Every day, each of us inhales and exhales approximately twenty-five thousand times. According to modern science, how we take each of those 25,000 breaths matters!

90% of us are breathing poorly, leading to limited health, performance, recovery and more.

According to author James Nestor (Breath-The New Science of a Lost Art) about 90% of humans are chronically over-breathing, essentially causing hyperventilation. This is a gateway to chronic stress, something that many doctors are now labeling as the leading cause of most diseases and hinderances to psyches. Recent studies show that chronic dysfunctional breathing can affect our body on many levels, which can lead to numerous and wide ranging health conditions. The good news is, there is a time and place for every type of breathing, and we can control our own breath and even health for free!

Co2 isn’t a waste!

Have you ever heard carbon dioxide labeled as a “waste gas?” As a lifelong swimmer and water enthusiast, I used to believe that we needed oxygen to breathe, and carbon dioxide was a waste. The truth is that carbon dioxide actually triggers our urge to breathe! By building what we call “carbon dioxide tolerance” or a stronger ability to control our bodies “fight or flight” alarms triggered by our sympathetic nervous systems, we can reduce anxiety, stress, and even psychical and emotional pain. By learning to harness the freedom of our own respiratory systems we can begin to take back our health, permanently. 

Making our muscles work for us.

Exercising and strengthening our functional breathing muscles and respiratory systems can help us deal with pain and discomfort in sports and in daily life. Strengthening these muscles has not only allowed me to hold my breath longer when I free dive, surf, and swim, but also to deal with emotional and physical pressures in my daily life.  Did you know that every human possesses eleven pounds of respiratory muscles? Let’s learn how to utilize these babies!

Endless discovery.

I invite you to join me in learning more about the science of breath! Check out this link to find articles and medical journal entries explaining the science in depth, and a special shout out to all of my Peak Flow homies for their unwavering enthusiasm for all things breath! *(Not all of us are over breathing, and/or under breathing 24/7, but we can all make small adjustments throughout the day that the ancient yogi’s believed could add years and longevity to our human experiences, and modern science is starting to discover that the yogi’s were on to something ;)