Breathing Mechanics 101

While we always hear that breathing is super important, it seems to suffer from the same information overload that most health advice comes with. I have completed two courses recently that brought together a lot of the previous breathwork I had looked into. The key elements of breathing are below and what you can do to immediately improve it.

Are You Even Breathing? – I think a lot of breathing chat is not taken seriously because we all know how to do it otherwise we would not be alive. In the same way that most people have a driving license, there is a huge variety in how people drive, just like driving well, it is helpful to breathe better.

The basic mechanics of breathing is that a signal tells your body to inhale, which will happen at a certain speed, you may or may not pause before another signal tells the body to breathe out again at a determined speed once more. Finally, you may or may not take another pause before the pattern is repeated. This process comes from both the brain and the body as they talk to each other throughout each stage of the above process.

The Ideal 360′ Breath Mechanics – The ideal breath would see your diaphragm drop (belly come out) simultaneously to your lower, side and upper ribs expanding in all directions, this is a 3D (dimensional) breath, which sees your rib cage increasing in size in all directions. In the real world, most of us do not breathe this way. 

Why You Cannot Do 3D Breathing – There are various reason most of struggle to use this correct breath pattern which includes:

Tight Rib Cage – Your muscles between the ribs (intercostals) or directly over the rib cage (pecs, lats etc) can directly squash and contract the ribs. In addition to this, muscles that attach onto the ribs (neck, obliques etc) can exert so much pressure your rib cage is unable to expand. 

Tight Fascial Lines – The fascia above and below the ribs can also influence this. For example, tightness in the quads or hip flexors (like the rectus femoris) can pass this stiffness up to the rib cage which then becomes compressed. 

Inadequate Exhalation – One of my courses answered the question that had been annoying me for ages, why could I not get anywhere near my max heart rate when running yet I can easily do it during Hyrox exercises. The answer was in my faulty exhalation breathing mechanics, which as a former asthmatic makes perfect sense (asthma is an exhalation issue/problem). 

If your diaphragm cannot fully ascend into the rib cage, it cannot empty all of your air. This means you will not be ready to take your next full breath meaning your cannot do 3D breathing. It is like trying to jump but not being allowed to bend your knees.

The Ideal Breath Ratio – At rest, the general rule of thumb is the slower the breathing rate the better, with a longer exhalation than inhalation and a short pause between these. The optimal ratio (gives best HRV scores) seems to be 4 seconds in, 6 seconds out. This gives about 5.5 to 6 breaths per minute.

When exercising, both the frequency of breathing and volume of each breath increases greatly depending on the exercise intensity reached. You can get up to 60 breaths a minute during very intense exercise, e.g. at the end of a race. Elite level breath patterns is a very understudied area but they seem to use a more even inhalation to exhalation pattern during intense exercise.

Why You Cannot Breathe With the Ideal Ratio – Very few people will breathe with the correct ratio, as seen by most people taking between 12 to 18 breaths a minute simply at rest. These are the main reasons this happens:

Poor 3D Breath Mechanics – How are you meant to breathe 6 times a minute if you can only access 30% of your breath potential. You simply have to breathe faster because each breath is so constrained.

Low Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Tolerance – Most people have a low sensitivity to carbon dioxide levels in the blood. This means your brain tells you to breathe more frequently to avoid the CO2 build up which means you breathe faster than necessary. You can train your ability to tolerate CO2 which will slow your breathing pattern. 

Ingrained Habitual Breathing Pattern – Many people have simply become accustomed to breathing quickly after doing it for years without thinking about it. This habit will continue until retrained.

Stress – A stressed brain sends danger signals to the body to accelerate your breath rate, so it can counter what you may be facing. This works fine if it was a short term stress but not helpful if an ongoing situation. 

Sensitivities – Food or Environmental irritants can change your breathing patterns away from ideal. Chronic inflammation, past injuries, asthma history, or trauma can lead to long-term changes in breathing mechanics.

Nasal vs Mouth Breathing – At rest, most of your breathing should be done through your nose, this is especially important during sleep. You should always inhale using your nose as it encourages more diaphragmatic use, better oxygen uptake, and greater CO2 tolerance. You may find it preferable to breathe out using your mouth.

At lower levels of exercise intensity, you should still be able to use your nose. However, at higher levels of intensity you will need to use your mouth, as shown by elite level athletes who use both their mouth and nose during competition. 

What Does This Mean For You?

It is nice to learn more about breath but what can you easily do to actually improve and move your breathing patterns towards a more ideal state. Try any of these methods: 

Side-Lying Breathing – I included this a few weeks ago as an exercise, it is so powerful for opening up your tight ribcage. Simply lie on your side and focus on doing some 3D breaths. Do both sides daily for a few days to see if it helps, more on this exercise here>>

Develop the Postural Lines of the Body – Increase the overall flexibility in the body by doing the three types of stretches in the photo below. If you cannot do the more advanced version (most cannot) then do the simpler one shown. These work on the front, side and back postural lines. 

Increase CO2 tolerance – Pick one or more of the methods to increase your carbon dioxide resistance. A simple way is by doing lower intensity exercise only breathing in and out using your nose. Another is to tape your mouth at night while sleeping, as this is one of our worst times of the day for mouth breathing. Finally, you may want to go through a few minutes of a Butekyo Reduced Breathing exercise as shown in my video here>>> 

Practice Ideal Breathing – To learn the ideal breath pattern you can simply follow along with a 4-6 breathing pattern video as shown here>>. For maximum benefit look to do this in different postures, e.g. lying, sitting, walking, or even during light exercise. 

Photo – The four stretches to help rib cage expansion & breathing:

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