Buteyko Breathing

Improve your lung capacity and physical performance

My last piece advocates breathing only through your nose all day, but it’s not easy. When I’m climbing the 46 stairs it takes to get to my apartment, I lose my breath and have to open my mouth. That’s how breathing works, right? Well, maybe not. If I had bigger lung capacity — which is the ability of my lungs to efficiently extract oxygen from the air I breathe- I could shoot up those stairs with a calm heart rate and relaxed breathing, but that kind of capacity takes work. Here’s one thing that has made it easier for me: Buteyko breathing exercises.

As James Nestor explains in his book, the idea is that during exertion your body only needs so much oxygen, but it also requires carbon dioxide. When we open our mouths and breathe heavily, we’re flooding our bodies with oxygen, but not with carbon dioxide. If we keep our mouths shut and breathe more slowly, our lungs get the balance of gases necessary for exertion. Not only will we perform with less huffing and puffing, we’ll actually perform better than with the huffing and puffing. I already knew Americans eat and drink badly. Nestor’s book has taught me we don’t even breathe well!