90 Day Running Reset: Breathing (Part 1)
Back in high school track and cross country days, we didn’t get any coaching on breathing. We got coaching on running. I would regularly finish my races wheezing, and sounding something like a squeaky toy. At the time, I never once thought about whether that was something that should be happening.
Fast forward to the last 5 years running, and it has been much the same. I can calm my heartrate down post-effort by breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. But during workouts I have been breathing however I can, which has been about 98% through my mouth.
I keep telling myself things like “man it’s amazing that I’ve been able to do what I’ve been able to do with my heart rate the way that it is” or “wow I was running that easy without understanding what extending my legs fully can do for me”. The latest iteration of that statement being “well I made pretty good progress in running without knowing how to breathe”.
The Oxygen Advantage…
“The Oxygen Advantage” is a book by Patrick McKeown that covers breathing techniques that will allegedly lead to:
Improved athletic performance: McKeown proposes that The Oxygen Advantage Program can enhance sports performance by increasing the body's efficiency in using oxygen, thus reducing breathlessness during exercise, increasing endurance, and improving strength and power.
Better respiratory health: The exercises and techniques advocated in the book are intended to help improve lung function, strengthen the diaphragm, and promote nasal breathing, which can lead to better overall respiratory health.
Reduced breathlessness: The program is designed to help manage and reduce breathlessness during physical exertion by promoting more efficient breathing habits.
Enhanced sleep quality: Proper breathing, particularly nasal breathing, may improve sleep quality, which can in turn lead to a host of other health benefits. This includes helping to manage or mitigate sleep disorders like sleep apnea.
Improved cardiovascular health: Efficient oxygen use and proper breathing habits can potentially improve heart health and blood pressure.
Increased energy and concentration: The program suggests that by enhancing the efficiency of your breathing, you can increase your energy levels and improve concentration and mental focus.
Weight management: The book proposes that improved breathing efficiency can lead to better weight management by affecting the metabolic process and potentially decreasing the sense of hunger.
Stress and anxiety management: Proper breathing techniques can help manage stress and anxiety levels, promoting a sense of calm and relaxation.
Enhanced immune system: By reducing the body's stress response, these techniques may potentially improve the immune system's function.
Increased tolerance to high altitude: The training techniques proposed can help the body better adapt to the lower oxygen levels encountered at high altitudes.
I say allegedly because I’m a skeptic. I need to see something work before it gets burned into my brain.
Diving into the book was a little rough for me because he spends some time using case studies to build credibility into his process. I 100% understand why this was done, but when it comes to “practical application” resources like this I’m very much a meat and potatoes person. That being said…
Beginning application…
If you want the full program, I recommend buying the book from the link in the previous section, reading it, and then starting. The program itself is based on factors that are unique to you.
THAT MEANS THAT NOT ALL OF THE TECHNIQUES ARE GOING TO BE RECOMMENDED/SAFE FOR EVERYONE.
What I’m going to be going through is the implementation of my program (as somebody who has never had symptoms of asthma, or complications breathing) in phases.
Phase 1: Building a Base
Phase 2: The Oxygen Advantage Program
Phase 3: The Advance Lessons
I’m keeping in mind that my goal is incremental progress over these 90 days. Keeping that in the front of my mind helps me to remember that I don’t have to do everything at once. That would probably be pretty unhealthy, and bad for long term habit building.
Phase 1: Building a Base…
This part of my process is all about building a healthy breathing base to start the actual program on. The primary goal is to get comfortable with nose breathing, and to be conscious of it at all times. Why is this described as important by McKeown?
One of the key points McKeown emphasizes is the so-called Bohr Effect, a physiological phenomenon first described by Danish physiologist Christian Bohr in 1904. According to the Bohr Effect, hemoglobin's oxygen binding affinity is inversely related both to acidity and to the concentration of carbon dioxide. In other words, when CO2 levels are high, hemoglobin releases oxygen more readily.
This means that if we overbreathe (which McKeown believes many of us do), we expel too much CO2 from our bodies. Lower levels of CO2 cause blood vessels to constrict and also cause hemoglobin to hold on to oxygen, making it harder for oxygen to be released to the tissues and organs that need it. Despite the fact that more oxygen is breathed in, less oxygen is actually delivered throughout the body. This is known as hypocapnia.
So there needs to be a balance of CO2 and O2 in the body, and mouth breathing can throw that balance out. Phase 1 is centered around getting the body more in balance through simple actions.
Getting started…
The first thing I did was get my BOLT done. The BOLT is the Blood Oxygen Level Test from the book. Essentially, you breathe in a normal breath, exhale, pinch your nose at the end of the exhale, and then time how long it takes for your body to want to breathe again. This isn’t a “how long can I hold my breath” test. When your body starts to crave oxygen, you might feel it in your stomach, your diaphragm, or you might feel your airways tighten. I had to really pay attention, and not lie to myself.
A great score is 40 seconds. An average score is mid teens-twenties. Mine was 14. I tested myself 3 times at three different parts of the day after being at rest for at least 10 minutes. This is the score that I went with. Depending on what your score is, there are different places to start with base building/The Oxygen Advantage Program. I chose to treat my score as if it were a little lower, which means doing three things.
Nose breathing at rest: I’m being more conscious of my breathing, and only breathing through my nose at all times while at rest. I’m also doing it as much as possible when running, but that is just a bonus.
Nose unblocking: I use this as a warmup before running (and sometimes during). Breathe in through the nose, out through the nose, then pinch it. Start walking around until the need to breathe becomes great, then release the nose and calmly get breathing under control. This creates a surplus of CO2 in the blood, and helps the nose to unblock itself. The goal for me is to be able to do this for about 8 paces at a time.
Nose pinching after yawning/sighing: Some signs of chronic overbreathing are sighing while at rest throughout the day. I’ve noticed that I do this, so to help with the over oxygenation that sighing and yawning bring, I’m choosing to pinch my nose each time until the need to breathe becomes great. This will help the oxygen and CO2 in the blood to balance out.
These three things are what I’ll be focusing on through the end of this first 30 day period. I’ll be including results as I go along on the Thursday recaps. I can say that for a week now there have been some very subtle changes that I’m hoping will build into massive ones. So when I get to this Thursday’s recap I expect to be able to speak more to them.