Do you breathe efficiently during the day, during sleep and during physical exercise?

How well you breathe on a daily basis at rest will determine how well you breathe during sleep and physical exercise. This is relevant to someone with a respiratory condition, high blood pressure, and many other physical health issues, someone with anxiety, stress, or panic attacks, a developing child who mouth breathes, an athlete or anyone who wants to improve their breathing habits for better health.

Many people have inefficient breathing patterns, but are unaware of it. Chronic over-breathing is very common, but can contribute to poor mental and physical health, can exarcebate existing health conditions/injuries, and can affect an athlete's sports performance. Breathing too much air on a daily basis means you may experience excessive breathlessness during daily activities and/or physical exercise, or your symptoms may be more subtle but are affecting your wellbeing.

If you over-breathe, you inhale more air than the body needs and exhale too much carbon dioxide. This alters the levels of natural gases in the blood, reduces oxygen delivery to our cells and organs, including the brain, and constricts our blood vessels and airways.

An indication that your breathing could be improved for better health and/or sports performance, could include some of the following:

breathing through your mouth at times during rest, light activity or physical exercise during the day
noticeable chest movements when you breathe
sleeping with your mouth open (waking up with a dry mouth in the morning is a clear indicator)
mouth or nose snoring
suffering from broken sleep/sleep apnea
hearing your breathing at rest
frequent sighing and/or yawning during the day
regular nasal congestion
disproportionate breathlessness during daily activities or during physical exercise/sport
difficulty focussing and/or concentrating
feeling stressed a lot of the time or not dealing well with stressful situations in life

If you can answer yes to any of the above, a tailored functional breathing programme which teaches you to bring your breathing volume towards normal, to use the correct biomechanics and to slow your respiratory rate could improve your overall physical and mental wellbeing and/or your sports performance.

There are two parts to the Oxygen Advantage technique:

1. Improve your functional (daily) breathing during wakefulness and sleep

2. Simulating High Altitude Training (breath hold exercises) to improve athletic endurance and to reduce lactic acid build up.