Do you know how the power of proper breathing can enhance health, reduce anxiety and improve performance?
In Tibetan Budhhist writings and oral tradition, Shambala is a legendary kingdom in a mountain valley behind unscalable mountains.
It’s considered an enlightened place where inhabitants live free of fear, want and disease.
The benefits of training at altitude have been popular ever since the Olympics in Mexico City in 1968, sparking a wave of research into the subject matter.
At the same time, researchers interested in freediving have uncovered a host of benefits of breath holding and a lower blood oxygen saturation.
In the yogic breathing traditions,
one of the exalted techniques is
known as Kumbhaka, which involves
breath retention on either an inhale
or exhale.
Some conditions found to improve in high altitude environments include asthma, diabetes, depression, anxiety, gastrointestinal disease and obesity.
Breath holding creates a number of changes in your body, including the potential decrease of blood oxygen saturation and a significant increase in carbon dioxide concentration, which will induce a strong feeling of air hunger.
By using breath hold exercises we can replicate the lower pressure of oxygen while residing at sea level.
By recreating the low oxygen pressures coherent with altitude training, it may also be possible to improve disease resistance and general health.
Today we will learn to hold our breaths… probably for longer than you think you can.
There are various psychological, physiological and physical benefits derived from holding our breaths.
Holding your breath, as well as generally improving breathing and lung function, has useful, potentially lifesaving benefits, including:
increasing the life span by preserving the health of stem cells
strengthening of the immune system
possible regeneration of new tissue in the brain to preserve brain function
detoxification of metabolic waste resulting in faster healing of the human body
increasing resistance to bacterial infections
improved endurance performance and muscle recovery
learning how to make yourself feel relaxed
boosts mood and focus
decreases chronic fatigue and brain fog
rises the amount of red blood cells in the body and accelerates the formation of new blood vessels
improves oxygenation in the blood flow to organs – including the brain
This technique, called Boundless Breathwork Technique will give you a deeper knowledge and understanding of the power of your breath.
It is possible to control things that were once considered involuntary responses, such as heart rate, blood flow, oxygenation of our brains, digestive and immune system functions, stress level, and how we feel in general through breathwork techniques.
I believe this technique is the most powerful one available that you can start using today.
Here is a brief overview of what the technique is:
First we must understand that the way you are breathing right now.
The way you breathe at rest says a lot about you. It's your blueprint that gives a look under the hood, and we call this your tidal volume. It's basically the volume of air moved into and out of the lungs during a normal breath, measuring the air exchange between the atmosphere and the alveoli in your lungs.
So the breathwork practise begins by you checking in with your breathing, your normal breathing pattern at rest. and from there we make a decision, a conscious choice to breathe in a particular way. and this is, of course, where the transformative power of breathing exercise begins, the fact that we have this opportunity to choose the way we breathe and to change our breathing and therefore get a different result as well. so on the first phase of the exercise which we call NATURAL BREATHING, your breathing pattern is the way it is and that's reflective of the state that you are in.
Then moving forward we are going to make a choice to take some big deep breaths in, preferably through the nose, using the diaphragm, expanding the ribs outwards, and just moving as much air through the lungs as we can ( this is what will do the job on a biochemical level). we call this SUPER-VENTILATION.
We are seeking long, deep inhalations and gentle, relaxed exhalations. Aiming to take around 50 breaths before holding our breath; this is known as RETENTION.
We press pause on our breathing, doing so on the exhalation. So nothing changes; it's a deep breath in, a passive exhale, and then a pause on the 50th, 40th, or 60th breath - who's counting, right?
This pause will extend for as long as you can or as long as you feel comfortable, after which, when you feel the need to breathe, you are going to take a small sip of air, just to release the pressure, a sip of air when the need arises. We are looking for about 10 to 12 of these sips of air which is what we call THE LADDER OF BREATH.
Small sips of air to kind of press the release valve on the pressure that builds from holding our breath.
And when you have a big lung full of air and you have stretched that moment out as long as you can, you RELEASE, you let your breath stabilise for a few breaths and what you will find is that you now have a newly established tidal volume, a whole new way of breathing, a whole new way of feeling, a whole new way of being, which is what we call THE FLOWING BREATH.
So five phases to this breathing technique, starting with natural breathing, moving into a deeper, fuller breath, moving as much air as we can, then a breath hold on the exhalation, some ladder breaths when the pressure builds, extending that moment out as long as possible and then the release at the end and you will experience a profound release.
I will now explain why and how this all works.
To begin with, we will set a few parameters. and number one is that, whenever we look at oxygen, the vital force of life, we must also look at carbon dioxide, which is the counting part,
I think of it as its dance partner, and life in this atmosphere really is a delicate dance between oxygen and carbon dioxide, and it's not one without the other.
So when we are breathing normally, in our natural breathing volume or our breathing at rest, oxygen and carbon dioxide maintain this beautiful delicate balance, which is why we are alive and why our body runs on the energy the way that it does; when we choose our breathing pattern, though, straight away we start to notice changes, and if we choose to breathe deeper, we try to move more air through the lungs, the first thing that we'll observe is that carbon dioxide levels will lower, so we notice a significant drop in CO2 level, and the more you breathe, the more air you move, the longer you keep going with this deep breathing pattern, the more CO2 you will blow off.
what happens when you lose CO2 is that oxygen will start binding and holding tightly to the hemoglobin in the red blood cells which are its transporters.
So the blood gets fully loaded with O2 and we can actually do simple measurements of this, with an oximeter, for instance. It gets up to 100%, which may sound positive, but in reality, it means that it ceases to be delivered to the tissues and cells when it is needed most, because we need O2 and CO2 to remain in balance.
All good though, it's temporary and we are choosing to do so.
So after doing this for about 50 big deep breaths, blowing off as much CO2 as we can, and getting the blood fully loaded with vital oxygen, we then choose to hold our breath and we do so on the exhalation. No force, and when we exhale, particularly at the valley, at the bottom of the exhale: it's when the heart has the most space and it's where the nervous system is most relaxed and you will notice that your heart rate, after being accelerated, starts to drop and we are looking to extend this space, because what we've done is we've blown off CO2, remember?
And this CO2, that blue line here, 👉
is what it causes the urge to breathe
So when we go into the breath hold without CO2 we can then quite naturally, effortlessy, timelessy extend that breath hold and that's exactly what we are looking to do, because what will now happen is that, because we are holding our breath for a significant period of time and the blood is already full of oxygen, the cells are already in what we call anaerobic state, they are already without oxygen.Those oxygen levels will start to get into the system as soon as the CO2 builds at this precious point where they meet, and the O2 will then start to release. Once the oxygen levels begin to circulate, they will rapidly decrease, triggering a hypoxic response, or in a normal terms. a drop in blood oxygen and tissue oxygen saturation.
Now this is a good thing, in fact it's known as a technique called Intermittent Hypoxic Training, just like intermittent fasting - which would temporary reducing or abstaining from glucose levels, right? from food, from eating - and we are doing so with breathing.
We are choosing intermittently, temporary, to hold our breath and to lower the oxygen levels available in the system.
Since the 1960s, there has been extensive research on the effects of training at high altitudes.
It is well-known that individuals who temporarily train at altitude experience an increase in their oxygen-carrying capacity and performance.
Additionally, studies have shown that people's health improves in various ways when exposed to altitude. Decades of research in the former Soviet Union showed that Intermittent Hypoxia could achieve the same benefits as sustained exposure to high altitude conditions.
So we are essentially bringing the mountain to you by using this little hack.
Simply exhaling as much CO2 as possible, then hold the breath while staying calm. It is crucial to remain relaxed during the exhale, allowing the moment to extend.
This will lead to a state of hypoxia, which can be monitored using an oximeter device. The device provides two readings: heart rate and blood saturation. when you hyperventilate oxygen saturation will go up to 100%, because oxygen is fully bounds to the blood and then, when you hold your breath and you reach its critical point, it will start dropping and dropping and dropping, initially the drop may not be significant, but with practice, you will be able to reduce it to below 90% saturation. and then below 85% (it's like climbing a 3000-meter mountain) and it may continue to decrease over time - it should be noted that the oximeter reading become fairly inaccurate below 70% and we are also not looking to go as low as possible-.
You can actually drop your blood oxygen to 60% or 55%, which is equivalent of climbing Mount Everest, but extreme or more is not necessarily better.
We are looking for a sustained, lower hold - with blood oxygen saturation - and the way we establish that is when CO2 levels start to build again, which happens throughout the middle of the breath hold, when we reach what is known as our breaking point, and this is like our tolerance level to CO2, and the nervous system will have these involuntary spasms, the pressure will build and it will get quite uncomfortable, Co2 reacts to every single cells in the human body, including quite a few in the brain, and so your body will be sending you these strong urges and signals to breathe, but we are looking to extend this period spent in hypoxia, so when we get that signal to breathe in your diaphragm, you simple allow a sip of air to come in, that will allow to release the pressure and to extend the breath hold for a moment without yet topping off the oxygen. So each time the pressure builds and these contractions start to happen, you simply press the release valve, and you'll be able to extend the breath hold to up to two or three minutes, and even longer with a little of practice.
Then moving forward, once you have completed that breath in and taken a big deep full lung, full of air, we apply a little of pressure to the chest, which is called hook breath. This technique involves squeezing the muscles around the thoracic cavity. It has been utilized since World War II by fighter pilots dealing with G-forces and blood flow away from the brain. Similarly, free divers use this method when resurfacing after extended periods without breathing, taking a single breath to circulate oxygen throughout their system.
This is the moment when you experience a surge of endorphins rushing through your body, your brain receives a crucial influx of oxygen, and it rewards you for it.
And you will feel a great sense of ease and a profound release of energy flushing through your system as you exhale and let your breathing stabilise, which will take a breath or two.
The breathing pattern will then fall calmer and lower, and your heart rate will drop and fall as your breathing does ( when we release this flowing breath, the herat rate will consistently sit about 10 beats lower than it did at the beginning).
The remarkable health benefits of Intermittent Hypoxia and Breath Training
Dynorphin is an endogenous opioid involved in the pleasure / pain balance, addiction, and mood regulation which increases the number and sensitivity of endorphin receptors, priming the body to experience greater euphoria as a result.
Apoptosis is the process of programmed cell death. Hypoxia and fluctuations of blood PH stress cells’ adaptive processes, stimulating rejuvenation. This process is beneficial in eliminating potentially virus-infected and cancerous cells.
Stem Cells are special human cells that are able to develop into many different cell types.
A potential benefit from intermittent hypoxia is the mobilization of bone marrow stem cells and mesenchymal stem cells which have low numbers of mitochondria, and are more adapted to anaerobic survival rather than oxygen rich environments.
In 2019, the Nobel Prize for physiology was awarded for the discovery of Hypoxia Induced Mitogenic Factor, which when released by breathing exercises can naturally stimulate the production of new mitochondria and improve cellular efficiency.
Tumor protein p53 is also known as the ‘guardian of the genome’. This protein is activated during a hypoxic event and acts as a tumor suppressor, which means that it regulates cell division by keeping cells from growing and dividing (proliferating) too fast or in an uncontrolled way.
Functional hypoxia drives neuroplastic effects as well as Neurogenesis, the process by which new neurons are formed in the brain, through the production of erythropoietin in the brain which has been shown to improve cognition.
Hypoxia Inducible Factor (HIF-1) leads to production of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF. It is also associated with increased anaerobic threshold and blood lactate kinetics.
Variations in oxygen levels in the blood are sensed by specialized cells in our kidneys that make and release the hormone erythropoietin (EPO). This hormone is a known performance enhancer andR increases the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood.
Nitric Oxide increases production of nitric oxide. This, has the short term effect of increasing cerebral blood flow producing endothelial nitric oxide. The end result is neuroprotection of various pathologies, reduced blood pressure and a reduction of oxidative stress.
The end result of hypoxic adaptation is improved oxygen, better circulation and improved mitochondrial function. Also, increased tolerance to various stressors and even toxic chemicals and also reduced inflammation. The adaptive changes enhance physical and mental capacity, so that the body is better able to cope with a range of stressors and repair and heal cells, tissues and organs.
This refers to the principle of cross adaptation. Stress-related diseases such as hypertension, heart disease, ulceration of the stomach or duodenum, diabetes, dermatological diseases and autoimmune conditions have all been shown to improve with both exercise and intermittent hypoxic interval training. Protection comes because the body becomes more tolerant and resistant to stress in general.
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