Breathing for Energy webinar summary

This afternoon, I attended a Breathing for Energy webinar by Ari Whitten. The tagline is “dramatically increase your energy and immune health in just 10 minutes/day.” I found out about the webinar in an email from Dave Asprey, so I figured it was worth looking at and seeing whether there is anything of value. Here is my summary.

Ari Whitten i

Energy Key #1 - Take your 1-minute BOLT score every morning and build it up.

Your BOLT score:

1. Tells you if your breathing is optimal or dysfunctional.
2. Shows you your C02 tolerance.
3. Shows your O2 extraction and utilization efficiency.
4. Is a proxy for measuring your overall energy levels.
5. Gives you an objective test to track your progress.

How to measure your BOLT score:

1. Breathe in and out through your nose (normal breath).
2. Hold your nose.
3. Count the seconds you can hold your breath until you get a desire to take a breath.
4. Let go of your nose, and take a calm breath in through your nose.

Important: Your breathing should be calm after performing this exercise. If you are gasping for air, you have executed this exercise incorrectly.

Energy Key #2 - Optimize your breathing for deep oxygenation of your cells.

Deep breaths for health are a myth!

Chronic deep breathing = chronic sympathetic dominance
Light breathing = healthy breathing (parasympathetic dominance)

Carbon dioxide, NOT oxygen, is the regulator of breathing. Carbon dioxide is not just a waste gas that our body needs to get rid of.

The Bohr Effect
Red blood cells have hemoglobin, which carries oxygen. Hemoglobin releases oxygen only in the presence of higher levels of carbon dioxide. This process is key to unlocking your body’s true health and energy potential.

Carbon dioxide is the doorway that lets oxygen reach the muscles.

Counterintuitive: Taking big breaths does not lead to better oxygen delivery to your cells–it reduces…

What causes excess breathing?

• Low physical activity
• Diet of processed foods
• Chronic psychological stress

Chronic over-breathing is one of the biggest factors in chronic low levels of energy and high levels of anxiety.

How do we fix over-breathing?

4 Keys to Healthy Breathing

1. Light (not deep)
2. Slow (not fast)
3. Nasal (not mouth)
4. Diaphragmatic (belly, not chest)

Breathing through the nose produces nitric oxide. Humming while you exhale increases nitric oxide fifteen-fold.

Energy Key #3 - Rewire your brain and nervous system out of chronic stress/anxiety mode.

The physiological sigh is the single best way to dramatically lower anxiety levels. It creates maximal offloading of carbon dioxide. Inhale through the nose almost a full inhale, then inhale again deeper, then exhale slowly through the mouth.

Energy Key #4 - Intermittent hypoxic training to hyper-oxygenate your cells, reset CO2 tolerance, and supercharge mitochondrial energy production.

Sales pitch for Breathing for Energy program. Introductory price of $297 (normal price will be $497).

I bought it. Another topic for the newsletter!