We all do it, but most of us do it wrong. Breathing, that is, according to James Nestor in his 2020 Best Seller 'Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art'
A friend of mine put me onto this a couple of weekends ago, he was raving about it, specifically about the importance of better breathing for optimum health.
He's an acupuncturist so sees his fair share of people with chronic conditions, and he sometimes recommends they explore breath work (with a DYR disclaimer) as part of their road to recovery, and usually this results in improvement.
But better breathing can help improve anyone's life!
The book is a great read, it follows Nestor and another pullmonaut through an experiment in which they get their nasal passages blocked and mouth breath for 10 days, followed by 10 days of just nasal breathing, with a whole host of tests and measurements done along the way.
The bottom line is nasal breathing - that is breathing in and out through your nose is MUCH better for you than mouth breathing. The nostrils filter and moisten the air, and make you breath slower too.
There are lots of fascinating insights into breathing, something most of us take for granted, but that which is most essential to life. It's a fair point that we have a whole industry devoted to diet/ nutrition, but breathing, there is no buzz around that!
There's also lots of breathing practices at the end of the book, linked to each chapter.
I'll not explain any of them here in depth but the general gist is breath slowly.... 5.5 breaths a minute is optimum, and the same timing as many prayers, interestingly.
Also breath through your nose!
And what I call 'negative breath holds' are a big thing too - breathing out, pinching your nostrils and holding your breath, breathing normally for a few breaths, then repeating.
I've actually started mouth taping at night as a basis of this book... to make sure I'm breathing through my nose all night. I literally have no idea if I do or not! But if you mouth tape it doesn't take too long to train yourself to nasal breath when you're asleep.
And I've started nose breathing while running, it's mentally quite a challenge breathing slower and 'harder' through your nose, but it's doable. I did most of my 400 metre intervals this morning at a 3.45 pace mainly nose breathing.
I do resort to mouth breathing at the end, but even after only 10 days of pullmonautics, this now feels a little dirty.
I think my breathing was pretty efficient before reading this, but after some mild breathwork practice over the past 10 days I feel supercharged. I don't know if this is psychological or not, but honestly, I did a brutal walk on Thursday, and now I'm back out doing killer intervals on Sunday, as fast as I've ever run and yet I felt COMPLETELY relaxed and like I was running well within my limits, breathing through my nose 70% of the time!
And right now, I feel just fine!
Honestly, read this book, it may well change your life.
I think I might be doing a few more posts about my adventures in pullmonautics.
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