5 Ways to Be a Better Human- Part 1: Breathe Better
As humans, we evolved from hunter gatherers. We would spend our time foraging for food, climbing rocks, trees, and mountains to get our next meal. Chase down and hunt animals that we could outlast with our endurance, or run away from being hunted. We didn’t have to worry about taking 60 minutes a day to hit the gym. We didn’t need to worry about paleo, or keto, or vegetarian diets, we ate what we had available, and did “exercise” to survive, not to get fit.
While we have evolved in technology far past that into the comparatively cushy lifestyles that we have now, biologically we are the same. We are designed to breathe, move, and eat like hunter gatherers, not sit all day with our pick of delicious foods, doing fake work that we call exercise to take the place of moving to survive.
In order to be a better human, we need to look at the things that actually make us human. Improve on the traits that can make a huge difference in how you look, feel, and perform.
Breathe Better
We are designed to breathe through our nose, both in and out, and deep into our belly using our diaphragm getting full 360 degree expansion of our rib cage. Breathing through your nose has many benefits, including:
Warming and humidifying the air, making it easier to be used by your lungs
Filter the air from pollen and pollutants
Increase nitric oxide production, improving blood flow and decreasing blood pressure
Improved carbon dioxide tolerance, which improves the usage of oxygen in the blood
Decreased stress levels
If we are breathing through our mouth, and into our chest, we are missing out on all these benefits. We are also over using our secondary muscles such as our pecs and traps, which can cause tightness in our chest and neck. Doing this also can increase things like low back pain and stability, since we are not properly using our core to breathe, and lack internal stability. If you want to be a better human, first learn to breathe properly, and that means breathing through your nose AT ALL TIMES, except for very high output exercise.
In regards to exercise, there is a time and a place to breathe through your mouth. Think of mouth breathing as 5th gear. I wouldn't start my car or drive through downtown in 5th gear, I only need it when I am going as fast as I can. When I am just cruising around, I only need to be in first gear. For breathing, the Art of Breath seminars uses this gearing system:
Smooth nose is, nose out, very relaxed
Daily living, walking, very low intensity activity- Zone 1 heart rate
Hard nose is, smooth nose out
Light physical activity- Zone 2 heart rate. Spend a lot of time here
Hard nose in, hard nose out
Roughly your anaerobic threshold. A hard pace, but a pace you can hold for a while. Also a great way to push yourself while keeping your rev limiter down
Nose in, Mouth out
When carbon dioxide starts to build up, we eventually need to expel more of it. Opening our mouth too soon gets rid of CO2 too much too early, but at a high intensity it can help us keep our pace up
Mouth in, mouth out
Your absolute limit. Save this for when you really need it. Think of it as hitting the NOS boost in The Fast and the Furious. Don’t Let Vin Diesel beat you because you hit it too soon and slowed down before the finish line
All cars have gears, but 1st gear in a Ferrari is going to be a lot higher than a VW Bug. If I can train and improve my ability to breathe through my nose at low intensity, I will feel better during and after activity, and have a bigger reserve for when I do want to open it up. If we neglect breathing through our nose, our nasal cavities start to close and we will have to work harder to get it back. Things like a deviated septum can make it harder to start as well, but certainly not impossible and should not be used as an excuse.
Exhaling through your mouth gets rid of a lot of carbon dioxide. At high intensities this is good. At low intensities, this inhibits my body’s ability to fully utilize oxygen in the bloodstream. Oxygen gets carried around on hemoglobin, or red blood cells. It needs Carbon Dioxide to kick it off and take its place, so it gets into my muscles. If I breath out through my mouth and get rid of all my CO2, the oxygen just stays on the red blood cells and doesn't get used.
I need to develop a certain tolerance to CO2 in order to improve my aerobic efficiency. Carbon dioxide is actually what drives our need to breathe, not oxygen. Unless you are at high altitude or under water, not getting enough oxygen in is not the issue. Even if you are wearing a mask during a pandemic. While free divers have breath hold techniques to improve this, simply breathing through your nose will improve your CO2 tolerance as well.
Start with a walk just breathing through your nose. Then a light jog. Turn all your workouts for 30 days into nasal only. It will be hard at first, but watch how quickly your performance improves. If you wake up in the middle of the night with a dry mouth, you can lightly place a piece of tape across your lips to close them. Yes it's safe, no you won’t die. You will just learn to breathe better, sleep better, snore less.
I can go on and on about the benefits of nasal breathing, but the bottom line is just do it. And breathe into your diaphragm to help stabilize your core. This is the first place I start when working with a client with back issues. Breathe right to be a better human.
Check out the links below to assess your breathing, and check out a couple breathing drills!
Breath Wave Technique - proper sequence of an inhale
Lateral Rib Expansion - Proper full diaphragm expansion
Resisted Max Exhale - make sure you are fully exhaling
Kababathi Breathing - Train diaphragm control
Box Breathing - My favorite post workout cool down technique
Resources to check out