David’s goal is to reach a BOLT score of 40 seconds within 12 weeks. Physical training with a larger air hunger is the key to achieving this goal.
Program for BOLT Score of 30 Seconds Plus
• Measure your BOLT score each morning after waking.
• Breathe through your nose both day and night, including wearing tape over the mouth during sleep.
• Warm up for 10 minutes by walking and performing a breath hold every minute or so to Simulate High-Altitude Training.
• Breathe Light to Breathe Right during the run by increasing the intensity of exercise while maintaining nasal breathing to develop a reasonably strong air shortage.
• Continue with running and nasal breathing for 20 minutes to 1 hour.
• Midway through the run, practice breath holds to Simulate High-Altitude Training. Exhale and hold the breath for 10 to 40 steps while running at a good pace.
• After the breath hold, resume nasal breathing while simultaneously relaxing the body. Continue to intersperse breath holds every few minutes throughout the run.
• After physical exercise, practice the Breathing Recovery Exercise.
• Practice one session of Advanced Simulation of High Altitude every other day.
• Reduce breathing using the Breathe Light to Breathe Right exercise for 15 minutes last thing at night.
• Fill in the following chart to mark your progress.
Brenda is thirty-two years old, in perfect health, and runs ten miles, four days a week. She is a competitive long-distance runner with a BOLT score of between 35 and 40 seconds. In order to maintain a high BOLT score, physical exercise with a medium to strong air hunger is necessary.
When Brenda feels that she wants to push her body harder and faster, she increases her pace to run as fast as she can with her mouth closed. Often, she is able to maintain nasal breathing while running at her maximum pace. As Brenda’s BOLT score is close to 40 seconds, her body can perform high-intensity exercise without needing to revert to breathing through her mouth. Since her breathing is already so efficient, opening the mouth provides no advantage to her performance. Brenda’s current training regimen is sufficient to ensure maintenance of her BOLT score.
Oxygen Advantage Program Summary for a BOLT Score of 10 to 30 Seconds Plus
With continued practice each week culminating in an improvement to your BOLT score, more intense exercises can be employed to reach even greater heights. Using the following illustrations, you can check your pathway to success.
Program for Weight Loss or Obesity (suitable for all BOLT scores)
• Permanently switch to nasal breathing during both day and night.
• Wear tape across the mouth during sleep (see: Breathe through your nose).
• Become conscious of your breathing during everyday tasks, allowing it to be calm, relaxed, and quiet.
• Practice Breathe Light to Breathe Right for 10 to 15 minutes, 5 times each day. This can be divided into the following:
• 10 minutes before work
• 10 minutes during lunch
• 10 minutes after work
• 10 minutes (or more) while watching TV in the evening
• 15 minutes before bed
• Breathe Light to Breathe Right during walking for 30 to 60 minutes per day.
• For those with a BOLT of over 20 seconds, and who are suited to performing breath holds, Simulate High-Altitude Training by incorporating 8 to 10 breath holds to achieve a medium air hunger throughout the walk.
• Pay particular attention to hunger sensations, asking yourself whether you really need to eat at that time and stopping when satisfied.
• Fill in the following chart to mark your progress.
Earlier on in the book we were introduced to Donna, whose major bugbear was the frustration and feeling of self-defeat when she found her weight increasing again after a successful period of weight loss. To help Donna get her health back on track and to achieve her ideal weight, I asked her to do just three exercises: Breathe Light to Breathe Right, walking with her mouth closed, and practicing breath holds during walking.
Her starting BOLT was 12 seconds, which is typical of someone in a stressful and demanding job with little time devoted to physical exercise. And although Donna did breathe through her nose during the day, she woke up most mornings with a dry mouth, indicating mouth breathing during sleep. Another factor related to her low BOLT score was her difficulty falling asleep. Although she went to bed at a reasonable hour, it often took her two to three hours to finally fall asleep. The result was that she woke up feeling lethargic and unrefreshed, not an ideal scenario when work and family life demanded alertness.
My main goal for Donna was to increase her BOLT score, experience a natural suppression to appetite, and improve her sleep and energy levels.
The most important time for Donna to Breathe Light with a tolerable air hunger was the session directly before she went to sleep. It was not necessary for her to practice this in bed. Instead, Donna usually had some downtime late in the evening when she watched TV, and this was an excellent time for her to reduce her breathing without having to devote special time to the exercise. I suggested that Donna not watch the news or any program involving violence or aggression. This exercise offers an opportunity for the body to relax, not to invoke a stress response.
Because she breathed lightly right before she went to bed, Donna’s sleep became deeper, enabling her to wake up 15 minutes earlier to begin her first set for the day. It was also vital that she made a conscious effort to breathe lightly at various times throughout the day. This just involved bringing attention to her breathing, calming it and quieting it so that she felt a light to medium need for air.
Donna found it a challenge to keep her mouth closed during sleep, but within a few nights her body adapted to this new way of breathing. After the fourth night, she found herself sleeping all the way through, requiring less sleep, waking up earlier, and feeling more refreshed.
In addition to practicing her breathing exercises, it was important that Donna paid attention to her sensations of hunger and thirst. Improving the oxygenation of tissues and organs results in the body using food more efficiently, with this leading to a natural suppression of appetite. The advice I gave to Donna was to eat only when hungry and stop when satisfied. By following this simple rule, she automatically had less need for snacking during the day, and even found herself taking lunch at a later time. Eating according to bodily needs is much more important than eating according to a specific time of the day. It is unfortunate that society has dictated when we eat more so than when we actually need the food. Another beneficial side effect that Donna experienced was an increased thirst and demand for water.
Donna experienced a noticeable reduction to her appetite, and her progress with the breathing exercises was reflected in a higher BOLT score. Within two weeks, her BOLT score had increased from 12 to 20 seconds and she had lost six pounds. I encouraged Donna to quicken her progress by incorporating 8 to 10 breath holds into her 20-minute walk to create a medium air hunger. Doing this exercise temporarily lowers oxygen levels to simulate high-altitude training, resulting in a further natural suppression of appetite.
Many people with a low BOLT score, including Donna, avoid physical exercise, as they get breathless far too quickly, making exercise a burdensome chore. As Donna’s BOLT score increased to 20 seconds, she felt the need to do more physical exercise. This further helped with her weight normalization, increased energy, and self-esteem.
I told Donna what I tell everyone else: Breathing Light to Breathe Right isn’t just an exercise; it’s a way of life. How we breathe at all times during the day influences how we feel and our health. When Donna incorporated this into her way of life and maintained a BOLT of 25-plus seconds, her days of yo-yo dieting were over. To her delight, she currently weighs 145 pounds (from a top weight of 175 pounds), and the increased energy and feel-good factor is a great motivator to continue.
Program for Children and Teenagers
• The Nose Unblocking exercise is the best exercise for children as it is easy, quick, and measurable.
• Practice the Nose Unblocking Exercise a total of 12 times per day, divided into 2 sets of 6 repetitions. Practice 6 repetitions before breakfast and 6 during the day. The number of paces that a child is able to do should increase by 10 every week, with a goal of reaching a score of 80 to 100 paces.
• While practicing the Nose Unblocking Exercise, I often encourage children to wear paper tape over their mouth. This ensures that the mouth is closed during the exercise, with no air sneaking.
• Wearing the tape while watching TV or going about the house can also be very helpful for a child to get used to breathing through his or her nose only.
• Breathe through the nose throughout the day with the tongue placed in the roof of the mouth. To find out more about mouth breathing and development of the growing face, I suggest that you read my book Buteyko Meets Dr. Mew: Buteyko Method for Children and Teenagers.
• Fill in the following chart to mark your progress.
Marc is seven years old, with nasal obstruction and continuous mouth breathing. Although Marc’s physician ruled out asthma, his breathing is audible during rest and eating (much to his parents’ consternation). He gets very breathless while playing football, having to take a break from the match to get his breathing back. Furthermore, he snores each night.
Children are great responders to breathing retraining, although a lot of observation is required from parents. I always say that the success of a child’s retraining is dependent on the motivation of the parents. At my courses, I motivate parents by discussing the importance of nasal breathing for facial development, concentration, sleep, and overall health. I use my own example of mouth breathing during childhood and how it detrimentally affected my concentration in high school and college. Such an innocuous habit has devastating consequences.
To keep it simple for children and teenagers, I suggest only one exercise and a couple of guidelines to make good progress.
Marc loves football, and the promise of improving his sports performance is the main motivator to put the exercises into practice. When Marc is able to hold his breath for 80 to 100 paces, all he has to do is to practice enough repetitions to maintain this figure. For example, after a few weeks Marc should be able to maintain 80 paces by just doing 3 repetitions of paces each day.
An example of Marc’s progress is as follows:
Week 1: 32 paces
Week 2: 37 paces
Week 3: 49 paces
Week 4: 58 paces
Week 5: 70 paces
Week 6: 81 paces
Week 7: 83 paces
Week 8: 79 paces
Week 9: 82 paces
Week 10: 85 paces
Marc’s progress on the number of paces that he can hold his breath for will also depend on his everyday breathing. If he does not breathe through his nose, or regularly takes big breaths during the day, then his progress with increasing the number of paces while holding his breath will be a lot slower. Therefore, in addition to practicing the paces, it is vital to ensure nasal and quiet breathing during the day. To help with this, Marc’s parents can gently encourage him to breathe quietly any time they hear his breathing. An added incentive for his parents to continue with the exercises is that Marc will have silent breathing during eating, not finding it necessary to gulp large breaths through his mouth while having a mouth full of food.
Appendix
Upper Limits and Safety of Breath Holding
When you hold your breath, you prevent oxygen from entering into your lungs and excess carbon dioxide from been expelled. During a maximum breath hold, the partial pressure of oxygen decreases in the blood, which causes the body to conserve any available oxygen for the heart and brain by constricting the blood vessels that supply nonessential organs. For example, your arms and legs may feel cold as the blood vessels close and the body diverts blood away from them. Another effect is bradycardia, which is the slowing of the heart, causing peripheral blood vessels to constrict, blood pressure to increase, and the spleen to contract, resulting in the “diving response.” The diving response is experienced by all air-breathing vertebrates and is an automatic response to a drop in oxygen supply. It is what allows babies and young children to instinctively hold their breath when underwater, and is generally more pronounced in adults who regularly practice breath holding.
During breath holding, the arterial partial pressure of oxygen decreases from its normal level (100 mmHg) while carbon dioxide increases to above its normal level (40 mmHg). Breaking point, or the point at which an individual must release a breath hold, is when oxygen decreases to 62 mmHg and carbon dioxide is 54 mmHg. While it is extremely difficult for adults to hold their breath to the point of fainting, it has been estimated that consciousness is lost when the oxygen drops to below 27 mmHg and carbon dioxide increases to between 90 and 120 mmHg. The body uses built-in safety mechanisms such as the diving response and fainting to ensure that we do not deprive the brain of oxygen for too long, as doing so can result in brain injury.
The breath-hold exercises described in this book are absolutely safe so long as they are practiced within tolerable limits. However, individuals with high blood pressure, cardiac conditions, type 1 diabetes, or any other serious health concern should not practice holding their breath either during rest or while exercising.
To simulate high-altitude training, it is necessary to hold your breath until you feel a relatively strong air hunger. At the same time, there is no point in overdoing it. It is important to recover your breathing within 2 to 3 breaths. Before practicing breath holding during intense exercise, it is advisable to first achieve a BOLT score of at least 20 seconds. Until then, gentler breath-hold exercises during rest and mild to moderate activity can help you to improve your BOLT score to 20 seconds or more.
Although breath-hold training increases tolerance of carbon dioxide, it is interesting to note that it does not blunt the brain’s safety reaction to oxygen deprivation. This is where deliberate breath-hold exercises differ vastly from the physiological condition of sleep apnea, where the breath is held unintentionally during sleep, sometimes leading to severe health problems. If these frightening results are a side effect of breath holding, it may be supposed that intentional breath holding might have the same effects, but studies of elite breath holders have found the results to be quite the opposite. Research by Ivancev and colleagues looked at the breath-holding ability and carbon dioxide sensitivity of breath-hold divers, whose sport potentially puts them at risk of severe oxygen deprivation. With repeated practice, these divers are able to sustain very long breath holds, inducing a severe drop in oxygen without causing brain injury or blackouts. A further study by Joulia and colleagues showed that divers displayed a more pronounced diving response, less of a decrease in oxygen saturation, and greater blood flow.
Stages of Breath Holding
A breath hold can be distinguished by three stages of air shortage ranging from easy to moderate to strong.
In the first stage there is no stimulus by the breathing muscles to resume breathing because carbon dioxide has not yet reached threshold limits. This is known as an easy air shortage.
The second stage is a moderate air shortage. As the breath hold lengthens, carbon dioxide continues to increase in the blood until the concentration reaches your threshold, stimulating the breathing muscles to contract or jerk in an attempt to draw air in. The longer the breath is held, the more frequent are the contractions of the breathing muscles as the body attempts to draw air into the lungs.
The third stage is when the desire to breathe becomes so strong that the individual must resume breathing. This is known as a strong air shortage.
• Easy air shortage: no sensation to breathe.
• Moderate air shortage: from the first involuntary contraction of the breathing muscles until contractions become
frequent.
• Strong air shortage: urge to breathe is strong, leading to termination of the breath hold.
Influences on Length of Breath-Hold Time
The three factors that determine the length of breath-hold time are: metabolic rate, tolerance to asphyxia (decreased oxygen levels), and total body gas storage in lungs, blood, and tissues.
Metabolic rate can be reduced through relaxation before and during the breath hold, whereas tolerance to asphyxia is improved by practicing regular breath holds. Other activities that influence breath-hold time are:
The Oxygen Advantage: The Simple, Scientifically Proven Breathing Techniques for a Healthier, Slimmer, Faster, and Fitter You Page 26