The Top 2 Breathing Exercises for Athletes to Try

This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "The Oxygen Advantage" by Patrick McKeown. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.

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Do you want to boost your performance in sports? What are the best breathing exercises for athletes?

In The Oxygen Advantage, Patrick McKeown offers a set of exercises that athletes can use to take their performance to the next level. He notes that anyone can practice them to further their carbon dioxide tolerance and improve their fitness.

These two breathing exercises can help you get in the best shape of your life.

Exercise #1: Breath-Hold Warm-Up

The first breathing exercise for athletes that McKeown recommends involves holding your breath to prepare your respiratory system for intense exercise in the near future. By holding your breath, you build up carbon dioxide in your blood rather than exhaling it. This prevents you from running out of carbon dioxide when the intense exertion makes you exhale more, meaning you can oxygenate your body more effectively for longer once you get going.

Walk around, then exhale and hold your breath until you feel a strong need to breathe. Release and breathe normally through your nose for about a minute, then repeat. To warm up effectively, McKeown recommends doing this for 10 minutes before you start exercising.

Counterpoint: Sometimes, It’s Better to Breathe More Pre-Workout

While McKeown asserts that this breath-hold warm-up is ideal before every workout, some experts argue that the pre-workout breath exercise you choose should vary depending on how you’re feeling at the moment.

For instance, if you’re feeling lethargic and unmotivated to exercise, consider warming up by intentionally engaging your sympathetic nervous system. This fight-or-flight stress response gives you the energy and alertness you need to fight threats, which you can channel into healthy exercise. To engage the sympathetic nervous system, take full breaths quickly: Inhale for one second into your belly, then inhale for one second into your chest, and exhale for one second. Unlike McKeown’s warmup, which lasts for a full 10 minutes, you should only practice this exercise for 60 seconds—at which point you’ll ideally feel ready to move.

McKeown would likely say that this rapid breathing technique drains your body of carbon dioxide. By this logic, you’ll run out of carbon dioxide even sooner once you get moving, preventing you from oxygenating your body. However, if this breathwork motivates you to exercise, it may be worth it—imperfect exercise is arguably better than no exercise at all. Alternatively, experiment with combining these two exercises by breathing rapidly to perk yourself up, then transitioning to McKeown’s breath-hold exercise to prepare your body for intense exertion.

Exercise #2: Breath-Hold Training

McKeown recommends an exercise for achieving peak athletic performance that involves first holding your breath for extended periods while walking. Then, after you’ve increased your tolerance for carbon dioxide significantly, you hold your breath while running (or performing some other form of intense cardio). Training while holding your breath like this replicates the experience of training at a high altitude, where the air is thinner and you naturally inhale less oxygen. As Olympic athletes have demonstrated for decades, high-altitude training improves physical performance by causing your body to produce more oxygen-carrying red blood cells in response to a low-oxygen environment.

(Shortform note: Some research suggests that high-altitude training doesn’t work for everyone. One study of Olympic athletes training at high altitudes found that their red blood cell production only significantly increased 56% of the time. Some experts have used this data to conclude that some people can’t adapt to the oxygen level of their environment, calling them “non-responders.” However, others contend that these “non-responders” may have been training wrong, theorizing that they didn’t have enough iron in their system to support red blood cell production, or they were training through mild illness that hampered red blood cell production.)

To try this breath-hold training, start moving. Exhale and hold your breath until you feel a medium need to breathe. Then, release and breathe intentionally small breaths for 15 seconds. Finally, recover by breathing normally for 30 seconds, and repeat this eight to 10 times. Over the course of the exercise, increase the amount of time you hold your breath, waiting until you feel a powerful need to breathe to release. Once you’ve worked up to this exercise, do it once a day, McKeown recommends.

McKeown’s Breath-Hold Training vs. Wim Hof Breathing

Another popular breathing exercise that involves holding your breath is the Wim Hof method (detailed in the book of the same name). Despite being similar exercises on the surface, the Wim Hof method and McKeown’s breath-hold training have some different effects on the body.

Wim Hof breathing is the practice of training your body by temporarily reducing oxygen in the blood. According to this exercise’s creator and namesake, Wim Hof, this short-term stress strengthens your body’s ability to cope with future stress, like training a muscle. He asserts that this results in less anxiety and stress, faster recovery from exercise, and a stronger immune system.

Unlike McKeown’s exercise, Wim Hof breathing doesn’t actively improve your carbon dioxide tolerance, as it doesn’t involve increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in your blood over the long term. However, despite the two methods’ differences, McKeown acknowledges on his website that the Wim Hof method intends to accomplish many of the same goals as his exercises, including reducing stress and chronic inflammation. Some practitioners recommend using both methods.

Unlike McKeown’s breath-hold training during movement, Wim Hof breathing is practiced seated or lying down. To use this method, take 30 to 40 deep breaths, in through the nose and out through the mouth. You’ll exhale a significant amount of the carbon dioxide in your body. Then, inhale as deeply as you can and hold your breath until you feel the need to breathe. You’ll be able to hold your breath for longer than normal because you’ll have less carbon dioxide in your body. Finally, inhale one “recovery breath” and hold it for about 15 seconds. Repeat this process three or four times in a row. Like McKeown, Hof recommends practicing this once a day.

The Top 2 Breathing Exercises for Athletes to Try