Breath as Experiential Stress Management
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“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
~ Carl Jung
In parallel process with the Nonprophet Capacity program I’ve also been working through some of Shift Adapt’s breathwork — what they describe as “experiential stress management.”
If you’re familiar at all with Nonprophet’s work (Mark Twight and Michael Blevins) as well as Brain Mackenzie (SHIFT and HHPF) then it’s no surprise that similar functions are served with strikingly similar prose.
Physicality can teach us a lot about our psychology and the gym is a synthetic environment that allows us to manipulate variables of that physicality in a generally controlled and quantifiable manner — watts, pounds, reps, calories, RPMs, minutes, etc.
If we are to talk about “capacity” as “finding the edge”, then it’s worth mentioning that holding one’s breath increases feelings of fear and anxiety (ref.). Additionally, “intensity” is often defined in terms of power (output divided by time). Both power and intensity are tools that can be used to expose us un/willingly to ourselves; and when they do this might be called “effort.”
The feedback and indicators of our breathing are immediate correlates to our state of arousal. Heart rate is a seductively simplistic measure, particularly with the dawn of wearable technology (smart/fitness watches and rings). However, heart rate is often “late to the part” and breath is a regulatory factor that we can manipulate and transition between intentional and automatic states.
Over the past month I’ve watched dozens of webinars on SHIFT’s website and have implemented many of their practices, protocols, and strategies. Admittedly, I haven’t followed the nasal breath development program as prescribed due to trying to catch up on so much content at once.
Of course, I paid the price for this as it only took me about 4 weeks to “blow out” my sinuses and give myself an infection and acute inflammation — painful and gross. It turns out that your sinuses need time to adapt and strengthen like any other tissue. However, they’re much more delicate than more robust muscle groups like shoulders or quadriceps.
In other words, don’t underestimate the importance of developing a Gear 1 / Gear 2 base (see below) just as you would “Zone 1” before “Zone 2” or “crawl before you walk before you run before you jump.”
As Brian said in a recent Instagram post (ref.):
“Breath control’s ultimate goal is awareness.”
Phrased a bit different, the intention of one’s practice should be to “engage with (your) limits to expand (them) purposefully.” What this means is that we neither blunt experiences nor catapult ourselves into injury or panic.
Many readers will know that your training is only as useful as what you can recover from. You cannot force adaptation, only provide stimulation and resources to recover from said stimulation.
Simply wanting to hold your breath longer doesn’t stop you from passing out, wishing you can bench press 315 lbs. doesn’t make the bar any lighter, and motivational memes and hype-speaches are some of the most intelligent lies.
In that sense:
Stimulus + Recovery = Adaptation
In a similar fashion:
Stress + Regulation = Learning
In general, down regulation involves:
Transitioning from mouth to nose breathing (sympathetic nervous system to parasympathetic nervous system activation).
Extending exhales (a relaxation mechanism to off-gas CO2 and clear waste products).
Reducing the number or respirations per minute (by adding tolerable holds / pauses).
We can also reverse this process to “Gear Up” and increase our level of arousal — such as before a heavy lift. This can also be used to induce a controlled stressor to work with in order to develop competence and confidence in our ability to both tolerate and regulate stress (such as anxiety).
Often times the duration of an inhale can be difficult and people “feel like they can’t get enough air in”, so they’re actually holding their breath for part of that inhale duration (e.g. longer than 5 seconds). The lesson is very intentional here. Your goal is to manage flow control rather than be attached to an arbitrary duration.
Application to Training:
Work Intervals:
Let’s say I was riding an air bike for 4 x 4 minute rounds. That’s a good duration that will still punish you for “coming out too hot”, but leave you with enough hope to still finish the round.
If I do not control my breathing — and thereby regulate my arousal — it’s likely I’ll “psych myself up too much” in the later rounds to gain a false sense of security. What happens is I over-breathe, overwork, burn out, and finish with less than favorable results that round.
Obviously, you will need to breathe harder / at a higher “gear” to achieve certain outputs. Inevitably state of arousal is increased both by intensity and duration. These factors highlight the necessity of early, intentional, intervention — that is, recognizing and applying the most efficient “gear” to get the job done.
Points to Observe:
How long / hard can you ride until your breathing cadence / pattern changes or your mouth opens?
Sometimes you need to shift up for more power output, so what’s the “top speed” (RPM / Watts) for each of your “gears?”
NOTE: I’m well known for having jiujitsu athletes roll / spar with their mouths closed — “NBO” on the whiteboard indicates “nose breathing only.”
Recovery Intervals:
This is actually where I started implementing breath practice in live training. It was a quick observation that precious recovery time between intervals (remember our 4 x 4 min. example) could easily be wasted if one were to only passively recover (ref.).
It seemed far more valuable to be able to consciously down-regulate and be intentional about trying to leverage those factors mentioned above (nasal breathing, extended exhales, etc.).
However, just like up-regulation, down-regulation needs to be a “geared” approach as well. Hence, the hamster video above. If you down-shift too soon, your engine stalls and you panic and up-regulate in response — having to start all over again.
Points to Observe:
How long post-effort does it take to regain control of your breath (nasal breathing)?
How does this change after each / multiple rounds?
Summary:
Our breath is a controllable indicator of our state of arousal. Typically, breathing through our nose engages the PNS while breathing through the mouth activates the SNS.
In either case (nose or mouth) extended exhales and decreased respiration rate (breath cycles per minute) tend to be down-regulatory factors.
We can use a “geared” approach to control / manage power output and recovery status. However, each have consequences for forcing a certain state into an inappropriate demand.
Experiments to Try:
Max Exhale Test (CO2TT):
Take 3 big breaths in / out through your nose.
After 4th inhale, press “Start” on a stopwatch and exhale as slowly as possible.
NOTE: This is a “state” (not trait) test, meaning you could get vastly different results depending on your state of stress, recovery, etc. on any given day.
Metabolic Test (O2 mobilization / lactic acid clearance):
Start easy on air bike (nasal breathing only).
Each minute add 2 to your RPMs.
Keep adding 2 RPMs / minute until you open your mouth.
Note the start / finish RPMs and the time (e.g. 54 - 70 RPM; 7:50)
If you blow out in less than 5 minutes you started too hot.
If you last longer than 15 minutes you started too easy.
I’ve used this protocol several times for myself and clients as a warmup for harder efforts.
Sprint Test (recoverability):
10 sec. air bike sprint (inhale nose / exhale mouth)
20 sec. recovery (nasal breaths only)
8 set (4 minutes total)
Score(s):
Average Watts (during work):
Recovery Time (to get back to 3 consecutive 7 second exhales; nose/nose)