We often equate huffing and puffing with exercising, loosing weight and getting fit. Well, it turns out that with mouth breathing all we are doing is driving up cortisol and insulin levels, suppressing leptin – the hormone that says I am full and increasing ghrelin our “hunger hormone”. This is why so many women fail to loose weight even though they are exercising intensely. The net effect is that though you burn calories with exercise you can also lay down more abdominal fat if you opt for calorie rich comfort foods after exercise.
Shallow mouth breathing whist exercising switches on the sympathetic, “fight and flight” nervous system response that can send your hormones on a roller coaster. High cortisol can impair the production of estrogen and progesterone impacting on your wellbeing around menopause. It is also a really inefficient way to exchange oxygen from your lungs into your blood to energise your body as you are only using the top half of your lungs.
Conversely, when we breathe through our noses, the incoming air is forced through the nose and is driven deeply into the lower lobes of the lungs, where the calming, repairing, parasympathetic nervous system is switched on to “rest and digest”.
In other words, breathing through the nose during exercise, an activity that the body would normally perceive as stressful, becomes calm, restorative and meditative according to Ayurveda.
Dr John Douillard, in his book Mind, Body and Sport gives great advice to help you switch into nasal breathing for the sake of your hormones, your health and longevity. Here is his advice…
Step One:
Go for a walk and breathe deeply in and out through your nose. Count how many steps you take during the inhale and how many steps you take during the exhale. Let’s say you take 4 steps on the inhale and four steps on the exhale – that is a great start. As you continue walking, keep trying to lengthen the breath rate through the nose, getting more steps in per breath. Try to get to 10 steps for the inhale and 10 steps for the exhale. Then make your goal 20 steps on the inhale and 20 steps on the exhale.
Note: During this walk, it is important to listen to your breath and not be distracted by music. We are constantly listening to outside stimuli and this is an opportunity to tune in and learn to listen to and experience when the body goes from a calm meditative experience in exercise (or life) to a stressful one. Noticing the difference, and how it feels in the moment when we shift from one to the other, helps us learn how to create, nurture, and build the eye of the hurricane!
Step Two:
Still walking, add the “Darth Vader” nasal breath during the exhale. This is a breath called ujjayi breathing that I want you to add during the exhale only. (Please watch the video associated with this article where I demonstrate this technique). This technique will force incoming air into the lower lobes of the lungs, where we find a higher concentration of oxygenated blood and calming nerve receptors. Breathing into the more oxygen-rich lower lobes of the lungs and activating a calm nervous system response to exercise will ward off the release of stress response hormones.
Step Three:
Continue steps one and two, breathing as deeply in and out through the nose as you possible can and applying the “Darth Vader” breathing technique during the exhale only, for the entire duration of a five minute walk, or longer if you like!
This will oxygenate all five lobes of the lungs allowing you to extend the length of each breath and hopefully reach your goal to take 20 steps during the inhale and 20 steps during the exhale.
Step Four:
Use nasal breathing with the “Darth Vader” (ujjayi) exhale during your regular workouts. During the first five minutes of the workout as in step four, establish a deep, long, slow rhythm of the breath through the nose. Maintain that rhythm during the workout. If the nasal breath rate shortens or you have to open the mouth to breathe comfortably during the workout, it’s a sign that you are overworking. Slow down the pace and reset the original nasal breathing rhythm.
Proper nasal breathing allows the body to respond to exercise without the fat storing, hunger provoking response. For most of us, this is a process! It is not easy in the beginning, but usually in about 2-3 weeks of practice you will begin to feel comfortable breathing through the nose and start experiencing the benefits.