Why do we want to train our breathing?
When mouth breathing you are missing out on many beneficial processes the nose performs. Just like someone can over eat, you can also over breathe. Mouth breathing is over breathing- you are taking in to much air, which can be stressful on the system. When you over breathe, you take in more oxygen and your body holds onto the oxygen instead of using it. In addition, the chronic act of mouth breathing starts changing your airway physically. These effects may be permanent and may result in breathing disorders such as sleep apnea. Mouth breathing is also part of your "fight or flight" response or when your sympathetic nervouse system is activated. While performing strenuous activity, the longer one is able to be in their parasympathetic or relaxed mode the better their endurance will be.
How does buteyko breathing work?
There are 6 main exercises that we have our clients perform. Our goal is to help the body work on building a tolerance to CO2(carbon dioxide). The best way to train this exercise is while walking and at rest. After these have been mastered then one is able to integrate nasal breathing into their more strenuous activities.
Train With Us!
For an optimal athletic performance we recommend everyone to nasal breathe as close to 100% of the time as possible. This includes while sleeping, exercising and throughout daily activities. We would love to help you on your journey by aiding you in breathing retraining. We normally recommend weekly virtual sessions of 30 minutes for 10 weeks. Practice exercises will be given as homework, as well as challenges to be performed. If you are on a running program, please let us know each weeks what your exercise break down looks like so we can help incorporate this into your routine.
Granite State Myofunctional Therapy's Run Club
In an effort to help build a community of athletes who are nasal breathers we have started a movement to encourage one another. Join our run club! As we have clients from all over this group is mainly virtual, but we will offer local meet ups in the Southern New Hampshire area. Follow us on instagram for frequent updates! This is a free group and is open for all to join. We will have some virtual races coming up that will be optional for people to register and sign up for.