This new videos covers the benefits of holding your breath as well as recommendations for practicing it. The benefits go way beyond extra energy and endurance and extend to all the body’s organs including the brain.
Some of the key points in this video:
- By working on holding your breath you can improve your energy, endurance and conditioning – all of which are extremely important for athletic performance. What’s the main thing that optimizes your ability to hold your breath longer? Lung capacity.
- As soon as we begin the breath-hold, C02 is building up; we have too much of it and not enough oxygen.
- Breath holds should be trained progressively, adding a little bit at a time. Even adding five seconds per day is an admirable goal which trains the body and will allow you to hold your breath for longer and longer periods of time.
- Uptake more oxygen before holding your breath by hyperventilating or through other breathing methods which saturate the lungs, blood and cells with plenty of oxygen.
- Three minutes is a good goal to shoot for.
- Passing out from a lack of oxygen is a real threat so be cautious by staying low to the ground or lying on a bed while doing breath training.
- Keeping still is the easiest way to begin, but other methods can involve breath holds while exercising.
- Holding your breath, especially under water, forces blood flow into your organs, improving their health, and possibly your cognition as well. That’s right, some claim you can develop special mental powers while regularly holding your breath.
- It is a great thing to do in the fresh air at the start of your mornings.
- To jumpstart your training learn more about the Mammalian Dive Reflex. When we are submerged in water or have water splashed on our face, blood flow to the brain and other organs gets amplified even more.
- One of the key elements is relaxing while holding your breath; as you do so, float or lay completely still; no movement and not even any thoughts as mental power can drain a lot of oxygen.
Someone asked me “how can I hold my breath longer?” The video above has some great tips for beginners.
Not mentioned in the video, but recently I’ve also been taking “lung herbs” before this practice which I believe helps. One of the best lung herbs out there is cordyceps sinensis.
CEO at Lost Empire Herbs
Logan Christopher is co-founder and CEO of Lost Empire Herbs, which aims to bring performance herbalism into everyday people’s lives. He started studying plants and fungi as a result of his interest in peak performance and strength training. This includes performing feats of strength such as pulling an 8,800 lb. firetruck by his hair, supporting half a ton on top of himself in a wrestler’s bridge position, and routinely ripping decks of cards in half with his bare hands. After visiting the Amazon rainforest, he received a calling to be an “Emissary of Nature” and thus bring humankind back into alignment with nature for health and well-being. You can read more about this in his book Powered By Nature.
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Hyperventilation does not increase oxygen-levels in the blood. The increased breath-hold time is caused by lower levels of carbon-dioxide. ie it will take longer time for the body to produce enough Co2 until levels are high enough to trigger a breathing reflex.
Thank you for your clarification. I was thinking something didn’t sound right about that statement.
Do you have any links to good research on this? Especially the data from Dr. Wenger. I feel I can hold my breath longer while swimming than I seem to be able to out of the water.
I do not. You can check out Wenger’s book The Einstein Factor though – http://amzn.to/1PoQ5Qe
you are suggesting megadosing Ho che wu. What amount are you saying is the mega dose quantity? I do not think you said what that was
I was doing up to a heaping tablespoon at a time whereas a more typical dose may be half a teaspoon.
http://www.breathing.com/articles/breath-holding.htm This article disagrees with breath holding ,saying that it damages the way the body works overtime .It states although it can boost he system temporarily overtime it changes things for the worst.
Obviously breath holding needs to be worked into so that you don’t overdo it and cause damage as that article says, but assuming you don’t go too far I disagree with the points in that article.
Hey Logan, some interesting information for sure. You mentioned holding breath for cognition enhancement. I wanted to ask if you are familiar with Dr. Win Wenger and his teaching about underwater (at least five feet) swimming with held breath for activating “The mammalian diving response” in order to permanently expanding the carotid arterie, which causes a boost in brain circulation and a nice jump in I.Q. as well? Dr. Wenger is a prolific writer has penned many books on increasing mental capacity through different techniques. I hope business is doing well. Andrew
Yes, The Einstein Factor by him was where I first heard of that effect.