterial and plays numerous other roles in the body.
Some of the other beneficial functions of NO include:
Promotes Energy
Encourages Blood Flow
Promotes Circulation
Enables Healthy Inflammation Response
Encourages Heart Health
Supports Healthy Sexual Function
Supports Cognitive Function
Sustains the Immune System
Supports Nutrient Absorption
Supports healthy fat burning within cells
Assists the body’s natural wound-healing process
Encourages normal lung health
Promotes natural resistance to viruses and bacteria
Maintains healthy digestive function
Promotes natural restful sleep
Helps maintain healthy blood sugar levels
A simple technique known to specifically increase nitric oxide production by 15-20 fold is humming or chanting which is why the subject is included in this primer on breathing. While humming, nitric oxide is released in the nasal cavities ready to be delivered to the body and so it is important to continue to inhale through the nose.
[Consider this: A physiological explanation for why fasting, chanting (humming) and meditation are universally considered integral spiritual practices throughout the ages is due so their enormous health benefits!]
A simple practice to incorporate the NO stimulating effects of humming would be just taking a walk after meals and during your walk hum on each exhalation.
For therapeutic effects use this humming practice for about 6-10 minutes and repeat 4 times per day.
For a formal practice that incorporates traditional chanting try Pranava Pranayama.
Lastly, a future article titled Optimize Your Energy Levels will cover the related topic of cellular respiration and mitochondrial health.
In closing, I would like to leave you with two simple, foundational breath exercises that can be used anytime for the purpose of calming the body and centering the mind and gaining the health benefits that follow from achieving those aims:
3•6•5 breathing Exercise:
3 x per day breathe at
6 cycles per min (4 sec in, 6 sec out) for
5 minutes
Do this 365 days per year
4-7-8 Breathing Exercise:
(Credit to Dr. Andrew Weil)
1. Sit up straight.
2. Place the tip of your tongue up against the back of your front teeth. Keep it there through the entire breathing process.
3. Breathe in silently through your nose to the count of four (not necessarily 4 seconds, just 4 even measured beats).
4. Hold your breath to the count of seven.
5. Exhale through your mouth to the count of eight, making an audible "whoosh" sound.
6. That completes one full breath. Repeat the cycle another three times, for a total of four breaths.
You can do this 4-7-8 exercise as frequently as you want throughout the day, but it's recommended you don't do more than four full breaths during the first month or so of practice. Later you may work your way up to eight full breath cycles at a time. The benets of this simple practice are enormous and work as a natural tranquilizer for your nervous system.
I hope you find this “cheat sheet” useful and, with further exploration, are able to integrate these ideas into your personal, integrated wellness routine.
Thank you for reading and I welcome your comments below!
This information is not meant to be comprehensive but rather to be used as a foundation and study guide to support your own further research and experimentation. See link below if you’d like to consider personalized fitness & nutrition guidance.
INTEGRAL FITNESS – UPLIFT YOURSELF AND UPLIFT OTHERS
TO BE HEALTHY, HAPPY AND HELPFUL!
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