#004: Nasal Breathing

Show Notes

Excerpt from Breath Work for the Sport of Fitness

• Nasal breathing helps dilate peripheral capillaries.  

• The opposite can happen if you don’t breathe effectively.

Metaboreflex

The body restricts blood flow to the limbs when the respiratory muscles fatigue [Read More About Metaboreflex Here]

Why?  It’s the same reason why your body shuts down blood flow to the limbs during cold exposure: it’s a survival mechanism.

Prioritize the critical systems.  If you stop breathing, your heart stops pumping, or you CNS shuts down…you’re dead.

What does restricting blood flow actually mean? 

Vasoconstriction (smooth muscle tissue in arterial walls contracts)
….which is a Sympathetic Nervous System Response (aka. Fight or Flight)

What causes respiratory muscles to fatigue?  

1. Fast & Deep ventilation: Powerful Efforts at Moderate Duration (aka. CF)
2. When they are used for dual roles: Breathe & Move

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Read: Breathe & Move: The Dual Role of Respiratory Musculature

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Nasal breathing is one tool to help counter this.

Nasal breathing at sub-maximal exercise helps this in two ways.

1. Breathing through your nose is harder than breathing through your mouth, so your increase the strength of your respiratory muscles (it’s like wearing a airflow restriction mask)
2. Nasal breathing helps you learn to control your state, which allows you to regulate your energy output, breathing and quality of movement in the first place…preventing you from getting into the metaboreflex in the first place

Stress & Nasal Breathing

Start in non-stressful training environments, with the goal being to keep stress lower.

I personally complete (and also program) some stressful nasal breathing pieces. Why do I program this?

When should you NOT nasal breathe?

1. Heavy Lifting
2. Dynamic Mixed Modal Work at High Efforts
3. Important, high effort pieces.

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Debate in the community…

Nasal breathing all the time (vs.) Nasal breathing has no utility

Both are poor models for athletic development.

[We can compare this to…]

High Intensity all the time (vs.) LSD (long slow distance) all the time

Both are poor models for athletic development.

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Then what?  What’s right? How should we approach nasal breathing?

Most of time, especially lifestyle and low level.  When it is time to throw down, transition to a system that allows you to express your capacity maximally (not nasal). 

Where to start?  (For beginners)

• Aerobic warm-ups
• Cyclical movements
• Easy aerobic work (not stressful)
• Beginning of long workouts
• During rest periods between intervals
(won’t mute your output, but helps you shift state)
→ let these items transfer to daily activities and sleep 

Mistakes I See Beginners Make

• Too Intense, Too Soon (If you feel like youre suffocating, then your not parasympathetic)
• Start slower than you think and then build into your pace slowly
• Taping their Mouths (The whole point is to make certain pieces less stressful and to learn to control your physiology)
• Nasal Breathing Just on the Inhale | Nasal drip or buggers flying out is normal (Breathing one way -just inhale- is asking for congestion)
• Tip: flare your nostrils (lot of ancient practices involved stretching nostrils)

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