Humans, on average, take 25,000 breaths a day. If you didn’t already know this, I bet you didn’t think it was this much!

Now, imagine if we don’t get full oxygenation with each breath. Your brain can quickly recognize this, and will compensate as a means to try to get more oxygen to its organs. This compensation is not limited to how you breathe;  inherently your posture, the way you move and function will be greatly affected. 

I could list a million ways in which your body can be negatively affected by how you breathe, and every single one of them could be addressed, if not, at least significantly improved simply by walking/moving more & breathing through your nose more often.

In this brief blog, I will highlight and discuss how and why walking, combined with nasal breathing, can improve common ailments that many of us experience: 

Stress & How It Affects Your Breathing

Nasal Breathing vs Mouth Breathing, & Its Effect on Posture

How To Know If You’re A Nasal or Mouth Breather - An Exercise

How Does Walking Help With These Things

Tips To Enhance Your Walking

Exercises To Improve Nasal /Diaphragmatic Breathing

Summary

If you would prefer to watch instead of read this blog, see the video below:

Stress & How It Affects Your Breathing

Have you ever gone for a massage and the therapist asks you to relax, and to your disbelief, you say, “I am”, only for the therapist to respond “No, you really are not.”?

The following may explain just why.

The stress that we experience (whether it’s office deadlines, family trauma, or being robbed) are all perceived and processed by the brain in the same way: the Fight or Flight Response. 

The Fight or Flight Response is how your body physiologically responds to stress. Your brain releases adrenaline and as a result, we would all experience symptoms of that response: 

• Increased blood pressure and heart rate

• Shortness of breath

• Tense muscles

• Dilated pupils

• Increased respiration rate / breathing with accessory muscles (neck, chest)*

The opposing system, when we are not in Fight or Flight, is called the Rest & Digest Response. Instead of adrenaline, our brain releases acetylcholine, and works almost entirely opposite to the Fight or Flight Response. These physiological responses are: 

• Increased digestion

• Increased use of the diaphragm muscle for respiration*

• Decreased blood pressure and reduced heart rate

• Decreased breathing rate*

• Relaxed muscles

*  During Fight or Flight, increased respiration rate is associated with mouth breathing. During Rest & Digest, decreased respiration rate should be associated with nasal breathing. 

When under stress, our breathing rate should increase, as per the Fight or Flight response. Rather than using our primary respiratory muscle (the diaphragm), your body will recruit your secondary respiratory/backup muscles while in this state, and they would be your chest, neck, and back muscles. 

These muscles are highly inefficient for breathing for a few reasons: 

• They elevate your ribcage up towards your ears during breathing, when your ribcage should expand in a 360° fashion

• They use up to 25% more oxygen than the diaphragm, which only requires 2%

• The diaphragm will become become inhibited, meaning its other functions (digestion, managing blood pressure, and of course, breathing) will be negatively affected

The human body should be able to rebound from Fight or Flight to Rest & Digest, and this state is dependent upon the environment or tasks that the person is in/performing. Unfortunately, many of us remain in a Fight or Flight response, even when we are performing activities that are not deemed to cause stress, such as trying to sleep, eating dinner or (certain, wink) social settings.

Consider the “boiling frog syndrome”; if you place a frog in pot of cold water, then slowly apply heat to it, then overtime, the frog won’t notice the increase in temperature until it’s too late to do anything about it.

Our brains, overtime, have learned the same thing. Unfortunately for many of us, our internal thermostat is set to boiling hot, and we have completely forgotten how to turn off the burner.

If we fail to consistently implement good quality sleep, a cooldown post-workout, or take time to relax and invigorate the mind, then our Fight or Flight response will remain stimulated, and it will always be difficult to “just relax”.

Nasal vs Mouth Breathing, And Its Effect On Posture

Do you tend to have sore and achy neck, shoulder or lower back muscles? Nasal breathing may be your prescription.

This image demonstrates how the diaphragm muscle (green) allows air to enter and exit the lungs.

When the muscle contracts or pulls down, the lungs inflate with air like water rushing a dam. It is the action of this muscle that permits air to enter the lungs in the most efficient way possible. 

Breathing through your nose permits this efficiency in a number of ways: 

• It warms and filters air as it enters your lungs, rather than cold and dry air

• Nasal breathing releases nitric oxide, a gas known to improve immunity & mood

• It creates resistance, therefore engaging your diaphragm greater than mouth breathing

• Nasal breathing creates a 10-20% greater oxygen uptake in the blood vs mouth breathing

Contrast to that, mouth breathing is an inefficient way to breathe. If you’ve ever witnessed anyone having a panic attack, then you know exactly how this looks. 

With mouth breathing, you take in way more air than necessary, which is essentially hyperventilation (the breathing-into-a-brown-paper-bag kind). Hyperventilation leads to a poor balance between oxygen and carbon dioxide in the bloodstream, which will cue your brain to exacerbate further mouth breathing in an attempt to get more oxygen.

Without diaphragmatic breathing, the brain will continue to recruit your upper chest/neck muscles for air. Since this method never provides the body with enough oxygen, this ongoing cycle becomes how a person habitually breathes. This is how muscular imbalances and compensations can arise.

To further this, in an ongoing attempt for oxygen, this primary compensation can be perpetuated. Back muscles will continue to tighten, which will then restrict the hip, neck, knees, and so on.

In one study, scientists compared the nasal response to exercise in people who either wore, or didn’t wear nose clips while running. All participants were tested and found that those that were mouth breathing/wore nose clips during their run suffered from wheezing, coughing and breathlessness compared to those who breathed through their nose.

There is overwhelming evidence that nasal breathing is the answer to many of our ailments. All it will take is mindfulness and practice to break these inefficient habits. 

How To Know If You’re A Nasal/Diaphragmatic or Mouth Breather - An Exercise

This requires mindfulness - try to focus on what your body prefers!

Sit comfortably in a chair and place one hand on your chest, and the other on your stomach. You may close your eyes if you wish. 

Take a series of breaths, inhaling and exhaling, and take note of what your body prefers to do:

These are all signs that you may be more of a habitual mouth breather:

Does your chest move more than your stomach? 

Do your shoulders rise towards your ears? 

Do you clench your jaw? 

Does your back start to engage? 

Do you hold your breath? 

Do your muscles get tense?

Below are the signs that you can efficiently breathe through your nose: 

Your ribcage expands in all directions, forwards, backwards, and sideways

You feel the entire ribcage expand/stretch

The belly distends slightly (note: diaphragmatic breathing is NOT “belly breathing”

Your inhale is soft and inaudible

You may start to salivate - a sign that your body is in Rest & Digest

How Does Walking Help With Both Of These?

Walking is something that nearly everyone can perform with little to no limitations - but we simply aren’t doing enough of it.

In the 2021 ParticipACTION Report Card, Canadians scored a C+ on light physical activity. 

If we walked/moved more often, and increased our mindfulness to our nasal breathing during those walks and beyond, we can combat stress, improve aerobic capacity, and naturally lubricate our joints. Here’s how:

1. Walking with good stride/arm swing promotes the pelvis and ribcage moving about one another, which can restore flexibility and mobility in the torso, pelvis and low back

2. Studies show that walking (or most aerobic activities) performed at a moderate to vigorous pace (65-85% of your effort) can help to manage anxiety, depression, blood pressure, promote weight loss, and improve overall fitness.

3. As already stated, exercise helps to manage stress. If you can sustain nasal breathing during exercise, then you’ve proven that you can handle situations that many people may deem to be stressful 

4. Consider nasal breathing like strength training, but for your diaphragm. This tends to be one of the weakest muscles in the body, and its strength is imperative to most bodily functions. 

5. The pandemic and working remotely has reduced our overall activity and increased the incidence of mental health disorders and muscle/joint pain. Walking is simple and easy to implement into our daily routine.

Tips To Enhance Your Walking

• Attempt to breathe only through your nose during your walks. This will initially be challenging. If you experience discomfort, it is okay to resort to mouth breathing and/or decrease your pace

• Use wearable technology to take note of your heart rate while walking, and monitor your progress (does your heart rate decrease overtime?)

• If you’re unable to walk for longer durations, aim to move more often throughout the day. You’re still reducing your sedentary time if you’re moving more frequently and consistently 

• Walk with a friend - but make it a challenge!

• Sneak it in by getting off your commute a few stops early and walk the rest of the way

Exercises That May Help Improve Nasal/Diaphragmatic Breathing

• Mouth Taping
  - Myotape (or even scotch tape) can direct your focus to nasal breathing and improve your sleep/sleep apnea, cognition, improves mouth pH/dental caries, relieves anxiety, and enhances athletic performance
  - Patrick McKeown, author of The Oxygen Advantage and The Breathing Cure, suggests easing your way to mouth taping by doing it for 5min at a time, increasing your duration to a full nights sleep with the tape 

• Nose Unblocking Exercise 
  *Contraindicated if you have high blood pressure*you are pregnant or have high blood pressure, cardiovascular  issues, diabetes, or any serious health concerns.)

• Standing Wall Supported Reach (from Postural Restoration Institute) (video)
  - This exercise helps to relax the low back muscles, which can often interfere with one’s ability to use their diaphragm effectively

• Addressing Low Back Pain with Diaphragmatic Breathing (video)

Summary

The pandemic has highlighted that there is a considerable amount of stress in our lives. Not only has stress increased, but we don’t have efficient coping mechanisms to mitigate chronic stress either.

Stress, when prolonged and chronic, can affect how we manage ourselves physically and mentally during normal activities. Psychologists, physiotherapists, and physicians would all agree that diaphragmatic breathing is a key component to managing mental, physical and lifelong health goals - and we can incorporate this easily with walking combined with nasal breathing.

We are all looking for easy ways to improve our health, but we tend to overlook one of the oldest and most primal and therapeutic methods of exercise. Walking & nasal breathing is powerful - and if you’re patient, you’ll see its effects in all aspects of your life.

Did you like this blog?

Learn How You Can Improve Your Breathing, Mobility, & Fitness with a Registered Kinesiologist

Francesca McKenzie is a Registered Kinesiologist and Personal Trainer of 15 years with experience in rehabilitation, strength & conditioning, performance and wellness.

Sources:

ParticipACTION 2021 Adult Report Card; https://www.participaction.com/en-ca/resources/adult-report-card

Krzysztof, F. et al. “A Study of the Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Experience of Back Pain Reported on Twitter® in the United States: A Natural Language Processing Approach”; Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 May; 18(9): 4543. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8123305/

The Buteyko Breathing Clinics https://www.buteykobreathing.nz/blog/nasal-diaphragm-breathing

The Oxygen Advantage https://oxygenadvantage.com/science/