The pace at which you are able to exercise during a half hour of training while breathing through your nose will depend on your BOLT score. Below are some guidelines that are influenced by your nostril and airway size. For example, an athlete with large nostrils will experience less resistance to breathing, enabling exercise at a higher intensity with his or her mouth closed. Here is a general guideline of exercise ability (with the mouth closed) according to BOLT score:
• If your BOLT score is 5 seconds, your ability to walk is seriously hampered. Climbing one flight of stairs will be challenging, requiring you to stop every 3 or 4 steps in order to take a rest.
• If your BOLT score is 10 seconds, you will be able to walk slowly.
• If your BOLT score is 20 seconds, you will be able to walk quickly or jog lightly.
• If your BOLT score is 30 seconds, you will be able to jog at a medium to fast pace.
• If your BOLT score is 40 seconds, you will be able to run quickly.
By increasing your BOLT score, no matter the size of your airways, you will experience lighter breathing and be able to train at a higher pace, for longer distances, while breathing through the nose. Your fitness levels will soon increase well beyond what they were before, and nasal breathing will become much easier during exercise. Within 6 to 8 weeks your BOLT measurement should increase by 10 to 15 seconds, resulting in a significant improvement to your fitness.
Dr. Bill Hang is an orthodontist from California. For the past few decades he has examined the mouths and airways of thousands of patients. What differentiates Dr. Hang from many traditional orthodontists is that when he considers the alignment of the teeth, he also gives attention to the resultant effect on the jaws, the width of the face, and size of airways. In fact, I have yet to meet an individual with such a fascination for airway size.
While we need to be efficient with our use of oxygen, it is also imperative that the size of our airways enables air to flow freely to and from the lungs. If children or teenagers spend five or ten years with their mouths hanging open, their faces will become narrow, their jaws will not develop correctly, and their airway sizes will be reduced. Nasal breathing during the formative years is absolutely essential to help ensure correct development of the face, jaws, and airways. In chapter 13, we will look more closely at the role breathing plays in the development of the face and the need for orthodontic treatment.
I first met Dr. Hang in 2009, when we were both scheduled to give a talk to a study group of myofunctional therapists. As it turned out, we had the same aim in mind: to explore how breathing and resting tongue posture affects sleep, sports, and health. I spoke about the benefits of nasal breathing, while Dr. Hang spoke about airway size and the benefits of having a good facial structure for sports performance. When the airways are too narrow, our ability to perform physical exercise is hampered. Imagine completing a marathon while breathing through airways the size of a very narrow straw—no matter how well trained you are, how fit, how determined, if your airways are constricted you will not be able to take in enough air to properly oxygenate your body.
That day Dr. Hang told me that he had been running for forty-two years and had completed nineteen marathons with his “mouth open like a dog.” Following our meeting, he changed to breathing through his nose during training and taped his mouth closed every night to ensure nasal breathing while he slept. Initially he found that his nose would run constantly during exercise, requiring him to blow his nose every few hundred yards. This is a common experience for most people adjusting to nasal breathing as the airways clear and breathing volume increases, but it is a minor inconvenience that will clear up within a few weeks. Like any organ or muscle, the nose needs to get used to being used more during sports.
Six months later, Bill completed the Pasadena Marathon and finished second in his age group. Not only this, but he kept his lips together every step of the way except during a couple of long hills when he allowed his mouth to drop open occasionally. No mean feat for a sixty-year-old! Now, each Sunday, he completes a two-hour run and continues to nasal breathe in order to maintain and ideally improve his fitness. Twenty minutes into his run, when he is good and warm, he is able to get up to a good speed while retaining a slow, regular breathing pattern—much improved from his previous method of panting through the mouth, expending maximum energy as he ran.
Train Your Body to Do More with Less
To reap the most benefit from your physical training, you need to train your body to do more with less. To do this, you will need to reduce your air intake. Incorporating this concept into your training will result in improved breathing economy and an increase in your athletic performance, along with reduced breathlessness and lactic acid during competition. More important, you will not need to push your body beyond its limits, reducing your risk of injury, cardiovascular and respiratory problems, and other health concerns. Nasal breathing during physical training ensures that you do not push yourself beyond what your body is capable of doing.
During physical exercise, there are three ways to reduce air intake:
1. Relax your body and take less air into your lungs.
2. Increase exercise intensity while nasal breathing.
3. Practice breath holding during exercise.
When you first switch to nasal breathing you may find that your ability to train at maximum pace is impeded. Breathing through the nostrils creates resistance and adds an extra load that is likely to slow your performance for the first few weeks. However, with continued practice and by increasing your BOLT score you will soon find that your performance surpasses previous levels.
Competitive athletes who regularly take part in high-intensity training will need to alternate nasal breathing with mouth breathing for an overall improvement to breathing patterns. High-intensity training helps to prevent muscle deconditioning and will require an athlete to periodically breathe through his or her mouth. This is to be expected and can be combined with nasal breathing to attain the best results. For less-than-maximum intensity training, and at all other times, nasal breathing should be employed. For example, competitive athletes may spend 70 percent of their training with the mouth closed, harnessing the benefits of nasal breathing and adding an extra load to their training to increase BOLT score. They may also devote a smaller portion of training to working at an all-out pace in order to maintain muscle condition, for which brief periods of mouth breathing will be required.
During competition there is no need to intentionally take bigger breaths, nor is there a requirement to breathe less. Instead, bring a feeling of relaxation to your body and breathe as you feel necessary. However, breath-holding exercises during your warm-up can be very advantageous, as can practicing breathing recovery during your cooldown. Competition isn’t the ideal time to focus on how well or how poorly you are breathing, as your full concentration should be devoted to the game or race. The best way to improve breathing for competition is to improve your everyday breathing, and the key to this is obtaining a higher BOLT score.
Recreational athletes who are not taking part in competition or high-intensity exercise, however, are far better off maintaining nasal breathing at all times. While reducing your breathing during physical exercise, try not to overdo it. If you find that your need for air is so great that you need to open your mouth, simply slow down and allow your breathing to calm once more.
Unveiling the Warm-Up
The vast majority of sports coaches are in agreement that warming up before exercise is vitally important. During physical exercise the body requires greater blood flow to tissues and muscles than during rest. The objective of a warm-up is to increase blood flow and prepare the body for more intense physical exercise, thus reducing the incidence of sports-related injuries and improving overall performance.
It takes time for the body to warm up, but when it does, your body is able to function more effectively during exercise. When your body is warmed up prior to exercise, the following benefits can be
maximized:
• The production of more carbon dioxide—improving the release of oxygen from the blood to tissues and organs—increasing VO2 max, improving endurance, and reducing the risk of injury
• The opening of blood vessels and airways—allowing for better blood flow and easy breathing
In practice, however, many athletes do not warm up sufficiently. Many spend, at most, 2 to 3 minutes warming up by doing a light jog before intensifying their exercise. This is simply a case of going too fast, too soon.
Aisling plays soccer for one of the better amateur football teams in Ireland. She has reached a high level of fitness and is a newcomer to the Oxygen Advantage exercises. Despite her excellent fitness, she often finds that she feels quite breathless during the first 10 to 20 minutes of a game, while at the end of the game she feels as if she could go on playing forever. This is a common complaint within the world of sport, and usually comes down to a lack of warm-up. The best way to avoid early breathlessness during exercise is to increase your BOLT score and spend more time warming up with nasal breathing.
For people like Aisling, who find it hard to get going when they exercise, at least 10 minutes should be spent warming up before physical activity, especially during cold weather, as it can take the body up to 30 minutes to function at its best. In order to devote all your energy to a game, your body should reach peak form early on rather than somewhere during the second half. By skipping an adequate warm-up—either through impatience or because you believe it’s not necessary—you are cheating yourself out of performing at your full capability.
To maximize the benefits of your warm-up, combine movement with relaxation techniques and breath holds, as described below.
Oxygen Advantage Warm-Up
• Begin walking at a pace that is comfortable for you.
• During your warm-up, try to breathe regularly and calmly through your nose, using your diaphragm to maintain a gentle and relaxed breathing technique.
• Feel your abdomen gently moving outward as you inhale and gently moving inward as you exhale.
• As you walk, allow a feeling of relaxation to spread throughout your body. Silently encourage the area around your chest and abdomen to relax (you will find that any tension can be released by silently telling that area of the body to relax). Feel your body relax and become soft. Body relaxation during physical exercise helps to ensure steady, calm, and regular breathing.
• After 1 minute or so of walking at a fairly good pace, exhale normally through your nose and pinch your nose with your fingers to hold the breath. (If you are in a public place, you might prefer to hold the breath without holding your nose.)
• While holding your breath, walk for 10 to 30 paces, or until you feel a moderate need to breathe. When you feel this hunger for air, let go of your nose and resume breathing through your nose.
• Continue walking for 10 minutes, performing a breath hold every minute or so.
Creating an air shortage by holding the breath during your warm-up is vitally important to cause an accumulation of carbon dioxide in the blood before physical exercise commences.
Your breathing will naturally increase when you exercise more intensely, but without a corresponding increase in the production of CO2, the result will be a net loss of carbon dioxide. This loss can lead to reduced oxygen delivery to working muscles and the constriction of airways and blood vessels. Not surprisingly, most asthma attacks and breathing difficulties occur during the first 10 minutes of physical exercise.
In order to avoid exercise-induced asthma, there are three simple guidelines:
1. Attain a high BOLT score
2. Nasal breathe
3. Warm up
Breathe Light to Breathe Right—Jogging, Running, or Any Other Activity
After a 10-minute warm-up of walking using relaxation and breath holds, you can increase your pace to a jog or run. Start off easy and follow your breathing, continuing to breathe through the nose. While jogging or running, it is necessary to keep your breathing regular and under control. If you find it too difficult to run with your mouth closed, it simply means that your pace is too fast at that moment. Slow down or even walk a little until you recover, always breathing in and out through the nose, especially if your BOLT score is less than 20 seconds.
You can check whether you are pushing yourself too hard during physical exercise by exhaling normally and holding your breath for 5 seconds. When you resume breathing through the nose, your breathing should remain controlled. If you find that you lose control of your breathing, you are pushing yourself too hard.
No matter what type of exercise you prefer, make sure that you watch your breath and become aware of your inner body. Silently repeat the word relax to help release the tension around your abdomen. Bring your entire attention from your mind into your body. Become one with your run or exercise, merging body, mind, and activity together. Move with every cell of your body, from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. Doing so will give your training, your sport, and your competition the attention they deserve. When engaged in an activity, there is no point to just going through the motions. One needs to become the activity.
As you run, feel each gentle connection between your feet and the ground as you propel yourself forward. Avoid pounding the pavement as this will lead to sore hips, sore joints, and possible injuries. Instead, bring a feeling of lightness to your body, and visualize yourself barely touching the ground as your run. Imagine yourself running over thin twigs, treading so softly that they do not break, emulating the words of Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu: “A good runner leaves no tracks.” Remember: light foot strikes, a relaxed body, and regular, steady breathing.
Ten or fifteen minutes into your run or other workout, you will probably experience an endorphin high from your exercise. Allow your body to find its perfect work rate by breathing through your nose in a steady and regular fashion. There is no need whatsoever for a heart rate monitor to provide feedback on training intensity. Instead, let your nose, your breathing rhythm, and how you feel dictate your training intensity. Continue to increase your pace to the point that you can maintain steady and regular breathing through the nose. If your breathing rhythm becomes chaotic or it is necessary to open your mouth to breathe, your exercise intensity is too much. If this happens, slow your pace to a walk for 2 to 3 minutes to allow your breathing to recover. When you are able to breathe calmly through your nose once more, you can resume your physical exercise.
As you continue your physical exercise, the increased generation of carbon dioxide and heat will enhance the delivery of oxygen from the blood to working muscles, as well as facilitating the dilation of airways and blood vessels. Your body will be warm and sweating, your breathing will be faster than normal but steady, and your head will be clear. If you keep your mouth closed throughout your exercise, your breathing will recover quickly.
Breathing Recovery Exercise
Following physical exercise, cool down by walking for 3 to 5 minutes, performing the following small breath holds:
• Exhale as normal through the nose.
• Pinch your nose with your fingers to hold the breath for 2 to 5 seconds.
• Breathe normally through the nose for 10 seconds.
• Repeat the first 3 steps throughout your cooldown.
• Resume regular breathing.
How to Determine Whether You Have Exercised Correctly
In addition to using breath holds to determine your training limits, you can also use your BOLT score to see how efficient your breathing is during physical exercise. Follow these steps to track your progress using your BOLT score:
• Measure your BOLT score before training.
• Perform your physical exercise.
• Measure your BOLT score one hour after you finish training.
• If your BOLT score is higher after exercise than before, your breathing is efficient during exercise.
• If your BOLT score is lower after
exercise than before, your breathing is inefficient during exercise. In this situation, it is safer to slow down and ensure your breathing remains controlled throughout exercise.
In 1999 Danny Dreyer and his wife, Katherine, introduced Chi-Running to the athletic world, a fusion of running, walking, and the subtle inner focus of tai chi. Having successfully completed forty ultramarathons since 1995, Danny has finished within the top three of his age group in all but one competition. A firm exponent of nasal breathing, Danny advises the use of nose breathing as a self-regulating mechanism, “because you won’t be able to do it if you are either running too fast, not relaxed enough, or inefficient in your movement.” Similar to the experience of most seasoned runners, when Danny first began nose breathing he could only go for a minute or so before he had to breathe through his mouth. However, as he became more efficient and his breathing relaxed into his running form, he was able to breathe through his nose for longer periods of time. Another reason for breathing through the nose, according to Danny, is that it allows air more fully to be brought into the deeper parts of the lungs, enabling a better gas exchange to take place.
See for yourself. Switch to breathing through your nose and you will notice the benefits within a short space of time.
PART II
The Secret of Fitness
CHAPTER 6
Gaining the Edge—Naturally
According to the United States Olympic Training Center, there is a difference of less than 0.5 percent in the performance of Olympic athletes. With such a narrow margin for success, it is essential for athletes and coaches to look for new ways to attain a competitive edge. Since oxygen is the fuel for working muscles, anything that increases body oxygenation above normal levels will be of great benefit to an athlete’s performance, and because oxygen is a natural and limitless resource, it is the ideal tool for boosting performance legally.
The Oxygen Advantage: The Simple, Scientifically Proven Breathing Techniques for a Healthier, Slimmer, Faster, and Fitter You Page 9