Breathing Guide
Click the link to view: Restoring Nasal Breathing w/ Patrick McKeown:
https://youtu.be/1IWWcyk3_jk
We take close to 23,000 breaths every day. Breathing is life, and when it comes to longevity it’s one of the most
important things to master. Proper breathing throughout the day will boost recovery, increase energy levels, increase
mental focus and provide more than you can ever imagine for your overall health.
Now, when people think about breathing, they typically want some sort of advanced breathing method. I’ll give you
some breathing methods below, but first we have to master the meat and potatoes— how you actually breath
throughout the day!
Throughout The Day
Nasal breathing! One of the biggest changes someone can make in their health and performance is switching from
primarily being a mouth breather to becoming a nasal breather. There’s overwhelming evidence showing why nasal
breathing is so beneficial, but here’s a couple of key reasons—
1. Nose breathing leads to better diaphragmatic breathing, while mouth breathing leads to primarily shallow
chest breathing.
2. Your nose has built in filters that your mouth doesn’t have. The air we breath isn’t always the cleanest air,
and by breathing through the mouth we are essentially taking all the “junk” from the air and inhaling it. The
nose filters out the “junk” and allows us to get higher quality air into our body.
3. Breathing through your mouth leads to over breathing. This decreases Co2 levels, which actually leads to
LESS oxygen being delivered where it’s needed. Breathing specialist, Patrick McKeown, suggests that nasal
breathing actually increases the amount of oxygen utilization in the body by up to 20%! Imagine how much
more energy you would have if you utilized 20% more oxygen.
4. Nose breathing has a calming effect while mouth breathers are usually higher stress. Nasal breathing
throughout the day helps you stay in your parasympathetic nervous system, which is where all our recovery
and relaxation occurs. Mouth breathing is essentially a survival mechanism, so using primarily mouth
breathing throughout the day signals to your body that you’re in a higher stress environment which leads to
sympathetic nervous system dominance.
In order to become a nasal breather throughout the day you should start by gently closing your mouth (back teeth
should lightly touch together). Then place your tongue on the roof of your mouth and let it rest there. This opens up
the airways and makes nasal breathing much easier.
The next step is to LIGHTLY inhale and exhale. Patrick McKeown teaches this soft breathing technique by saying
“Don’t let your nasal hairs move on the inhale or exhale”. A hard breath would move the nasal hairs, a soft breath
would not disturb the nasal hairs. Another key point is using full exhales on each breath. Don’t overdo it, but we
should feel like we’re getting most of the air in our lungs out on the exhale. If you get a full exhale, the inhale will take
care of itself. That means that your body will naturally begin the inhale and will take in the necessary amount of air on
the inhale without you having to consciously think about it. Over time, you’ll want to use less breaths per minute.
Slow, relaxed breathing is the key!
If you feel like you cannot nasal breath because your nose is too stopped up, click this video to learn a simple
unblocking exercise. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IWWcyk3_jk
5 Rounds of that and your nose should be unblocked. But that’s only a temporary solution! While the nose is
unblocked you really need to focus on nasal breathing because that’s what opens up the nose long term. If
you don’t use it, you lose it. In many cases, the more you nasal breathe, the more unblocked your nose
becomes.
Now, how do you know if you’re getting better at this? That’s where the bolt score comes into play. Click this video to
watch Patrick McKeown walk you through the bolt score test. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IWWcyk3_jk
A bolt score of less than 25 seconds means we may have suboptimal breathing patterns. Many athletes do test below
the 25 mark their first time, so don’t get discouraged, just get to work to improve it! You can do do the bolt test once
every month to make sure that you’re improving.
Nasal Breathing at Night
Becoming a nasal breather throughout the day is a bit easier because we have conscious control over how we
breath. However, during sleep it becomes more difficult for those of us who are chronic mouth breathers.
For many athletes, myself included, my nose would get stopped up at night which automatically switches us into
mouth breathing mode. Luckily they have some easy ways to fix this in most cases! I use a nasal dilator, which
essentially opens up your nostrils a bit more than normal allowing more air to come in. The other option (that may be
more comfortable for some) is to use nasal strips. The strips can also be effective for opening up the airways while
you sleep. I’ll link to both products on amazon below.
Air Max Dilator (personally, this opens up my airways more BUT can be a bit uncomfortable. Some people
may not be able to sleep all night because of the discomfort).
https://www.amazon.com/AIRMAX-Nasal-Dilator-BetterSleep/dp/B00H01JP0S/ref=sxts_rp_s_a1_0?cv_ct_cx=nasal%2Bdilator&dchild=1&keywords=nasal%2Bdilat
or&pd_rd_i=B00H01JP0S&pd_rd_r=abb84a8b-703b-4243-934828573f8c74bb&pd_rd_w=lWHNh&pd_rd_wg=rVBJB&pf_rd_p=d57dfec8-c3f9-44ac-96fb73a6536106ab&pf_rd_r=RBWQTWX6AY5TK3478Q1C&qid=1635890825&rdc=1&sr=1-1-5985efba-89484f09-9122-d605505c9d1e&th=1
Nasal Strips (this are more comfortable and actually work pretty well for opening up the airways for most
people).
https://www.amazon.com/InstaClear-Extra-Strength-Drug-Free-BreathingStrips/dp/B07D1BRM7V/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=nasal%2Bstrips&qid=1635890932&qsid=1437021472-6218000&s=hpc&sr=14&sres=B07D1BRM7V%2CB07F4B4HQL%2CB07D6VHMFG%2CB07FHM225F%2CB075JKBVCZ%2CB0
1FHGSKEY%2CB07D8323NK%2CB002GU5YCG%2CB00KS6X5YY%2CB075JGT4R9%2CB07FQWFBGP
%2CB01HCBTUV4%2CB00DM9D0ZI%2CB08R5PHP94%2CB00BTIR2EY%2CB0856Q4NG6%2CB075XS
WWRZ%2CB07D6W89L6%2CB002GU5YCQ%2CB016APU8QO&th=1
The final piece of advice that Patrick McKneown gives in his book, The Oxygen Advantage, is using mouth tape
during sleep. Now, I would talk to your doctor before implementing this or any other sleeping device to make sure it’s
right for you. But personally, this allowed me to become a full nasal breather at night. As long as I have the nasal
dilator OR the nasal strips, I will use the mouth tape to ensure that I can only use my nose for breathing. I wouldn’t
use regular tape, below I will link the brand that I prefer.
Mouth Tape
https://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Breathing-Improved-NighttimeSleeping/dp/B086BY1SWR/ref=sr_1_3_sspa?crid=3GIFI0NA5TSI0&dchild=1&keywords=mouth+tape+for+sl
eeping&qid=1635891022&s=hpc&sprefix=mouth+tape%2Chpc%2C221&sr=1-3spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExMTROMjdaOEJFVU44JmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUE
wMDM1NjQwMzFDVkk5VElKTVQ1USZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwMDU3MTkzMldZUDFPMzJEM1dYRy
Z3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=
Breathing During Workouts
Most breathing experts suggest sticking to nasal breathing during workouts, however, I haven’t found this to be
practical during high intensity workouts. My advice is to use nasal breathing whenever possible in workouts (warmup,
stretching, low intensity cardio, etc). But when it comes to high intensity exercise where you feel like it’s far too
difficult to perform without mouth breathing, it’s ok to temporarily switch over to mouth breathing. However, it’s a good
idea to get back to nasal breathing during rest periods whenever possible.
Throughout the program we provide different “corrective” drills that involve inhaling through the nose and exhaling
through the mouth. This is great for the particular drills where we are aiming for rib cage expansion and engaging the
deep abdominal muscles with full exhales. However, this is not how you need to breath on every exercise.
Sometimes the intensity is high enough to the point where I want you to breath naturally and comfortably!
Make sure that you finish every session with some sort of breathing activity! Many of the days in the program have
this built in, but for any day that does not have breathing work after the session, incorporate some slow nasal
breathing for a few minutes to get you into the parasympathetic nervous system immediately after your session to
kick start your recovery.
Additional Breathing Techniques
Whether you’re getting ready for a big game or just trying to relax for work or a big test, you need to know a few go-to
breathing techniques to get in the zone!
1.
2.
3.
Box Breathing- This is a technique used by navy seals to calm their nerves and focus on the task at hand.
It’s very simple, all we do is INHALE for 4 seconds, HOLD the breath at the top of the inhale for 4 seconds,
EXHALE for 4 seconds, HOLD after the exhale for 4 seconds before going back into the inhale. This cycle
can be repeated from 30 seconds all the way up to 5 minutes. As you get better you can increase the time
from 4 seconds to 5 seconds on each portion of the breathing exercise.
1-4-2 Split- This method isn’t ideal for getting ready for a game or a test, but it’s a great way to get into the
parasympathetic nervous system and kickstart your recovery and/or de-stress you. This technique is great
after a workout, after a stressful day or even before bed. Perform this entire drill through the nose if possible.
The inhale is the 1, the hold at the top of the breath is the 4, the 2 is the exhale. Start with a 3-5 second
exhale. Let’s say we choose 5 seconds. That means 5 second inhale, 20 second breath hold (4 x 5 =20),
then 10 second exhale (2 x 5 =10). So again, 5 second inhale, 20 second breath hold, 10 second exhale.
Repeat this cycle for up to 5 minutes.
Arousal Breathing- The final technique I want you to have in the bag is a way to get you aroused and ready
to GO. This would be used before a tough workout or game if you feel overly relaxed and you need to get
more aroused. This is a 2-2-1-1 split. So, let’s choose 3 seconds. We would do a 6 second inhale (3 x 2=6),
6 second breath hold (3 x 2 =6), 3 second exhale (3 x 1=3), 3 second hold after exhale (3 x 1=3). So again,
6 sec inhale, 6 sec hold, 3 sec exhale, 3 sec hold after exhale, repeat for anywhere from 30 seconds to 5
minutes.
Typically, any breathing technique that has a longer exhale than inhale (7-11 breathing, 1-4-2 split, etc.) is great for
relaxation and getting into the parasympathetic nervous system for rest and recovery. Whereas, any breathing
technique with a longer inhale than exhale would be used for arousal and trending towards sympathetic nervous
system.
If anyone wants to learn more breathing techniques, I recommend checking out Brian Mckenzie on YouTube. If
anyone is looking for nasal breathing information, I would check out Patrick Mckeown on YouTube or check out his
book The Oxygen Advantage.
Let’s get to work!