How to breathe during physical exercise

How to breathe during physical exercise - Patrick McKeown
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Nov 27, 2019
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Learn simple breathing techniques to improve your performance during physical exercise.

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290 Comments
Force4Families
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Sascha Myshkin
Sascha Myshkin
1 year ago
I read your book one year ago and I must admit that I had a
hard time switching to nasal breathing. Running on nasal breathing
was almost like suffocating, so I reduced my pace and increased
it only slightly from excercise to exercise and after one year I finally had
returned to my old level, breathing only 14 times a minute in comparison to
more than 40 times before. ( I am 49 by now).
I think I understand all the mechanisms you described so precisely and
that helped me a lot.
Also I found out that changing habits involves be patient with yourself.
The most important change for myself was a very profound change in
my philosophy towards my body: I changed from the attitude of seeing
my body as something that needs to be trained on and on, always demanding
a little bit more, two the idea that my body is a friend and partner, that
needs a encouragement and - more importantly - trust! And that affects
so much more than sports and excercise!
By the way, you seem to be such a kind and honest person, rarely found
nowadays that your way strengthend my confidence that I would succeed
with that "adjustment".


In short - I simply would like to say, thank you so much Patrick!


Greetings from Munich,
Sascha
344
nick butter
nick butter
10 months ago
I started nasal breathing while jogging because A Bug flew in my mouth once. And it tasted bitter...
125
None of your business
None of your business
1 year ago
My asthma has improved in 3 day from nose breathing
257
Patrick D
1 year ago
Within two weeks I noticed I am having a much deeper sleep every night since trying to remember to nose breath during the day. I am starting to use this method now on exercise too. Does a lot for my anxiety which I’ve had all my life. Thank you Patrick from another Patrick ??
70
JacksonThomas Crockett
10 months ago
I always breathed through my nose except when exercising; now everything is nasal. Thank you
42
Batuhan Yentür
1 year ago
Breathing is our energy. If this energy is not efficient, we got so many troubles. Thank you sir!
62
Marcel Dore
1 year ago
Thank you Patrick, I really appreciate your explanation - very elegant way to understand the importance of considering breathing as part of one's training. I always show my group fitness classes how to breathe, yet sometimes I feel like a broken record. Sometimes I teach 3 moderate intensity classes in one day and I tell them that I cannot do that without proper breathing training. I am showing your video on my Facebook Group Page. THANK YOU!
2
NeptuneReturnz
1 year ago
I only discovered your channel two nights ago but am feeling calmer and more relaxed due to nasal breathing. Thanks very much!?
25
C Makoto
1 year ago (edited)
I'm from Taiwan and I'm still reading your book in Traditional Chinese version. Your book really helps me how to breath correctly. Thank you very much.
10
L X
1 year ago
I've been doing mindful breathing for 10 years BUT I did not do nasal breathing. Now I know all the benefits and it is helping me relax and sleep better. Last night I used 3 inch strips of scotch tape over my mouth to make sure I only breathed from my nose...and it was a fantastic sleep experience. It's been rare for me to say that over the past 3 years.
9
Burek Mali
1 year ago
As a person who likes working out regularly i strangely enjoyed this video. I feel like it answered quite a bit of questions i didn't even know i had
7
olaf schueren
9 months ago
Thank you very much for your outstanding work, Patrick. To be honest, I am slightly confused. I am asthmatic and I perfectly understand the importance of nasal breathing and increasing your CO2 tolerance. However, as a passionate trombone player, while playing my instrument, I breath in through the mouth to get as much air as possible as quickly as possible. And I breath out through the mouth for long moments and probably loose large quantities of CO2. Is this contraditory? I would'nt want to give up playing...
Rick Derico
10 months ago
Hello, i am interested in ideal breathing while lifting weights specifically. Videos like those that teach you how to perform a proper squat will advise you to take a deep breath in through your mouth to the point that you max out your lungs' volume and then hold it in because a big amount of air in your belly is supposed to help stabilizing your core. Most videos share this idea that in order to properly brace yourself for the lift, you need to hold in a maximum amount of inhaled air.

However, i feel like that contradicts with 3 of the things i learned from your videos:
- when it comes to breathing, less is more
- holding your breath after an inhale creates hypertension in the thorax and is therefore to be avoided
- you should always breath in and out of your nose, even while exercising

Could you please clarify what kind of breathing would be ideal for weightlifting purposes?
2
Nerd Painter
1 year ago
im so bad at breathing. always out of breath while exercising. i know im doing something wrong.
96
Karamjit Singh
11 months ago
Patrick explains the science behind his conclusions very clearly. I bought the book and started running using nasal breathing to see where it leads. As they say, "Nothing ventured, nothing gained." Thanks for the vid.
A. B.
11 months ago
I found you and your book and thought about taking the course you offer.
Now after about a week or so with focusing on only breathing through the nose I can amazed say that my breath is normal after climbing 10 stairs and it all happend within a week! I will for sure take that licensed course! Thank you!
Hussain Alzubaidy
1 year ago
After I follow nose breathing techniques, I have no asthma and wheezing anymore. Thanks a lot
12
Edwig Carol
11 months ago
Such a valuable short video. Thank you for explaining the complexity of factors determining the gas exchanges in our body..
Nika Vero
3 months ago
This is life-changing! I was so sceptical at first, but after committing to running with my mouth shut and the same during my exercise routine I experienced such an improvement in my fitness and the amount of physical activity I can handle rose significantly! No more coughing and breathlessness... I can push everything so much further ... I can not be more grateful for such simple advice ... breath through the nose... THANK YOU :)
Kerri Lake
5 months ago
I can see this being beneficial. Great information that is certainly new to me. I heard him say towards the end that is for breathing in & OUT through the nose, the exhaling part seems like it will be biggest struggle for me to acclimate to, but I'm hopeful.
Transcript
00:00
[Music]
00:01
how should you preacher in physical
00:04
exercise if you do a google search of
00:06
breathing during physical exercise
00:08
generally the instruction will say well
00:11
you have to breathe through an open
00:13
mouth because you're going to feel too
00:14
much of an air hunger if you try and do
00:17
a physical exercise with your mouth
00:18
closed okay let's look at this so
00:22
runners the vast majority of runners in
00:24
the Western world will run with her my
00:26
talk why do runners breed true an open
00:30
mouth it's not efficient it's not
00:33
increasing oxygen uptake it's not
00:36
increasing oxygen delivery to the cells
00:38
it's keeping the body in a more
00:40
fight-or-flight response and it's trauma
00:42
to the Airways so I'm going to advocate
00:45
maze of breathing during physical
00:47
exercise what when you first switch to
00:50
nasal breathing during physical exercise
00:51
you're going to feel a stronger air
00:54
hunger because the nose is a smaller
00:56
entry and as a result because the nose
00:59
is a smaller entry there's a resistance
01:01
to your breathing the nose generally
01:03
during the day during wakefulness kraits
01:06
a resistance that's about two to three
01:08
times that of them out so that
01:10
resistance is going to slow down your
01:12
breathing and that resistance is going
01:14
to restrict your breathing or reduce the
01:17
amount of air that you're taking into
01:18
your lungs but that's a positive thing
01:20
if you continuously train with nasal
01:23
breathing over a period of 10 to 12
01:26
weeks amazing adaptations will happen
01:30
that are conducive to improving fitness
01:32
levels so initially it's tougher you
01:35
feel an air hunger and it's difficult
01:37
because you're feeling that little bit
01:39
more suffocated but then your body makes
01:41
adaptations you don't need as much air
01:44
for a given amount of physical exercise
01:46
in actual fact one study showed that the
01:50
grass change in the blood with mouth
01:52
breathing was 40 millimeters of mercury
01:54
pressure this is carbon dioxide and with
01:57
nasal breathing it was 44 millimeters of
02:00
repression and at all its when subjects
02:02
trained for six months breathing in and
02:05
out through their nose after a six month
02:07
period the subjects then were
02:10
investigated what were the gas in the
02:13
blood
02:13
what's carbon dioxide when they were
02:15
breathing through an open match versus
02:17
carbon dioxide when they were breathing
02:19
through their nose in carbon dioxide
02:21
when they were breathing through their
02:22
nose was significantly higher forty four
02:25
millimeters of mercury pressure versus
02:27
40 is a big difference because the body
02:30
is very sensitive to the accumulation of
02:32
carbon dioxide now if there's an
02:34
increased carbon dioxide in the blood
02:36
carbon offset is not just a waste gas
02:39
people who will often say get in as much
02:41
oxygen as you can I get rid of as much
02:44
carbon dioxide as you can but people
02:46
don't realize that when oxygen passes
02:49
from the lungs into the blood and when
02:51
it's carried by hemoglobin within the
02:53
blood it's carbon dioxide that's the
02:55
catalyst for the red blood cells to
02:58
release oxygen to the cells this is
03:00
called the Bohr effect this was
03:02
discovered in 1904 so if you have a
03:05
runner who is after you know becoming
03:08
accustomed to nasal breathing over a
03:10
period of time they will have an
03:12
improved co2 level in the blood improved
03:15
partial partial pressure and a co2 is
03:18
the catalyst for oxygen to be released
03:20
we can argue that more oxygen is getting
03:23
delivered to the cells with nasal
03:25
breathing versus map-reading
03:27
and it's not just about the oxygen
03:29
that's getting delivered to the cells
03:31
it's also about the oxygen or taking the
03:34
blood because when you breathe through
03:35
your nose you're carrying the air deeper
03:37
into the lungs
03:38
you're carrying nitric oxide into the
03:40
lungs and ventilation perfusion
03:42
increases in other words the gas
03:44
exchange improves when you breathe
03:45
through your nose
03:47
diaphragmatic breathing is also linked
03:50
with nasal breathing and your diaphragm
03:52
breathing muscle is not just for
03:53
respiration but it's for stabilization
03:56
it's for posture and it's for
03:59
stabilization of the spine so for motor
04:01
control for improved functional movement
04:04
for reduced risk of injury it's very
04:07
it's very important that we are
04:09
breathing using the main breathing
04:11
muscle so in a nutshell why should
04:14
runners breach or knock them out if it's
04:16
thought to reduce oxygen or taking the
04:18
blood if it's going to reduce oxygen
04:20
delivery to the cells if it's going to
04:23
impair their functional movement if it's
04:25
not going to be efficient because when
04:27
you were duct to nasal breathing again
04:29
over a period of time you can do a lot
04:32
more exercise for a given amount of air
04:34
because there's an oxygen cost
04:36
associated with breathing if you're
04:39
sitting there watching this you're
04:41
expanding about two to three percent of
04:43
your oxygen consumption just supporting
04:45
your breathing muscles if you go for
04:48
moderate physical exercise light job for
04:50
example in spite 6% if you do intense
04:53
exercise it's about 10% of your vo2 so
04:57
if the oxygen you take into your body
04:58
the energy cost associated with
05:02
supporting the breathing muscles during
05:04
intense physical exercise it's 10% and
05:07
during maximum physical exercise is
05:09
between about 13 and 15 percent now
05:12
that's a lot of oxygen just going to
05:15
support your breathing muscles how will
05:17
make your breathing more efficient that
05:20
you don't need to be using you don't
05:23
need to be exercising you don't in other
05:25
words you don't need to be breathing so
05:27
hard for a given intensity or duration
05:30
of physical exercise or you can argue it
05:33
the other way you can achieve much more
05:36
with the same amount of effort so by
05:39
changing and improving your breathing
05:41
efficiency and also when you breathe
05:43
through your nose you have to maintain
05:44
diaphragmatic strange because nasal
05:47
breathing is adding an extra load on to
05:49
the breathing muscles and you know
05:51
sometimes it's not as if we're taking
05:54
one step back to goes two steps forward
05:56
but I would say to any Aatish or any
05:59
person who's involved in sports
06:01
performance start devoting some of your
06:04
training to breathing in and out through
06:06
the nose the benefits are amazed
06:08
it will approve your fitness levels it
06:11
will improve your recovery it's also
06:13
very helpful in terms of dealing with
06:16
anxiety you know for stuck in that
06:18
pattern of firestop or chest breathing
06:20
or more likely to be in fight-or-flight
06:22
response we're stuck in that sympathetic
06:25
tone and so yeah make the switch it's a
06:28
bit tougher at the start bear wishes be
06:30
persistent go with a pace that you can
06:34
sustain nasal breathing if the air
06:36
hunger gets too much just back off a
06:38
little bit and if your Airways are very
06:40
compromised if you've had an airway like
06:42
mine and very small nostrils it may have
06:45
to get a nasal dilator
06:46
so a nasal dilator is some small product
06:49
that you buy over the internet and you
06:51
put up into your nose and it basically
06:52
expands your nostrils so a nasal dilator
06:56
is based on the card maneuver put one
06:58
finger here and one finger here you
07:00
gently price your nostrils and that will
07:02
create more space that you can maintain
07:04
nasal breathing during physical exercise
07:06
I would say to your give it a go and see
07:08
where it goes