Update Breath Work Materials from Shift!
A few months ago my friends at Shift Adapt gave their website and web/app a makeover. There’s a lot more going on under the hood than just re-skinning old breath work charts, and protocols, so let’s take a look what I’ve been doing to improve my CO2 tolerance and what I’ve learned over the past year.
It’s been about one year since I was thoroughly introduced to Shift. Of course, I had heard Brian Mackenzie on podcasts before; but in April / May of 2023 I took two months to consume (literally all) of the content on Shift All Access. So, I’d like to think I’ve learned a few things there and in the intervening year.
(Re)Introduction to Breath Work:
“Breath work” is a massive topic to cover, but effectively what people usually mean is some sort of intentional manipulation of respiration to alter gas exchange and blood levels of C/O2.
More specifically, we are also activating neural pathways; either “up regulating (activation of the sympathetic nervous system — SNS — our so-called fight/flight response) or “down regulating (activating the parasympathetic nervous system — PNS).
Because of these reactions, CO2 is often called “the stress molecule.” Respiration isn’t just to pull O2 in, but to push CO2 out. Breath holds notoriously increase feelings of fear and anxiety. There’s good biological reason for this, if we’re not actively respiring, we’re suffocating, dying!
The fine folks at Oxygen Advantage use a BOLT score, but the tried and true for shift has been a maximum exhale, both are a CO2 tolerance test and I’ve found scores to be similar to each other; with the BOLT score being slightly lower.
Typically I find myself in “Breath Category 2” and this hasn’t changed much over the past year. I’ll get to why later on. Unfortunately, I’d bet that far too many people are in Category 1. There’s nothing wrong with that, which is important to note!
What it does mean is that your SNS is highly activated, perhaps chronically, and that is probably affecting your life negatively in some ways.
The screenshots I’ve copied here are from the free materials within Shfit’s portal, so you can readily find them for yourself. I don’t have a copy of some of the earlier materials, but I recall the former breath assessment having a few more cadences to choose from.
IMO this overly complicates things. 6 is plenty! In fact, one thing I’ve found helpful is to do a “breath work up” or “build a box” (detailed below) to assess where I’m at and how I’m feeling on any given day. This is in contrast to — knowing myself — and being too attached to an arbitrary outcome (such as an exhale test).
What’s New and What’s Old News:
In case you needed a reminder, telling someone to “just calm down” is never an effective conflict resolution strategy. Yet, this is often what we try to tell our physiology when we try to apply a arbitrary breath cadence / protocol.
For example:
Wim Hof Method (WHM)
Box-Breathing (typically characterized with 4 second segments).
Exercise 1: If you want to feel this for yourself, without getting into an argument with your spouse, start a 4:4:4:4 box-breath through your nose, and start walking up and down several flights of stairs. Keep walking up and down until you open your mouth or change cadence.
What we need to recognize throughout any protocol is the difference between state and trait characteristics. Trait characteristics typically don’t change easily (think of hair / eye / skin color). However, states like sleepiness, wakefulness, mood, etc. can change quite often.
Your marathon time probably doesn’t change a whole lot, especially after many years of training. However, your CO2TT results may be dramatically different based on how much stress is going on at work, or any number of variables also ramping up your SNS.
Example 2: WHM is a powerful tool. Unfortunately, a lot of people do not understand the physiology behind these type of blanket recommendations. WHM is pro-oxygenating, which means it’s pro-stimulating (specifically of the SNS). That’s great if you’re about to attempt a 1RM or sit on an ice cube (it literally warms you up); but quite counter-intuitive if you’re one of those Category 1 folks mentioned above.
The “build a box” method is something I use for myself, also to familiarize myself with the different cadence / apnea protocols Shift outlines. What this looks like is starting with something very easy at Cadence 1a — maybe 3:3 or 5:5; in:out.
After about one minute of that, I’ll ramp up to Cadence 1b with the same interval length — 3:3:3 or 5:5:5; in-hold-out. Again, after a couple minutes (more than one!) I’ll move to Cadence 1c (“box breath”), again with the same intervals length — 3:3:3:3 or 5:5:5:5.
I’ll continue in this fashion through the apnea protocols until I start to feel my soft palette straining, then I’ll back off to the prior protocol for a minute or two. Sometimes, this can be a lengthy practice, but it’s been my go-to after training sessions, particularly endurance or O2 mobilization ones that have really got my lungs ripping.
In Practice / My Practice:
Shift’s exhale test put me in the “Balanced Responder” category (Category 2), which Brian describes as:
“Typically you transition well from most stressful situations and have a healthy nervous system.”
This hasn’t changed much for me over the past year, but I haven’t prioritized breathing the way I have other aspects of my training. Sure, I’m more conscious of it, but as far as “making it a priority” or sticking to a plan or structure — I haven’t.
I also thinks its easy to focus on easy or comfortable things. For me that’s musculature. In other words, I may have improved my strength and endurance, but (as indicated by my breathing) I’m still a little high strung and slightly overly aroused (neurologically) most of the time.
Something I found that was a useful addition from Oxygen Advantage, was “walking boxes.” This concept can be applied for any breath cadence, but the idea is that you count steps instead of seconds. This may seem like a trivial change, but for me it’s huge because I’m not nearly as attached to the outcome. Why? Because I’ve patched this into my daily routine while walking the dogs and God knows we stop plenty to sniff and pee on things so the “count” is approximate anyway.
What’s more is that this also means I’m getting to my breath work about twice per day (at least Monday - Friday) for 2 sessions of 10-15 minutes. “Habit stacking” as James Clear calls it.
To boot, Shift has a newer article on how to “access performance potential.” I’ve already started using some of these tools, but the general idea is that we can implement any or all of the following practices:
Warm Up: hypoxia, slowing down, breath holds or elongated cadences with mild movement.
Work: focus on taking full breaths, pausing at the bottom, and avoiding hyperventilation (short, shallow breaths).
Note: WHM is also a good option here.
After / Between: Working back to nasal breaths with intermittent holds (not every breath cycle, because you probably can’t). Just because you’re going backwards, doesn’t mean you can forget to take steps instead of leaps.
Keep Breathing.