That’s common among most/all ‘calming’ and ‘focusing’ programs. It does help slow things down, which plays into the calming goal. On the flip side is urging participants to deep mouth breath holding the inhale and slowly exhaling.
Funny, perhaps, when I was riding like a maniac during the pandemic, I would catch myself gasping for breath and repeat what Morpheus asks Neo: ‘Do you think that’s air you’re breathing now?’. It worked to make me aware of my rapid breathing and calming the f down. It sounds silly, perhaps, but it did work. I calmed down, HR decreased, and I just kept on. Kind of like a biofeedback thing that worked.
And somehow mouth breathing became a notorious marker for a lack of intelligence. No idea how that connection started. Getting into the whole thing, it’s very possible that some people have higher gauge nostrils than others, and for those ‘well endowed’, don’t look down on us that aren’t. It’s so amazing that of something is ‘easy’ for one, they assume that it’s also going to be easy/beneficial for everyone. It’s also amazing, the gullible that assume they are deficient if they can’t measure up to a perceived ‘new standard’. And it’s not just breathing. shrug
As noted repeatedly in this thread, nose breathing is not appropriate for intense exercise, but its benefits for health when we’re talking about non-exercising life are significant and underappreciated.
Most healthy people already breathe through their nose 99% of the time, and will find little benefit by focusing on it. For all of you in that group, “just breathe”. There are far more and greater improvements to be found elsewhere.
But some people (myself included) find out at age 50 that they have a deviated septum, and that’s why they always had a clogged nose, and they read a book like Oxygen Advantage and realize they DO breathe through their mouth most of the time. And for those of us in that profile, focusing on nose-breathing as much as possible (again, when NOT exercising) proves highly valuable.
I used to think nose breathing is complete nonsense, but was intrigued and have since learned a thing or two about why it makes sense; for example CO2 threshold and its impact on oxygen uptake efficiency and therefore endurance/aerobic capacity.
I now do some of my 5 mile Z2 runs only nose breathing.
I did rather enjoy the idea whilst nose-breathing throughout my sweetspot intervals yesterday that my ability to do so could psych out opponents in a race scenario. Thankful for what seems like larger volume nasal passages.
I did a bunch of exercises to raise my CO2 tolerance last year (mostly freediving-style CO2 tables). Not for any of the pretty poorly supported benefits (literature-wise), but seeking just plain CO2 tolerance. I need to be able to ride long distances through extremely dry climates wearing a mask without feeling like I’m suffocating. CO2 is the main driver in the sensation of breathlessness. More CO2 tolerance, more ability to wear a mask without going crazy, less bronchoconstricted lungs (the latter of which has a dramatic impact on performance, as it turns out).
Well, that all worked as planned and I can mask and/or nose breathe through multi-day races. Lungs are so much happier.
So I come back from the off-season, start base training, and to my surprise I can do whole threshold workouts without opening my mouth. (And yes, my zones are accurate, afaik.) Now that I’m at this point, I’m kinda curious what will happen if I just keep this up. Experimental year!
Yeah Nester and McKeown hype up nose breathing like it’s going to cure everything, help you find true love, and do your laundry for you. I did use some of McKeown’s exercises though.
I want to call BS, but you said are now able to do threshold via the nostrils. That’s pretty impressive…but is it making you a stronger rider? Even if it’s not, I’d admit the ability to do that would be pretty cool.
