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understanding basic breathing concepts

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Talk to your clients about their beliefs about breathing, and in particular, talk to them about what they believe about their own breathing. What do they say to themselves about their own breathing? What have others told them? Before beginning CapnoLearning® sessions, it is important that clients have an accurate understanding of the physiology and psychology that underlies what they will be learning.

It is important to understand the “active ingredients” of CapnoLearning, to make the implicit explicit, wherein relevant mechanisms are addressed directly, rather than incidentally. We make what is usually implicit for learners explicit, and provide for direct focus on the variables that count, the ones that provide for the efficacy of learning. This approach points the way to far greater efficacy of breathing training, not to mention its credibility. Faulty assumptions and understandings about the physiology of breathing are implicit in training practices everywhere, which unfortunately, in many cases, may actually lead to counterproductive practice. Here are examples:

(a) Clients are often told that breath holding means underbreathing, when in fact, it may constitute a brainstem reflex for restoring PCO2 levels, a compensatory response to overbreathing. “Remember to breathe” is often a recommended antidote to stress, when in fact it is usually overbreathing that leads to the observed symptoms of homeostatic deregulation.

Underbreathing behaviour, contrary to popular opinion, is rare in healthy people. An important exception is hyperinflation, where people take a deep breath, immediately abort the exhale, reach for another breath, and trap themselves in the

anatomical dead space of the upper airways, where diffusion of O₂ and CO₂ is minimal.

(b) Deep diaphragmatic breathing is often counterproductive practice, a practice that may create a problem, rather than offer a solution. Diaphragmatic breathing is vital to success, but deep breathing, under most circumstances, leads promptly to hypocapnia and its unfortunate effects, e.g., anxiety. Good respiration should not be held hostage to relaxation.

An interesting example is the work of a psychologist in Europe, who gave her corporate clients relaxation training homework exercises, which included diaphragmatic practice. Not infrequently they would report their displeasure in doing the exercises, which she had interpreted as “Type A” discomfort with relaxation and emotion. Upon working with a CapnoTrainer, however, she discovered to her surprise, that many of her clients had been practicing overbreathing! Their discomfort, and sometimes, outright refusal to do the assigned homework, was precipitated by the effects of hypocapnia.

(c) Slow breathing is often labeled as “good” and rapid breathing as “bad.” There is nothing inherently special about the physiology of slower breathing, but rather it is the psychology of slower breathing that is special. It sets the stage for improving breathing chemistry. It encourages diaphragmatic breathing, allows for complete exhalation, teaches patience between breaths, reduces the urgency for getting another breath, reduces fear about transitioning between breaths, and it establishes trust in the respiratory reflexes. Slow breathing statistically favours learning adaptive breathing behaviours, but does not by itself necessarily constitute better physiology.

Copyrighted by Behavioral Physiology Institute, Boulder, Colorado USA