partly out of personal curiosity and partly to keep myself up to date, i am always on the lookout for news about unconventional lifestyles and alternative ways of keeping fit and healthy. so over the years i have read a lot of books and articles dealing with what can be generically defined as 'underground fitness'. i have never slavishly followed any of the proposed routines or methods, but from every book and article i have read i borrowed something useful that has somehow been incorporated into my routine, even when disagreeing with the basic ideas expressed by the author. some advices or methods that i tested got discarded either because they didn't fit in well with my lifestyle or because they were too time-consuming in exchange for a modest result, others became part of my daily habits. the breathing exercises recommendeded in the book 'The Oxygen Advantage' by Patrick McKeown belong to this second category.
the book is based on an undeniable fact: in order to survive and to do any work, our organism absorbs oxygen and releases carbon dioxide. the body receives oxygen every time we inhale and release carbon dioxide every time we exhale. a small percentage of carbon dioxide, however, remains in the blood: it facilitates chemical reactions in the cells so we can make better use of the oxygen that is transported from the lungs to all body districts. for this reason, expelling too much carbon dioxide proves counterproductive.
over the centuries, and especially due to the unphysiological lifestyles that have become widespread recently, our bodies (or rather, some specific receptors in our brains) are no longer able to assess what is the optimal percentage of carbon dioxide in our blood so we end up expelling too much and, at the same time, storing too much oxygen that becomes useless. simply put, we breathe too much and in the wrong way, and by consequence our body does not function at its best. the book suggests a series of exercises aiming to re-educating our brain to tolerate the right amount of carbon dioxide and to make the most of the amount of oxygen that we send to our muscles: by holding our breath, using different methods and techniques, we educate the specific brain receptors to handle a greater amount of carbon dioxide in the blood. at the end of the day, this is the principle of any form of training: to enact a series of behaviours that, through adaptiation, condition our body to function more efficiently. and i don't see why a fundamental physiological function such as breathing should be an exception.
the proposed exercises are very simple to perform and can be incorporated into our daily routine without any problem. some are to be performed in a state of rest, so they are perfect for those delicate phases of our day such as waking up and falling asleep. others are designed to be performed during a workout or immediately after, in the recovery phase. others can be done while walking, we can do them on our daily commute, and even a short walk can become an opportunity to improve our body's performance.
but... do these techniques work? do they bring real benefits? a big point in favour of the book (and the author's theories) is that progress and benefits are easily measured with empirical methods such as counting the number of steps we manage to take while holding our breath or timing how many seconds we can go without breathing before our body sends us clear signals of air hunger. other exercises, on the other hand, require the use of an oxypulsimeter to be performed safely or to fully understand their effectiveness. i don't feel like spending money on technology, so i haven't bought an oxypulsimeter (even though they cost very little) and i have never tried the exercises that require their use. but i have been doing for a long time the exercises that can be performed without technological aids. indeed, i have greatly improved my body's tolerance to carbon dioxide. i have neither the expertise nor the tools to personally verify the actual benefits of an increased tolerance to carbon dioxide in the blood, but the author accurately reports the results of many scientific studies that support his theory. considering sports performance, getting used to a higher level of carbon dioxide brings the same gains as training at high altitude. even people who aren't into sports or are not interested in performance can enjoy the benefits of a more physiological way of breathing as it rebalances blood pH, increases oxygenation of tissues and brings many other benefits affecting cellular metabolism.
the book is well written, detailed where needed but never boring. i recommend it to everyone, but especially to those who, like me, are interested in body-hacking techniques to modify certain functions of our body in a completely natural way.
last but not least, breathing exercises have an unexpected side effect. i know that it doesn't happen to people who, like me, eat physiologically, but considering how often tv-ads on the subject are aired, i suspect there's a lot of people out there suffering from constipation: try the "breath light to breath right" exercise while sitting on the toilet. in a few minutes your problem will be solved.
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