If in doubt, breathe it out
Breathing is an incredible tool that we can use to influence how we feel (it’s portable after all!). We can reduce stress and anxiety, use it to get ready for action and even use it as a tool to improve our ability to take up oxygen from our cells (why NOT do this to compliment physical training?)… and this is just for starters. I have coached use of breath in climbing for a while now, but the more I’ve looked into it, the more I realise just how much there is to it. During lockdown I took part in many different breathworks sessions*, increasing my knowledge and understanding.
Me ‘breathing it out’ on Balance it is E7 6c Burbage, Peak District. Photo by Hotaches
The way we breathe sends messages to our brain, impacting our autonomic nervous system, which regulates our sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) and the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest). In my experiences this year I’ve mostly used breath for stress and anxiety (2020 - what a year to practise all this!!). I’ve noticed that using these exercises really settles the nervous system on a deeper level - but equally the exercises can act in the moment. There is no doubt that working on these aspects of breath can have an enormous and powerful effect on how we’re feeling prior and on a climb.
Bring awareness to the breath
The way we breathe may be sending messages to the brain, which tell it we are stressed, when actually we don’t feel it, and we certainly don’t want our brain to think it! Either way our body will react, raising the heart rate, thinking we’re in danger or under threat, when actually we’re not. Poor patterns of holding our breath while speaking, breathing more through the chest than the diaphragm, not using the nose sufficiently will all make the brain think we are stressed! Notice what you do throughout the day and learn to breathe optimally for as much of the day as possible. Optimal breathing means breathing through the nose and through the diaphragm, where the belly expands (you’ll naturally do this when you sleep). Yes there are times when we’ll breathe through the chest of course (especially when engaging the core for a climbing move etc) but learning to breath optimally as we go about our normal life is the starting point.
breathing to improve tolerance of co2 and increase uptake of o2
There are many endurance training exercises we use to ensure our muscles are more able to take up oxygen, but did you know that we can also influence this in the way we breathe? It’s a no brainer to try and work on both. To know if if this is something you could work on, find out if you get ‘air hunger’ - where you find yourself needing to take breaths sooner that you need. If so, your system may have an intolerance of carbon dioxide - the presence of which is required for us to better take up oxygen. In this video I talk through what this means, a test you can do to find out where you are with it and a way to improve this (and find out where athletes should ideally be with this).
breathing to tone the vagus nerve and reduce stress and anxiety
There is a lot of information available these days about the vagus nerve and what a significant nerve it is in regulating our emotions. 80% of these nerve fibres go from body to brain - so the better we can tone the nerve, the more we can regulate how we feel. Breathing is one of the key things (along with singing, cold water swimming and meditation… amongst others) that will help tone this major nerve in the body. The exercise in this video directly affects the vagus nerve and is a great tool to use just prior to a climb or at resting spots on routes. Find out more in this video below.
breathing to activate the system
Of course breathing can also be used to activate the system. We don’t always want to reduce stress and anxiety and calm the system down. Sometimes we want to activate and get ready for action. In this video I talk through some exercises to activate the sympathetic system to become more alert and ready to go! In the video my ‘demonstration’ isn’t particularly clear - but hopefully you get the gist - watch this after you’ve watched the others to know what I mean.
*If you want to learn more and practise regularly I can massively recommend the Breathpod live 20 minute morning sessions on Instagram at 7.30am. I did them for the whole of (the first) lockdown.