Health and Wellbeing

An essential guide to breath awareness

An essential guide to breath awareness
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Breathing is something that we do mostly unconsciously, day in and day out, from the moment we are born, and all throughout our lives. But does how we breathe matter, does it make a difference if we breathe more consciously? Can we really take control of our breath, take control of our thoughts? Is there a link between breath and wellbeing, between breath and maximised fitness performance? Can we increase focus and concentration, training the mind through breathing practices? Here are the answers to all these questions and more, as we delve into the benefits of breath awareness and some simple tips to practice it yourself.

Deep Breathing, Beyond the Myth

Deep breathing is very often thought of as a good way to oxygenate our body or to reduce stress, but it is often confused with taking big breaths. Deep breathing though doesn’t necessarily imply that a big volume of air needs to be taken. In fact, that might be counter-productive and if done often enough it might lead to trouble.

We can breathe deeply without taking a big volume of air. The volume we take in must always be in relation to the metabolic demands of the body. Are we sitting, running, casually walking? The volume of air we need to take in when we are sitting is not the same to when we are running. If we are inhaling the same amount of air when we sit as when we run, that signals that there’s a problem with our breathing.

Let’s explore what deep breathing is. As the word implies, deep refers to the depth, how deep can we bring the air into our lungs. Do we have the capacity to access the lower compartments of the lungs during inspiration? This is of paramount importance, as bringing the air flow into our bronchi assists in accessing the lower alveoli where there’s a lot more blood. As the oxygen molecule is brought into those lower parts of the lungs, it finds more blood cells to connect to - hence having more O2 transported through the blood to be released to our tissues, therefore getting more efficient oxygenation of our bodies.

Light, slow, deep breathing can increase the uptake and delivery of oxygen to our cells, improving our blood circulation and enhancing blood flow and oxygen delivery to the brain. This can in turn improve sleep and calm the mind. It might even restore bodily functions that are affected by stress.

We should be aware though of the difference between breathing deeply and taking big breaths as the latter - if done too often during the day without the metabolic demands requiring it - might lead to hyperventilation and breathing disfunction. Often, people are encouraged to take big full breaths. Although the diaphragm is engaged, the biochemistry is neglected. Taking too much air in causes the blood vessels to constrict, thus reducing oxygen delivery to the cells.

Different activities have different metabolic demands of oxygen uptake and that doesn’t mean that the breath must always be slow or even deep. For example, if someone is sprinting or going up the stairs very fast, their breath will become faster.

The Basics of Optimal Breathing

1.  Breathing through the nose

Nasal breathing is inseparable to optimal breathing habits, as the air drawn into our bodies passes through a system of filtration. Firstly, as the air enters our nostrils, there’s a gas released named Nitric Oxide (NO), which has the ability to fend off pathogens and viral particles - therefore reducing respiratory tract infections. Additionally, NO activates ciliary movement and mucus secretion which increase the removal of dust and viral particles from the respiratory tract, producing antimicrobial effects against a broad range of microbes, bacteria, fungi and viruses; this helps prevent pulmonary infections. NO also acts as a vasodilator and bronchodilator, opening up our blood vessels and bronchi for a more efficient process.

Other benefits of breathing through the nose include: a humidifying effect for the airways and a better moderation of the volume of air taken in, the speed at which it enters and exits the body and the quality of our breathing mechanics. When breathing through the mouth, it is impossible to achieve optimal breathing mechanics.

2. Correct tongue posture

The tongue should be held up on the palate – that is its natural resting posture, as it helps to keep the airways open and the facial, jaw and neck muscles relaxed. Once we’ve made it a habit to keep our tongues up on the roof of the mouth it is so much easier to breathe through our noses. When the tongue is down, it pushes the lower jaw line down and it’s more difficult to maintain our lips closed and continue to breathe through the nose adding tension to our jaws and neck muscles.

The 3 Dimensions of Optimal Breathing

·  The Biochemical aspect of breathing: the chemosensitivity of the body to the build-up of carbon dioxide

·  The Biomechanics of breathing: using the greater amplitude of the diaphragm when taking breaths

·  Cadence breathing: breathing in such a way (6 breaths per minute) that the vagus nerve is stimulated and toned. This helps bring the body in homeostasis, where it can mitigate inflammation in the body and self-regulate the nervous system.

Deep breathing is only one aspect or dimension of good breathing mechanics. The ability of the body to up regulate or down regulate the nervous system is strongly influenced by good breathing mechanics. This up and down regulation of the nervous system is our capacity to be alert, to focus, to think on our toes, and be energetic when needed, but also to be able to then relax, to rest, to restore and as we generally tend to call it, to switch off when we no longer need to be productive. In our ever-demanding lifestyles, it is becoming more and more difficult to switch off. To shift from a sympathetic nervous system response to a parasympathetic one after we have finished a long day at work.

How can you tell if your breathing mechanics are efficient or dysfunctional? The BOLT (Body Oxygen Level Test) is a simple test designed to uncover your level of breathing biomechanics. To find your BOLT score, simply inhale and exhale normally through your nose, pinch the nose and hold the breath and time how many seconds it takes to reach the first definite physical desire to breathe in. You should be able to take the next inhale in through your nose in a slow, calm, relaxed manner. A good BOLT score is 40 seconds. A score of less than 25 seconds strongly implies a breathing pattern deficiency.

In general, excessive breathing (chronic hyperventilation) is closely linked to cardiovascular disease, constant inflammation in the body. Signs of chronic hyperventilation are: sighing too often during the day, yawning, breathing through the mouth, the need to often take big breaths in, feeling that we are not getting enough air, taking too many breaths per minute, very shallow breathing, breathing into the upper chest bringing tension into the neck and the upper respiratory airways that can also create a lot of tension into the neck and upper back constantly driving us to the stress response of fight or flight.

Other symptoms of deficiency in breathing mechanics can include fatigue, poor concentration, poor sports performance, impaired memory, weakness, disturbed sleep, allergies, breathlessness after exertion, tight chest, muscle pain, cramping, acid reflux, headaches and migraines, anxiety.

As the body’s natural capacity to self-regulate is restored, inflammation from all the different stressors of life is regulated, metabolic function is improved, and many ailments or conditions improve as a result.

Another thing intimately related to breathing biochemistry that we must be aware of is the CO2 role in the exchange of gases in the respiratory process. We are often taught that oxygen is good and carbon dioxide is bad. But the fact is that a certain level of CO2 in the blood is essential for determining the bioavailability of oxygen to the tissues and cells. Oxygen by itself cannot do that. Oxygen is the prime nutrient required by every cell in the body but without CO2 the tissues would become starved of oxygen even when oxygen is available in the blood.

In 1904, Danish biochemist Christian Bohr discovered that CO2 facilitates the release of oxygen to the cells. We now call this the BOHR effect. As oxygen is carried around the body in the hemoglobin in red blood cells, the carbon dioxide acts as the catalyst for hemoglobin to release its load of oxygen for the body to use. When levels of CO2 in the blood are low, the bond between O2 and hemoglobin increases and thus the body can’t access the oxygen in the blood, leading to poor oxygenation. Research has also shown that CO2 stimulates the vagus nerve and slows down the heart rate. 

During strenuous exercise or physical demands, the body consumes more oxygen. this reduces slightly the concentration of oxygen in the blood. At the same time, the increased muscle activity and metabolic rate, produces more CO2. Normally, as CO2 increases, the respiratory rate accelerates proportionately. This ensures that you exhale enough CO2 to keep levels of the gas regulated in the blood. Endurance athletes typically have lower ventilatory responses to changes in blood oxygen and C02.

A study published in the “Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise” journal in 1979, concluded that the light breathing typical among endurance athletes might explain the link between low chemoreceptor sensitivity to CO2 and exceptional performance. In 2007, a trial undertaken by French biologist and physical education specialist Xavier Woorons showed that lower respiratory rates in trained men at both sea level and high altitudes (where atmospheric oxygen is lower) were linked to reduced blood sensitivity to CO2 - compared to non-athletes.

Key Physical Wellbeing Take-aways

·  With special breathing exercises, you can reduce the body’s ventilatory response to CO2 build-up. This can increase performance, delay the onset of fatigue while training or competing, and speed up recovery times.

·   Nasal breathing during physical exercise is also of paramount importance. Of course, there are times such us exerting during a sprint or cycling up a hill that we’ll be forced to breathe through our mouths and that is ok, but 75-80% of our training time, we should be breathing through our nose. This, too, will speed up the recovery process and delay the onset of fatigue, while ensuring optimal breathing mechanics and minute ventilation – all of which can increase performance and minimise the feeling of breathlessness.

·  Healthy breathing from the diaphragm has several benefits, including slow respiration, calming the mind, allowing air to be drawn deep into the lungs (accessing lower alveoli), improving gas exchange and supporting better spinal stability and core strength by optimizing intra-abdominal pressure.

Key Mental Wellbeing Take-aways

·  The way we breathe also has an effect on your emotional or psychological state.

·  Psychologists estimate that we have sixty thousand thoughts each day. Moreover 95% of those thoughts are repetitive and useless. The habit of excessive thought and lack of awareness of what goes through our minds can lead to stress and anxiety, panic attacks and even depression.

·  Chronic over-breathing - the habitual excessive intake of air - can have detrimental effects to our health and wellbeing, both physical and mental. Prolonged hyperventilation (for more than 24h), seems to sensitise the brain, leading to a more prolonged hyperventilation.

·  According to physiologist Walter Cannon, stress activates the fight or flight response, a sympathetic nervous system response. Meeting deadlines, financial pressures, time pressure, relationship issues, life’s pressures in general, add to stress levels and anxiety. When you are stressed, you tend to breathe fast, shallow, very often through your mouth, but bad breathing habits and mechanics can add to any level of stress, anxiety and overthinking you might be experiencing, no matter how moderate - very likely making you worse off. And so it can become a vicious circle.

·   You can start to take control of our thoughts by focusing on our breath, and we can calm our minds by breathing lighly, slowly and deeply. As we begin to focus and calm our minds, our anxiety and stress begin to subside. If panic attacks are an issue, you can use breathing techniques to mitigate them as you feel the onset of one. The same applies if you are having an asthmatic attack.

Practicing Breath Awareness

When it comes to breathing exercises, the ideal frequency depends on many factors ranging from health conditions to individual ventilation efficiency. You should start with a BOLT test. If the score is low, your breathing mechanics are less than optimal or possibly dysfunctional and therefore you should practice specific breathing exercises on a daily basis, several times throughout the day, until there’s a substantial improvement of the score.

After a good BOLT score is achieved and the breathing mechanics are improved, you can use the exercises more sparingly, once or twice a day. For athletes, it might be beneficial to use some specific breathing exercises as a warm-up before their training.

If you suffer from obstructive sleep apnea or asthma, you would most likely need to practice specifically prescribed exercises regularly during the day to mitigate and alleviate your symptoms. The same for people who suffer from anxiety and panic attacks.

There’s a new group of people who can greatly benefit from specific breathing exercises that are tailored to individual needs: those who suffer from long covid. A symptom of long covid is fatigue, and breathing exercises could be exhausting, so you could try such exercises for a brief time but as often as possible without straining.

Breath Awareness Exercises

Small breath holds

·  Sit upright with a straight spine, bring your awareness to your breath

·  Take a breath in and out through the nose, pinch the nose with your fingers and hold your breath for 3-5 seconds.

·   Release your nose and inhale calmly through your nose and then breathe normally through your nose for 10 seconds.

·   Repeat for 5-10 minutes.

This exercise can be used as an emergency exercise to stop symptoms of coughing, wheezing, panic attack, hyperventilation, asthma and also if your BOLT score is less than 13 seconds.

Cadence breathing

·   Place your hands on your lower rigs and feel your ribs expanding as you are breathing in and relaxing as you are breathing out.

·  Keep your mind focused on that movement of your ribcage.

·  Start to breath slowly and calmly following the breath with your awareness. Your breath is light, slow and deep.

·   Start to regulate the cadence- rhythm with which you are breathing, 4 seconds inhaling and 6 seconds exhaling.

·   Continue to breathe deeply without stressing the upper chest or neck muscles.

·   Your face should be relaxed with the tongue on the pallet and of course breathing in and out through the nostrils.

·   To stimulate the baroreceptors, you should practice at home 10-20 minutes daily.

Note that you should NOT take big volume breaths. If you are feeling a moderate hunger for air, it means you are doing the exercise correctly.

4 Essential Tips for Beginners

1.  Be fully present during the exercises. Fully focused. Posture helps considerably to do that. If your spine is not upright, the diaphragm is affected and you are negatively affecting the biomechanics aspect of good breathing, but also your mind can very easily drift off, making it hard to stay focused.

2.  If you still find it difficult to stay connected to your breathing, you can use your hand as an element of focus. Raise the hand lightly as you inhale and lower the hand as you exhale. Think of it as if you are caressing the air. Having hands on the rib cage can be another strategy that helps you to stay focused keeping your mind connected to the movement of the ribs, following the way you inhale and exhale.

3. You need to be dressed comfortably. Avoid tight clothing, as it can restrict proper breathing mechanics or interfere with concentration if they are overly tight.

4.  Practice in a well-ventilated space without toxic room air fresheners or odours; a quiet, agreeable space where you can stay focused. And set the mood for finding calmness, free of distractions in the external environment.

5.  If you prefer to practice breath awareness as part of a class, Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga is a perfect option. In this type of yoga, the breath leads every single movement, and the mind is attached to the breath so with a bit of practice and experience it becomes like a breathing/moving meditation.

About the Author:

Elena Constantinides is a Movement Educator and Breathing Coach, certified Buteyko instructor and an Oxygen Advantage instructor.