Deeper
Deeper Breathing May Not Really Be Deeper
The danger is that if deep breathing is done incorrectly one can invite lowered carbon dioxide levels, arrested personal improvement, restrictive lung disease, lack of oxygen, increase in difficulty breathing and shortened lifespan. Do not confuse forced deep breaths with easy effortless BIG reflexive breaths. Forced big breaths are not easy naturally DEEP breaths. They just LOOK larger. Following the wrong example can get you in to short or long term trouble. Below is a form you can fill out that might expose situations where you overbreathe. You can contact us for an depth interpretation and training options to eliminate the inappropriate breathing patterns that cause or worsen many situations in this check sheet.
Breathing deeper often upsets the chemical axis of breathing. What is actually occurring is that taking a deep breath usually occurs when you are stressed and low on plasma CO2. The Deep breathing brings in MORE OXYGEN and FURTHER lowers the CO2 making optimal plasma oxygen uptake less possible. The deep breathing is quite often an illusion, a habit that gives the individual the sense of lessened tensions but in reality is strengthening the tendency towards vaso-constriction. Learn more about how to tell what REALLY is occurring here. Also, when the breathing is deeper via nose, the deeper pattern often lessens the CO2 and reduces the vasodilation of the Nitric oxide. When the deep breath is taken via mouth the nitric oxide vaso dilation is bypassed altogether. There are fast and slow approaches to all this. We specialize in both fast and slow.
WIDESPREAD LACK OF UNDERSTANDING of healthy breathing. Many smoke to relax or to energize and the breaths they take are are quite different, depending. A recent American Lung Association ad reads "If when you smoked, you inhaled deeply, you probably were breathing in a way which actually promoted relaxation." Yes, and it was VERY temporary so you had to do it again and again and again for 20-40 times (cigarettes) a day and that is partly what you got addicted to; the illusion that the cigarette was relaxing when it was really mostly the deeper breathing that released tension a bit but also re-enforced the habit of smoking and taking a deep breath.
True, optimal, EFFORTLESS deeper breathing fills the lungs with increased vital capacity, facilitates stress reduction, heightens the relaxation response, works as a sort of breath based oxygen/CO2 therapy and enhances longevity. Your skin becomes more radiant looking and full of life giving energy, your brain works better, eyes have more sparkle with better vision, your heart function becomes easier and more efficient, and every cell in your body operates better. CO2 is often a HUGE part of the equation.
Shallow breathing may even be better, depending. To breathe deeper out of balance is far worse as it overdrives the nervous system causing harmful to deadly stress. Shallow breathing needs to be differentiated between "quiet" breathing. Quiet breathing is how you breathe when you are relaxed. Shallow breathing is breathing that is not deep enough to be performing life's "normal" functions. One problem with quiet breathing being referred to in the "normal" category is that science believes normal to be in areas I believe to be sub normal or inviting illness and mediocre performance.
Forced deep breathing may initially help with some emphysema cases, for example, but not all. Other aspects of the negative breathing patterns will worsen.
In other words, forced deep breathing may or may not help initially but if prolonged, it invites restriction in later years and teaches one's breathing system to tighten up instead of let go. Letting go is a major factor to developing volume and extended lifespan. One major factor is to be able to self help and sense, measure or assess quickly and easily on a day to day basis to see if your breathing is improving or deteriorating. Then you can learn how to stimulate the breath without inhibiting rib cage expansion and diaphragm excursion. Concurrently you must learn how to develop the diaphragm. It is relatively easy if approached from the proper foundation but often like a rocket ship just one degree off course, the further it travels the further away it becomes from its intended destination of larger volume.
Mountain climbing breathing
Not deep, not shallow. Here is a PDF about climbers that gives tremendous insight about my use of hyperinhalation instead of hyperventilation as being the better way to look at deeper breathing in a good way. You have to use up the excess aerobic reserve so as to not overbreathe learn more.
UDB© includes critical aspects of: Cognitive deficits, Emotional reactions, Personality changes, Consciousness shifts, Interpersonal skills, Perceptual-motor skills, Physiological systems, Vascular system, Digestive system, Nervous system, Respiratory system, Musculoskeletal system, Reproductive system. Develop your breathing FIRST and many or all UDB symptoms and overbreathing situations will improve or disappear. If you wish more or faster progress you may take the next step and do some one one one training.
