Breath 101

A general benefits guide to breathing practices

Selected from a recent interview:

1. Let’s jump right in and talk about, let’s say, the top 5 or so benefits of breathing exercises as they relate to optimizing health...whether it’s to lose weight, manage stress and anxiety, help improve cognitive abilities such as learning and memory, or any combination thereof. What makes breath work special and relevant for us?
   

   1. Weight Loss: Generally speaking around 80% of weight loss is done through our exhales with the rest excreted through sweat and bowel movements. This means that if I lose 10 lbs, 8 of those 10 are excreted via the gas exchange in my lungs during exhales.
      
      Without boring you too much with chemistry, think of the chemical composition of the oxygen our bodies utilize (O2, which is two molecules of oxygen) and what we exhale which is carbon dioxide (CO2, which is an extra carbon molecule attached to utilize oxygen).
      
      Now, multiply the addition of this one carbon molecule during exhales to the fact that generally speaking we breathe about 20,000 times per day and that in each breath we inhale (and eventually exhale) roughly 25 sextillion molecules of air and things begin to get interesting. 25 sextillion is 25 with 21 zeros in front of it. For context, if we assigned 7 billion descendants to roughly 7 billion people on our planet, so 7 billion times 7 billion, that number would still be 500 times (multiple of 500) short of 25 sextillion, which is what happens every single time we breathe.
      
      So, learning to breathe properly especially during times of hyper energy expenditure (i.e., exercise) ensures we capitalize on our body’s ability to burn fat for energy and optimizes fat loss.
      
      

   2. SNS vs PNS: Most adults chest breathe, which stimulates our sympathetic nervous system (i.e., our fight or flight system). For someone who is under stress, chest breathing creates a vicious bio-loop that further feeds the stress mechanism. Conversely, learning to breathe utilizing our diaphragm stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system (i.e., our rest and recovery system), which harmonizes the rest of our physiology and brings efficiencies in energy utilization. And, as you very well know, during exercise breathing too hard is a proxy for high intensity which generally triggers utilization of glycogen and not fat. While gross caloric expenditure linked directly to exercise and recovery from it can be the same, the type and mixture of fuels utilized (i.e., fat vs carbohydrate) will be different with exercise intensity.
      
      The net of it is, diaphragmatic breathing during exercise, especially if one learns to train breathing through the nose and not the mouth, can help burn more fat than glycogen.
      
      

   3. Manage stress and anxiety

      1. Arguably one of the most beneficial foundation benefits of breathing exercises is to solidify our emotional foundation upon which beneficial life habits can be built upon. The cascading effects of unchecked stress can build up anxiety that can eventually lead to panic attacks if not managed. An overstressed physiology is riddled with unchecked hormones, the most famous of which is cortisol, but that is not all that’s happening. Not only are unbeneficial hormone levels rising, but the beneficial hormones are not fully able to do their good deeds. The net result is stored body fat, underutilized fat as fuel, and a vicious physiological and emotional cycle.
         
         This is on top of all the other harm unchecked stress and anxiety has on us. Utilizing breath has a profound net-positive effect on our physiology, mentality, and emotionality. 

   4. Homeostasis

      1. Related to managing stress and anxiety, regular breathing exercises as a practice helps to nudge us towards the physiological nervana of homeostasis -- the magical place where all of our physiological systems are working at their peak harmonious states and our body and mind are at their best. Regular breath practice helps to guide us towards this magical state at each point in time depending on what our physiology needs. Some days we need energy while other days we need to constitute a more relaxed state depending on what’s going on with our lives and environment. Learning different breathing protocols will serve our bodies, minds, and emotions.
         
         

   5. Food cravings

      1. There’s no scientific evidence that I know of proving that breathing exercises can stave off food cravings. I have to imagine it’s partly due to ineffective ways to measure feelings of craving - no real way to measure how someone is feeling objectively. We rely on their subjective feedback. However, we do know that instilling mindfulness in whatever we do helps bring intentionality into our behaviors. With regards to diet and fat loss, we know that instilling grounded intentionality manifested through breathing exercises helps us gain awareness with what we put into our mouths. This is the cornerstone of being in charge of the foods we eat, hence the cornerstone of any nutrition program - to be in control of what we eat, when we eat, and how much of it. If I am grounded in my mind, gained through breathwork, that groundedness spills over onto my actions and behaviors.
         
         

2. What are some breathing techniques that people can utilize?

   1. I generally categorize techniques into two categories - those that help stimulate and energize our physiology (the gas pedal) and those that help calm the physiology (the brake pedal).
      
      Generally speaking if we breathe more than we exhale, that becomes the gas pedal and helps energize by stimulating the sympathetic nervous system. And if we breathe out more than we inhale, that has a net calming effect because it stimulates our parasympathetic systems.
      
      So, stimulators style breathing techniques include Tummo that is popularized by Wim Hof, the what I call the Rock & Roll breath that’s also popularized by Andrew Huberman which is a two part inhale & one part exhale paced to the Queen song We Will Rock You.
      
      On the calming side, I really like Bhramari and isolated nostril breathing. Bhramari is 3 to 4 counts smooth inhale, where I’m breathing for the entire count and not just taking a short breath in for one or two counts and holding for the rest of the count (the focus is on full, smooth, intentful breaths in and out), then exhaling for double the inhale counts so 3 to 4 count in then 6 to 8 count out. Humming on the exhale elevates the practice and also helps calm the nervous system further while releasing up to 15 times more nitric oxide in our sinuses, a vasodilator that helps for the delivery and absorption of oxygen.
      
      Isolated nostril is just like it sounds: breathe in and out of one nostril for a while (usually 2-3 minutes) then switch to the other. I like to start by breathing into the right nostril to activate the left brain which is more analytical, mathematical, and problem solving then switch to breathing into the left nostril to activate the right brain which is where creativity and emotions are stimulated.
      
      

3. Do you have any favorites?

   1. I am a big fan of closed mouth breathing (or nose breathing) and also biased towards techniques such as Tummo or Wim Hof Method that energize the body. I love breath holds in these practices as well. I’m also a big fan of humming my exhales. So I often nose breathe in Tummo and humm my exhales for a combined effect.
      
      

4. So what can people expect in the breathing component of the True You Platinum program?

   1. Those who come along the breath journey with us will learn several breathing techniques that they can utilize pretty much any time and pretty much anywhere -- there are several instances when breathing practices shouldn’t be practices such as while driving a car, bike, or any moving vehicle, and any body of water including hot tubs and bathtubs. Otherwise breathing practices can be utilized before meetings, while in bed upon waking up or going to sleep, before dinner, really any other time when either pick-up, grounding, or calming is desired.
      
      They’ll also be able to participate in several live guided practices. We’ll start out by streaming our Sunday practices then add to them as we grow.
      
      Finally, people will have access to a growing library of on-demand guidance and explanations of various techniques they can refer to for a refresher.
      
      FInally, we encourage members to share participants with their family and friends. We decided early to make the breathing component of the Platinum package inclusive, realizing that while practicing solo is awesome, doing it with someone else or a group of people takes it to a whole new magical place. As such we encourage members to invite their loved ones to participate and breathe with them.
      
      

5. Where can people learn more? What are some resources you can point people to?

   1. The world is not short of resources! YouTube offers endless guided breathing exercises so I’d go there for practice. InnerFire, the organizing body of the Wim Hof Method has an app that’s really good with loads of free and paid content. And as for books, I’m a huge fan of James Nestor’s Breath and Patrick McGowen’s Oxygen Advantage books.