No matter what we eat, how much we exercise, how resilient our genes are, how skinny or young or wise we are-none of it will matter unless we’re breathing correctly. That’s what these researchers discovered. The missing pillar of health is breath. It all starts there.
James Nestor, in his bestseller book Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art
What is Retrain Your Breathing Program?
Retrain Your Breathing Program is designed to address dysfunctional breathing patterns that are influenced by various factors such as lifestyle, environment, physiological conditions, and psychological states. Over time, these factors can lead to breathing dysfunctions, causing a range of symptoms and health issues. This program aims to regulate and restore functional breathing patterns, focusing on volume, rate, cadence, and the use of the nose and diaphragm throughout the day and night.
Signs of dysfunctional breathing may include mouth breathing, upper chest breathing, paradoxical breathing, frequent sighs and yawning, shallow breathing, hyperventilation, breathlessness, stuffy nose, asthma, sleep apnea, chronic respiratory diseases, anxiety, chronic pain, chronic fatigue syndrome, overtraining in athletes, chronic airway obstruction, and deviated septum.
The primary goals of the "Retrain Your Breathing Program" are as follows:
Rehabilitate Nasal Breathing: Restore the natural function of nasal breathing, enabling better air filtration, warming, and humidification, while also preventing mouth breathing.
Enhance Upper Airway Function: Improve the overall function of the upper airway, including the nasal passages, sinuses, and throat, to facilitate smoother airflow and reduce the risk of snoring, sleep apnea, and other related issues.
Improve Diaphragm and Respiratory Muscle Efficiency: Optimize the use of the diaphragm and other respiratory muscles to achieve more efficient breathing, enhancing oxygen intake and carbon dioxide elimination.
Correct Hyperventilation and Optimize Gas Levels: Address hyperventilation patterns and restore the balance between oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the blood, ensuring proper oxygenation of tissues while avoiding excessive breathing.
Address Hyperinflation or Breath Stacking: Prevent the accumulation of excessive air in the lungs during breathing cycles, promoting a healthier exchange of gases and reducing breathlessness.
Relax the Hyper-Aroused Nervous System and Improve Vagal Tone: Achieve a state of calmness by calming the hyper-aroused nervous system and enhancing vagal tone, leading to improved heart rate variability and better overall well-being.
Enhance Cardiorespiratory Interaction: Optimize the coordination between the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, allowing for more efficient oxygen delivery, improved endurance, and better overall physical performance.
Reduce Breathlessness and Unsatisfied Respiration: Alleviate feelings of breathlessness and insufficient respiration, ensuring a sense of comfort and satisfaction with each breath.
By participating in the "Retrain Your Breathing Program," you will focus on three essential dimensions of breathing: biochemistry, biomechanics, and cadence.
Biochemistry: The program aims to restore the biochemistry of breathing, resulting in lighter breathing patterns. This will help normalize ventilation, reduce breathlessness, eliminate snoring, enhance oxygen delivery to cells (through the Bohr effect), increase the concentration of Nitric Oxide (which has anti-inflammatory properties), and promote a calm state of mind.
Biomechanics: The program focuses on retraining the biomechanics of breathing, specifically the use of the diaphragm. By breathing deeply, you can improve lung volume, enhance blood oxygenation, promote better posture (leading to a healthier spine and lower back), increase lymphatic drainage, and cultivate a quiet and serene mind.
Cadence: The program aims to retrain the cadence of breathing, emphasizing slow breathing. This stimulates the vagus nerve, enhances baroreceptor function (promoting healthy blood pressure), improves heart rate variability (HRV), optimizes the balance between the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems, reduces negative pressure in the upper airways during sleep, and cultivates a calmer mind.
Throughout the program, you will learn how to master your breathing and use it as a form of medicine. By adopting functional breathing patterns, you can improve your overall well-being, enhance physical performance, and achieve a state of calmness and serenity.
