Good morning!

*inhale slowly through your nose. 1… 2… 3… 4…

*hold. 1… 2… 3… 4…

*exhale slowly through your mouth. 1… 2… 3… 4…

*hold. 1… 2… 3… 4…

Let’s get into it :)

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Just Breathe.

Ahhh, breath. Can’t live without it, can’t live… without it. Today we’re going to put on our snorkels and take a dive into the mechanics of breathing, discuss why you’re probably doing it wrong, and explore how we can use breathing to improve our health.

And, dear readers, this is only part 1 in a two-part series to be continued next week! We’ll cover two uses for breath this week and two more points next week.

Before we go too far, let’s remind ourselves why we even breathe in the first place with a quick Q & A.

Why breathe?

Because the air is full of oxygen, and almost every process in our body—especially the ones that require energy—use oxygen. Muscles, brain, gut, and everything in between need oxygen to function. Additionally, carbon dioxide builds up as a waste product in our body. It’s toxic in excess to many tissues and its levels even drive our respiratory (breathing) rate, so it’s just as important that we exhale carbon dioxide as it is that we inhale oxygen.

How do we breathe?

Our diaphragm is the primary muscle that controls breathing, though not the only one. It’s a funky-shaped sheet-like muscle that separates our heart-and-lungs-under-rib cage area (aka thoracic cavity) from our gut area. When it contracts, it goes lower in our torso, creating extra space in our chest cavity. Because—well—physics, the air outside our bodies naturally flows in through our mouth or nose to equalize the pressure. Neat! 😮‍💨

• This is why we’re often told to take belly breaths rather than shrugging our shoulders. By focusing on breathing deep into our stomach using diaphragmatic breathing, we get a much fuller breath of air, using the right muscle. But many people, especially when tensed or stressed, tend to use “accessory” breathing muscles around our ribs and neck and instead raise our shoulders to breathe. While this does create that space for air to flow in, it’s using muscles that aren’t meant to be doing that all day, and may result in aches and tightness around the neck, shoulders, and upper back.

Four different essential breathing situations and how to master them

1. Everyday life, going about normal activities (including sleep)

2. During cardiovascular exercise where our heart rate is up

3. During resistance exercise/weight training

4. For rest, relaxation, recovery, and relief of stress

Like I said earlier if you were paying attention, class 👀 , we will cover points 1 and 2 this week and tackle 3 and 4 in next week’s edition!

1. In everyday life, we should mostly be nasal breathing. But I bet there’s a good chance you’re mouth breathing right now.

Why is that? There are numerous reasons that breathing through your nose is better for you than breathing through your mouth. Here’s a great list of benefits compiled by Dental Logic:

Nose breathing is beneficial primarily because it allows your nasal cavities to:

• reduce exposure to foreign substances

• humidify and warm inhaled air

• increase air flow to arteries, veins, and nerves

• increase oxygen uptake and circulation

• slow down breathing

• improve lung volume

• help your diaphragm work properly

• lower your risk of allergies and hay fever

• reduce your risk of coughing

• aid your immune system

• lower your risk of snoring and sleep apnoea

• support the correct formation of teeth and mouth

Breathing through your nose helps activate your parasympathetic (rest & digest) nervous system, while mouth breathing activates your sympathetic (fight, flight, or freeze) nervous system. For most of your day, you want the chill parasympathetic system activated so you limit stress and inflammation.

Additionally, nasal breathing results in the production of nitric oxide (NO), which is a vasodilator. This widens and relaxes your blood vessels, lowering blood pressure and improving circulation throughout the body.

—To breathe through your nose, your tongue should be in a resting position that’s lightly touching the roof of your mouth.

Even when we sleep, it’s best to keep our mouths closed and breathe through our nose. That’s 8 easy hours of the advantages of nasal breathing!

One last point that’s important not to miss. Excessive mouth breathing, especially during childhood, can result in poorly-shaped facial, jaw, and tooth structures. Crazy, I know! The photo illustrations below are kind of hilariously extra, but demonstrate the effects of long-term nose vs. mouth breathing on our faces. The younger you are, the more important this is!

2. During cardiovascular exercise. When participating in an exercise that’s got your blood pumping and heart rate up, you’re almost definitely going to have to breathe through your mouth (and nose, at the same time).

Air flows more slowly and in smaller quantities through our nose, which is great for most of the time, but not when we need to deliver as much oxygen as possible to our muscles and expel as much CO2 as we can, e.g. when running.

If your exercise is light, you may still be able to train yourself to breathe through your nose, and this could be beneficial for similar reasons listed above. Training while limiting oxygen intake can have some added training adaptation effects. But don’t expect peak performance if you’re only breathing through your nose, because you will be limited in capacity.

When it comes to doing cardio, don’t feel bad for breathing through your mouth. Your body needs the air! Find a good rhythm based on your intensity and let that oxygen-rich blood flow.🩸 

✅ Take Action

Every newsletter's Take Action section will invite you to take small steps to improve your health. Recognizing that we all have different capabilities, I'll offer three different levels of action you can choose to take.

Level 1: Just become more aware of your breathing. If you’re a chronic mouth breather, when you notice it, lightly close your lips, rest your tongue at the top of your mouth, and nose breathe for a bit!

Level 2: Experiment with different breathing techniques while exercising. See what feels best for your body. You may realize that your breathing has been uncoordinated and out of sync and is hindering your performance!

Level 3: Try some light-to-moderate cardio only breathing through your nose. That could look like a brisk 15-minute walk. Notice what you feel in your body, whether it was a positive or negative experience, and keep trying new things!

This newsletter is brought to you by… me!

Interested in becoming a sponsor? Know someone else who might be? I’d love to get to know you and/or your business and see how we can partner together. Reply to this email!

✍️ Drew's Picks:

• Mouth tape. Sounds terrifying, but it’s actually quite simple. Tired of snoring, dry throat and mouth when waking, and your face looking like those scary illustrations above? Many people have started using mouth tape when they sleep at night to ensure they breathe through their nose! It’s not like duct tape that would suffocate you if your nose was plugged. It’s a small strip that can be easily detached with a little effort from your lips if necessary. I’ve tried it out, and you can, too!

• Tweet: The real northern/southern Europe divide: processed vs. whole foods

• Article: Why AI Will Save the World. It seems like all we’ve heard about artificial intelligence technology is that it’ll destroy all our jobs, if not take all our lives. This piece was a refreshing, optimistic counter-argument. (It’s long, and I read most of it lol)

Stay tuned for next week when we talk about breathing during resistance exercise as well as how to use our breath to relax. It’ll be a good one!

If you enjoyed this week’s newsletter, do me a favor and click the link below, then forward it to three friends and ask them to sign up. I’ll blow you a kiss!

😚💨❤️

Keep moving,

Drew

The content in Move to Improve is meant to be informative in nature, but it should not be taken as medical advice. It is always a good idea to consult with a trusted health professional before making any major lifestyle changes that could have a significant impact on your health. This is not a medical resource, and any opinions and articles are not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of health problems. They are not substitutes for consulting a qualified medical professional. Please think critically and take what I say with a grain of salt (aka don’t sue me).