Breathing Part 2: Expert Resources

Ok so now you've had a chance to experiment a little with your own breathing, and observe how your breath changes with your physical and mental/emotional state.

Acknowledging that breathing is important and that there are many different ways to breathe is not a new thing.  Monks, yogi's, and martial artists have been using breathing techniques for centuries.  With a little research you can find a host of resources on the subject, however there are three modern experts on the subject that have been hugely influential on me.  I could try to summarize their incredible wealth of knowledge, but that would be a gross injustice.  They each have a slightly different take on breathing that compliment each other.  Check out the resources below.

1) Dr. Belisa Vranich  Dr. Vranich is a US clinical psychologist and world leading expert on breathing.  She will be the first to state that her area of expertise is the anatomical and mechanical breathe and is great at teaching you how to actually breathe better diaphragmatically.  I was fortunate to meet Belisa in 2017 when she visited The Pan Am Clinic and did a Breathing Class Workshop.  My experience was mind blowing, and it was then that I started going down the rabbit hole.  Belisa just released a new book Breathing for Warriors.

• The Breathing Class, Breathwork for Better Function, Sleep, Immune Function, Anxiety, Focus, Golf, Endurance, Strength and Balance with Dr. Belisa Vranich, and Ashley James on the Learn True Health Podcast - This is a great place to start, as Belisa speaks in common language anyone can understand, and as you can see from the title she covers a LOT of topics.
• The Gabby Reese Show: Breathing Expert Dr. Belisa Vranich (podcast)
• Breathe (book)

2) Brian MacKenzie Brian is the Founder & CEO of Power Speed Endurance and Sh//ft. He is also the President and Co-Founder of The Health and Human Performance Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to researching how breath and innate tools can optimize and help health and human performance. He is an Ironman, has run a few 100s, and has a brilliant understanding of how breathing affects your autonomic nervous system state. He is a big advocate for nasal breathing and using breathing techniques to down regulate your nervous system quickly.  He can get pretty technical in his explanations, but if you can take the time to understand what he is saying you come away connecting several in your own quest for all-round health.

• Industrial Strength Show: Brian MacKenzie on the Benefits of Nasal Breathing, Down regulation and More! (E) This episode is a little raunchy but absolutely filled with truth bombs and solid things you can try tomorrow to improve your breath.  I've listened at least 3-4 times!
• the mindbodygreen podcast: How to Strengthen Your Immune System by Breathing Through Your Nose

3) Wim Hof. Who else?  If you are even slightly aware of anything to do with biohacking, you know about the Ice Man.  According to his website, this Dutchman is a father, extreme athlete, scientific pioneer, global health leader, and a man on a mission.  I think that sums him up pretty well.  Whereas Dr. Vranich focuses on the anatomical and mechanical and Brian MacKenzie helps you understand the biochemical and neurophysiological aspects of breathing, Wim Hof is all about the mind.  The mental, the emotional, the spiritual.  The Wim Hof method is based on 3 pillars - breathing, cold therapy, and commitment - to help you not only deal with stress, but to purposely seek it out in ways that make you stronger and more resilient.

• Video Courses
• The Wim Hof Method by Wim Hof
• What Doesn't Kill Us by Scott Carney
• Guided Wim Hof Breathing (You Tube)

Next post: Quick and Dirty Breathing Techniques, Apps, etc.

Breathing Part 1: Why?

Breathing.  You'd think it was simple.  Just breathe. As essential as it is to human life, breathing properly is not as simple as it sounds.

A few days ago I posted something on my IG feed about nasal breathing and the benefits I've seen from using it to help my stress and general health this summer.  Within minutes I started receiving private messages from people saying that what I had posted was very helpful and asking for more information.  I am by no means an expert and I barely consider myself at an intermediate skill level with breathwork.  However, I can certainly provide you some resources to find the information you need and tips on what has helped me in my journey.

Let's start at the beginning.  In my training as a physiotherapist (almost 25 years ago) we were taught all the facts of cardiopulmonary anatomy and function.  Once I started practicing, I found myself wrapping towels around a patient's lower trunk and asking them to breathe in and create pressure around the towel. I got confused stares. I tried in vain to teach people to breathe "through their bellies" and expand as they inhaled, which was a foreign concept and counterintuitive to almost everyone.  Honestly, even though I knew the diaphragm is an integral part of the "core," I got so frustrated I almost completely abandoned teaching the mechanics of breathing early on in my career.  Nobody cared, nobody got it.  If you were my patient between between 2003 and 2007 I'm sorry I failed you.

Then in 2007 I had my first child. Nicholas was as feisty as his mother. The more he cried, the more ramped up I'd get and then more he'd cry. We fed off each other.  If I was stressed, he'd cry.  If I was calm, he was calm.  I quickly found that the only way I could settle him to sleep was to first calm myself  though breathing.  I would start taking deep slow breaths with him glued to my chest.  Before long his breathing would match mine and he would fall into a deep sleep.  Through the terrible twos, the trying threes, and the f'ing fours we'd sit together and take deep breaths in and out to break out of hysterical moments.  He is now 13 and we still do this.  It's our routine.  It has only just now occurred to me that this was the start of my awareness of how powerful the breath is in changing our mental state. I had discovered it quite by accident, but now have a knowing that I can't deny.

There are many ways to look at breathing and the effects of the breath...mechanical, anatomical, biochemical, neurophysiological, metaphysical, spiritual.  Brian MacKenzie says that the breath is the remote control for the mind, but I would also say that the mind is remote control for the breath. They inform each other.  If there is one thing that both responds to and provides feedback from ALL the systems in the human body, it's the breath, and if there was ever a time when everyone should be motivated to have really efficient lungs and immune system, it should be now...in the midst of a global pandemic involving a virus that attacks the lungs.

Why should we care about how we breathe?  Other than the fact that if we don't breathe regularly WE DIE, there are other qualitative reasons to consider how we breathe.  It's all about the autonomic nervous system.  Sympathetic and parasympathetic balance.  The Chinese call it ying and yang.  We call it something more "scientific." We are always in a state of either sympathetic dominance or parasympathetic dominance.  Being perfectly balanced is rare. There are times when both are necessary and it is appropriate to be in either one state or the other.  If you are having to defend your life, run from an attacker, defend your thesis, or athletically perform at a high level, it might be beneficial for you to be in a sympathetically dominant state.  However, we were never meant to be in that state all the time.  There are times when you need to rest and digest, to recover, to not be on defense. In today's world we increasingly find ourselves stuck in flight or fight mode without a way to shut it down.  Enter insomnia, anxiety, irritability, allergies, asthma, irritable bowel...and when our systems can't sustain that anymore?  We crash. Enter depression, hormonal imbalances, weight gain, poor athletic performance, loss of concentration, chronic fatigue, and the list goes on.

Where does breathing come in?  Listen up.

1) We can discover what state we are in simply by observing our ability to breathe in that moment.

2) We can change our autonomic nervous system state through breathing (as I discovered with my infant son).

It's really quite phenomenal.  We can both gain immediate feedback as to what state our nervous system is in AND change it almost immediately, simply through the breath.  Breathing is literally at the epicenter of it all.

Don't believe me?  Try one of these two exercises for several days and see what you discover:

1) Box Breathing

• Cadence: 1:1:1:1
• Example: Breathe in for 5 seconds, hold for 5 seconds, breathe out for 5 seconds, hold for 5 seconds.  Repeat x 10. Chose a time you can complete for 10 reps.
• Whatever time you are able to complete, repeat your boxes daily.  Observe how your ability to complete your boxes is influenced by:
• Amount of sleep you had the night before
• Level of stress and current mental state
• Level of fatigue from training
• Amount of alcohol consumption
• Amount of water consumption
• What you eat
• Medications you take

2) Nasal Breathing While Running

• Keep your mouth closed while running at a slow steady state (zone 1-2).
• Run at a pace you can sustain with your mouth CLOSED.
• Observe how your ability to keep your mouth closed is influenced by:
• Amount of sleep you had the night before
• Level stress and current mental state
• Level of fatigue from training
• Amount of alcohol consumption
• Amount of water consumption
• Environmental temperature
• What you eat
• Medications you take

Do this daily for a week and observe how challenging or easy certain days are.  You will find some days are super easy and some days are impossible.  Why?

I plan to write at least 2 more parts to this series, exploring specific breathing techniques anyone can do to improve their awareness of and control over their autonomic nervous system, as well as provide links to many resources I've found helpful.

However, you have to experience how powerfully your breath can inform you of your physical,  physiological and mental and spiritual state before you can become convinced as to WHY you should be trying to take control over this area of your health in the first place.

So go do one of these two breathing exercises and see what you discover!