HOW TO WIN BY A NOSE
We obsess over our rep counts, form and rest times, but could the way you breathe be the key to unlocking superior fitness? It’s not to be sniffed at
How often do you stop to think about how you’re breathing? Whether it’s deep or shallow; through your mouth or through your nose. We take about 25,000 breaths per day, yet we rarely pay any attention to them.
And perhaps we should.
Chronic disordered breathing – which is likely linked to today’s sleep-deprived, anxiety-riddled existence – has been linked to an elevated risk of asthma, sinusitis, snoring, allergies and even things like panic attacks and diabetes.
Nasal breathing, it’s claimed, can help to control heart rate, manage stress and reduce inflammation. Could this be the marginal gain you’ve been missing?
01/
THE TREND
I thought of nasal breathing like I do ice baths and ayahuasca. I’d heard interesting things, but never felt inclined to dabble. But its performance-enhancing powers have become hard to ignore, ever since journalist James Nestor breathed fresh life into the subject with his book Breath: The New Science Of A Lost Art in 2020.
Pointing to a vast body of research and personal experimentation (plus a school of Himalayan monks who could raise their body temperature by 17°C), Nestor argued that we should all breathe with our mouths closed. Now, we have Wim Hof teaching celebrities the breath of fire on BBC; Erling Haaland talking nostril breathing on Logan Paul’s podcast; and Grand Slam champ Iga Świątek training with her mouth taped.
02/
THE EXPERT VIEW
Advocates say nasal breathing while exercising trains your respiratory system to better tolerate carbon dioxide. ‘Air hunger’ as MH fitness director Andrew Tracey puts it, occurs in the presence of rising CO2. ‘Breathing is signalled and mediated by the presence of carbon dioxide, not by a lack of oxygen,’ he says.
The feeling of panic and breathlessness that rises as your workout intensifies is your body’s response to what it considers an imbalance in blood gases. The involuntary ‘gasp response’ that follows is its attempt to redress this.
Suppress this impulse and keep nasal breathing, and you’ll spark a chain reaction known as the Bohr effect: levels of CO2 in your bloodstream will build; blood pH will drop; haemoglobin, the main carrier of oxygen, will release O2 more readily; and oxygen delivery to your working muscles will go through the roof.
There are, however, times when nose breathing can’t cut it. A 2017 study in the International Journal Of Kinesiology And Sports Science found that while nasal breathing was more efficient than oral breathing during 65% and 80% VO2 max efforts, the benefits fell away at higher intensities.
03/
THE TRIAL
To start, Tracey arms me with a 20-minute guided run set to a 170bpm metronome. I’m told to sync my cadence to the tick, tick, tick of the beat, inhaling for four steps, exhaling for four. Within three minutes, I feel the walls closing in. I’m told to throttle back my pace, but the panic is too much and I cave, taking a hungry gulp of air.
Over the next 10 minutes, things begin to click into gear. My heart rate hovers between 118 to 133bpm, well below my zone 2 threshold. Granted, I’m moving at a relative snail’s pace (around a 6:30min/km when I usually pace about two minutes per km quicker), but I feel like I could keep moving forever.
It’s a different story in the gym. Tracey suggests I kick off with a ‘Bolt Test’ to determine my CO2 tolerance. This involves breathing normally, exhaling fully, then timing how long you can last before coming up for air. I score just 20 seconds.
Next he instructs me to tackle an ‘Air Bike Wattage Ramp Test’. Here the challenge is to set off at a leisurely 100 watts (40 rpm) pace, adding 50 watts as each minute ticks by. In my first attempt, using mouth breathing by way of comparison, I check out at 300 watts (five minutes). In my second, relying solely on nasal breathing, I cave quicker at 250 watts (four minutes).
My final test is a nasal breathing re-enactment of CrossFit Open 24.1, replete with dumbbell snatches and burpees. Here, I fall totally, utterly apart after just one minute and 10 seconds.
04/
THE VERDICT
I fell back on the technique a few more times while writing this article. During the rowing portions of a particularly brutal
CrossFit workout, I used nasal breathing to lower my spiking pulse rate, and it worked (or at least my heart didn’t exit my chest, Alien-style).
I also fully intend to use Tracey’s guided runs to build my CO2 tolerance, as that was an area where I could see genuine progress. When running, Tracey reminded me to remain conscious of the ‘story in my head’ when
I’d start to feel breathless, and to ‘remember: you are breathing’.
This tactic helped me to stay calm, and reminded me of the power the mind truly has over the body.
Nasal breathing, for me, has a time and a place. Deep in the pain cave of a metcon workout: not so much. On a long, slow and steady morning run? Go for it.