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FUNCTIONAL BREATHING Exercises
Getting Started with a New Way of Breathing
In these breathing exercises, you’re going to learn to breathe in a way that will reduce anxiety, increase energy and mental clarity, help you to sleep deeper, and even help your body reset to its natural weight.
Why?
Breathing is one of the most important elements to the functioning of our human body, yet so few of us focus on learning how to do it properly. Most of us have what’s called “dysfunctional breathing.”
What is Functional Breathing?
Functional breathing is breathing that is efficient and effortless. It adapts well to rest and various intensities of physical exercise. It balances the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide (CO2), engages the diaphragm for core support and reduces breathlessness.
What is Dysfunctional Breathing?
Dysfunctional breathing is inefficient and effortful. It does not adapt well to rest and exercise, causes imbalances in levels of oxygen and CO2, is often fast, hard, and into the upper chest, and increases breathlessness.
Breathing through the nose, even during physical exercise, improves oxygen uptake in the blood and oxygen delivery to the tissues and organs. It also increases the body’s tolerance to carbon dioxide, a factor that is important in reducing breathlessness. All of this is explained in detail in the training manual.
During sleep, nose breathing helps to reduce sleep disorders including snoring and obstructive sleep apnea. It is important for achieving restful sleep and reducing daytime sleepiness.
About the Breathing Light Exercise
Watch this video to learn about the Breathe Light exercise. You’ll learn about an important aspect of breathing light.
During the normal respiratory cycle, carbon dioxide accumulates in the blood. When the body is overly sensitive to the build-up of carbon dioxide, breathing becomes harder during rest, physical exercise and (in sleep apnea patients) following an apnea. This is because CO2 plays an important role in respiratory biochemistry, providing the primary stimulus to breathe and facilitating the release of oxygen from the red blood cells to the tissues and organs.
Objectives
● Create a light/tolerable air hunger — to feel as if you want to take a bigger breath
● Desensitize reaction to air hunger
● Alter your breathing biochemistry
● Improve your tolerance to carbon dioxide
● Reduce breathlessness
● Get more oxygen to your cells
DAILY EXERCISE:
Breathing Light Exercise
IF you’re struggling with anxiety, breathlessness, or insomnia, building up to 15 minutes at night is going to really help deepen your sleep and allow your body to fully recover.
Go gently at first, and only increase the duration of air hunger when you are comfortable.
Prepare
● Sit up straight in a chair or cross-legged on the floor.
● Or lie down on your back.
● If sitting, imagine a piece of string gently pulling you up from the crown of your head.
● Place your hands on your chest and tummy or in your lap.
Method
● Observe your breath as it enters and leaves your nose.
● Feel the colder air entering your nose.
● Feel the warmer air leaving your nose.
● Begin to reduce the speed of each breath.
● Your breathing should be so quiet that the fine hairs in the nostrils do not move.
Recover and Repeat
● Breathe light for 30 seconds to create a light air hunger.
● Rest and breathe normally for 1 minute.
● Breathe light for 30 seconds.
● Rest and breathe normally for 1 minute.
● Repeat this sequence 5 times.
Optimal/Functional vs Unhealthy/Disfunctional Breathing
Unhealthy:
– Fast, Deep, Rapid breathing
– 15-20 breaths per minute
– 10-20 BOLT score (breath-hold time)
Healthy:
– Light, Gentle, Slow Inhale, Longer Exhale
– 10-12 Breaths per minute
– 30-40s BOLT score (breath-hold time)
Optimal:
– Light, Gentle, Slow Inhale, Very long slow Exhale with a slight breath hold on the exhale.
– 2-8, or 4-10, breaths per minute
– 60-180s BOLT score (breath-hold time)
Again, the objective is to create a tolerable need or hunger for air.
BONUS: Monitoring Your Progress—
BOLT Score
You can actually very easily monitor your progress with something called the “BOLT Score”, which stands for Body Oxygen Level Test. a simple, objective measure of breathlessness and of chemosensitivity to carbon dioxide.
The breath is held after a normal exhalation until the first definite desire to breathe. The time of the breath hold is counted in seconds. This gives you your BOLT score.
Ideally, you’ll have rested for 10 minutes before testing.
Best done first thing in the morning if possible.
BOLT TEST:
- In a comfortable, seated position, take a few breaths in and out of your nose only.
- Gently breathe in and then exhale and hold your nose.
- Count how long you can hold your breath UNTIL your body gives the signal where the breathing muscles first begin to move.
- NOTE: You are not measuring the maximum time that you can hold your breath. You are holding your breath until you feel the first natural desire to breathe (not as long as possible).
- This is your BOLT score.
A BOLT score lower than 25 seconds indicates a stronger ventilatory response to CO2 and dysfunctional breathing. The goal is to reach a breath hold time of 40 seconds.
BONUS: Nose Unblocking Exercise
This is a great exercise to do if you’re feeling like it’s hard to get air in and out of your nose.
It is easy to open up the nose by simply holding the breath. This is effective for nasal congestion caused by inflammation.
For example, if you’re feeling “stuffy” or that it’s simply hard to get airflow happening, then do this exercise.
NOTE: In the video, I mention standing and walking.
However, you might try this out sitting first to be sure.
Repeat the exercise five to six times, taking a rest of between 30 seconds and 1 minute between each repetition.
