Imagine having a powerful wellness tool with you every single day—one that’s as simple as breathing. Turns out, your breath holds far more potential than most people realise. Breathwork might seem basic, but it’s one of the most powerful and transformative strategies for improving health and performance. It is free, always available, and impacts multiple areas of wellbeing, including physical output, recovery, cognition, resilience, and endurance.
Breathing isn’t just a passive function — it’s a dynamic tool that can directly influence nearly every single system through the autonomic nervous system. By learning to control your breath, you can shift from a state of stress (fight or flight) to one of calm (rest and digest), enhancing not only physical performance but also cognitive and emotional resilience.
Breath for physical performance
Have you ever considered how you can use your breath to smash your fitness and performance goals?
Breathwork can enhance your VO2 max, the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use during exercise, and lung capacity, enabling you to train harder and recover faster.
Oxygen is essential for energy production in the body, driving the process that turns nutrients into ATP (adenosine triphosphate), your cells’ energy currency. By improving how efficiently your body uses oxygen, breathwork helps you increase endurance, reduce fatigue, and sustain higher levels of exertion.
Breathing is what turns oxygen from potential into power.
You can use breathwork techniques to improve your training output capacity when you’re not in the gym. Meaning, that doing breathwork at any time can have a positive impact on performance.
Benefits of breathwork on physical performance include:
- Oxygen efficiency: Optimising your breathing patterns improves the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide in your lungs, delivering more oxygen to your muscles during exercise. This leads to greater aerobic capacity
- Stronger respiratory muscles: Specific breathwork exercises can strengthen the respiratory muscles, particularly the diaphragm and intercostal muscles. Strengthening these muscles can increase their endurance and capacity, allowing for more effective ventilation during exercise. This allows for greater exertion over time
- Increased lung capacity: Certain breathwork techniques, such as deep breathing and lung expansion exercises, can increase lung capacity by maximising the amount of air that the lungs can hold
- Improved circulation: Deep breathing promotes vasodilation, increasing blood flow to the muscles. This improves oxygen delivery and helps sustain peak performance
- Reduced respiratory rate: Controlled breathing reduces energy expenditure by keeping your breathing efficient and rhythmic. This keeps you in a parasympathetic state, which supports better performance and reduces fatigue. Becoming the master of the cadence and depth of your breath enables you to become a better-performing athlete
Breathing techniques for physical performance
The following techniques can be used to enhance your lung capacity as well as familiarity with how your breath feels in your body. These techniques are wonderful ways to increase your lung capacity.
Segmental breathing
- Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor
- Place your hands lightly on the sides of your ribcage
- Inhale deeply, focusing on expanding the ribcage outward and upward
- Exhale fully, feeling the ribcage contract and the air fully leave your lungs
- Repeat, concentrating on expanding and contracting different segments of the ribcage with each breath
Thoracic expansion exercises
- Stand with your arms extended out to the sides at shoulder height
- Inhale deeply as you slowly bring your arms forward and cross them in front of your body
- Exhale slowly as you return your arms to the starting position
- Repeat for several breaths, focusing on expanding the chest and opening up the thoracic cavity
Incentive spirometry
- Use a device called an incentive spirometer, which consists of a plastic chamber with a mouthpiece and a piston or ball inside
- Inhale deeply through the mouthpiece, trying to raise the piston or ball as high as possible by taking in as much air as you can
- Hold your breath for a few seconds, then exhale slowly
- Repeat for several breaths, gradually increasing the volume of air you inhale with each repetition
Breath for recovery
If you pay attention to your breathing right now, how would you describe it?
Is it slow, nasal and falling deep into your belly, or do you feel that it only just reaches the top part of your chest?
When life is busy, you’re tired, distracted, or notice that you breathe into your chest in a shallow way, practising breathing for recovery at multiple points throughout your day can have an intensely meaningful impact on your nervous system, response to stimuli, training recovery, resilience and stress capacity.
Having supported many hundreds of patients, I can report that those who have embraced breath as a focused recalibration technique throughout the day, report a shift in capacity that exceeds the impact of supplements and other exogenous strategies.
How to strategise: Neuroplasticity is the capacity for your brain wiring to physically change. This is done through small, frequent repetitions. With regard to breathing, the simplest way to approach this is to anchor your new behaviour (breath) to something you already do with frequency (drink water, go to the bathroom, climb the stairs, open an email). Use a visual cue until it becomes second nature – a note, a sticker, or an alarm.
When you do breathe, see how much you can soften in your body, and also pay attention to how your body feels, and if you’re able to ‘let go’ with that breath pattern.
Benefits of breathwork for recovery include:
- Stress reduction: Deep breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system, reducing cortisol levels and promoting relaxation
- Improved heart rate variability (HRV): Breathwork practices increase HRV, a marker of autonomic nervous system balance, enhancing resilience to stress and supporting recovery.
- Better sleep: Relaxation-focused breathwork improves sleep quality, which is essential for muscle repair and hormonal balance
- Improved circulation: Practices like diaphragmatic breathing enhance blood flow to muscles, speeding up the removal of waste products and reducing soreness
- Muscle relaxation: Deep breathing releases tension from muscles, promoting relaxation and aiding in recovery after intense exercise
- Regulation of autonomic functions: Breathwork helps balance your heart rate, blood pressure, and digestion, optimising the body’s natural recovery processes
Breathing techniques for recovery
Diaphragmatic breathing (belly breathing)
- Sit or lie down comfortably
- Place one hand on your chest and the other on your abdomen
- Inhale deeply through your nose, allowing your abdomen to rise while keeping your chest relatively still
- Exhale slowly through your mouth, feeling your abdomen fall
- Repeat for several breaths, focusing on deep, slow breaths that engage the diaphragm
Deep breathing
- Sit or lie down comfortably in a quiet environment
- Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths in through your nose, allowing your abdomen to expand fully
- Hold your breath for a moment, then exhale slowly and completely through your mouth
- Focus on each breath, allowing yourself to relax more deeply with each exhale
- Continue for several minutes, allowing the deep breathing to calm your nervous system and promote relaxation, which aids in recovery
Box breathing
- Sit or lie down comfortably and close your eyes
- Inhale deeply through your nose for a count of 4 seconds
- Hold your breath for a count of 4 seconds
- Exhale slowly and completely through your nose for a count of 4 seconds
- Hold your breath again for a count of 4 seconds
- Repeat this cycle for several rounds, focusing on the equal length of each breath and allowing the rhythmic pattern to soothe your body and mind
Guided relaxation meditation
- Find a comfortable seated or lying position
- Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths to centre yourself
- Listen to a guided relaxation meditation that focuses on deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, and visualisation techniques to promote relaxation and recovery
- Allow yourself to fully immerse in the guided meditation, letting go of tension and stress as you surrender to the process of relaxation and rejuvenation
Breath for cognitive performance
A reminder – breath is a great stress reliever.
Using breathing to support the way your brain is performing makes a difference to your output, focus and productivity.
It might seem unlikely that there’s a link between breathing and cognitive performance, so you may be surprised to learn about the mechanisms at play here.
When you’re stressed, you may find it difficult to access words or concisely express your thoughts. This can be due to several factors, including being in a hyper-aroused state (fight and flight) in which blood flow to the brain is reduced. When you’re performing at a high level in an ongoing way, there’s a burden on your body.
Long-term, chronic stress can lead to structural changes in the brain, particularly in regions involved in cognition, such as the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex.
Prolonged exposure to stress hormones can result in dendritic atrophy (reduction in the branching of neurons) and decreased neurogenesis (formation of new neurons) in these brain regions, which can impair memory, decision-making, and executive function.
Experiencing occasional short-term stress is completely normal, and your body is well-equipped to handle it. However, when you encounter prolonged stress over several days, weeks or months, it can significantly impair your brain’s function.
Developing effective coping strategies is essential to mitigate these effects and maintain your mental wellbeing.
Incorporating deep breathing exercises into daily routines, such as during breaks at work or before engaging in mentally demanding tasks, can help you optimise your cognitive performance and enhance overall mental wellbeing.
Regular practice of deep breathing techniques can lead to long-term improvements in cognitive function, stress management, and overall brain health.
Benefits of breathwork for cognitive performance include:
- Stress reduction: Lower cortisol levels through breathwork enhance attention, memory, and decision-making
- Increased oxygenation: Deep breathing delivers more oxygen to the brain, supporting concentration and problem-solving
- Enhanced blood flow: Rhythmic breathing improves circulation, helping nourish the brain and eliminate metabolic waste
- Stimulation of the vagus nerve: Deep breathing techniques can stimulate the vagus nerve, a key component of the parasympathetic nervous system. Activation of the vagus nerve has been associated with improvements in mood, stress resilience, and cognitive function. By promoting vagal tone, breathwork can enhance cognitive performance and emotional wellbeing
- Regulation of arousal levels: Breathwork helps regulate nervous system arousal, keeping you calm yet alert for optimal mental performance
Breathing techniques to use for cognitive performance
Alternate nostril breathing
- Sit comfortably with your back straight and shoulders relaxed
- Place your left hand on your left knee with your palm facing up, using your thumb and ring finger to regulate your nostrils
- Use your right thumb to close your right nostril and inhale deeply through your left nostril
- Close your left nostril with your ring finger, release your thumb from your right nostril, and exhale slowly and completely
- Inhale deeply through your right nostril, then close it with your thumb and exhale through your left nostril
- Repeat this cycle for several rounds, alternating nostrils with each breath to balance the flow of energy and promote relaxation and recovery
4-7-8 breathing
- Sit or lie down comfortably with your back straight
- Close your eyes and inhale deeply through your nose for a count of 4 seconds
- Hold your breath for a count of 7 seconds
- Exhale slowly and completely through your mouth for a count of 8 seconds
- Repeat this cycle for several rounds, allowing the rhythmic breathing pattern to induce a state of deep relaxation and promote recovery
Deep breathing
- Sit or lie down comfortably in a quiet environment
- Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths in through your nose, allowing your abdomen to expand fully
- Hold your breath for a moment, then exhale slowly and completely through your mouth
- Focus on each breath, allowing yourself to relax more deeply with each exhale
- Continue for several minutes, allowing the deep breathing to calm your nervous system and promote relaxation, which aids in recovery
If you’re a high performer or someone with meaningful health ambitions, it’s time to pay attention to your breath.
Science tells us enough about the benefits of intentional, strategic breathing to directly and almost immediately have a positive effect on your physiology. If you believe that remarkable change needs to come from an expensive or complex therapy, you’re missing a golden opportunity to both enhance and optimise your wellbeing. While using the tools of the modern world undoubtedly sets you up, you can maximise your outcomes with this ‘ancient’ technique.
With regular practice, breathwork can become your secret weapon for achieving peak performance — in both body and mind.