In his book ‘The Oxygen Advantage’ author and personal trainer Patrick McKeown presents a surprising idea: that small changes in our habits and quick simple exercises can have a significant impact on both overall health and athletic performance.

McKeown’s ideas work for anybody, and in this book he presents specific recommendations for everyone from unfit couch potatoes to elite athletes. McKeown himself has trained many pro athletes, as well as helping many people suffering from health conditions such as asthma in his private practice. The central idea behind his work seems whacky and counter-intuitive at first: that most of us breathe too much most of the time. But he does outline a substantial body of scientific research within The Oxygen Advantage which provides ample backing for his claims.

Here is the thing you need to get your head around: breathing too much actually depletes oxygen within the body. Sounds crazy right? You breathe to bring oxygen into the body, so breathing more should bring in more oxygen according to the common sense view. Many of us will, without even thinking, start to take deep breathes prior to heavy excursion to bring more air into our lungs and therefore more oxygen into the body. We do this because that is how we think it works. But this is not the case, and the science seems pretty settled on that issue.

When you breathe more than you need to you deplete carbon dioxide. With lower carbon dioxide levels the body has evolved to reduce its uptake of oxygen, for example by reducing levels of red blood cells. This is because in the absence of any conscious influence on breathing this lower carbon dioxide level in the body would mean less oxygen is being used.

So increasing your breathing rate beyond the minimum you need actually reduces the available oxygen in the body. Conversely, holding your breathe has been clearly shown in experiments to increase red blood cells. So if you want to prepare yourself for heavy excursion you shouldn’t take deep breaths beforehand – if anything you should hold your breath for a while.

McKeown shows that many people habitually breathe too much and that this damages their health and fitness. He also shows simple breathing techniques to improve sports performance and to emulate high altitude training without having to travel to a remote location to do it.

He has many different techniques for various different types of people and different goals, but they are all variations on these basic things:

• Breathe less all day: By never breathing through the mouth and occassionally practicing to breathe more slowly for a few minutes so you get used to the feeling.
• Hold your breath sometimes: Including while exercising in some of his techniques.

Its a really fascinating book with very simple techniques that can have a significant impact on your life, so I would say it is well worth a read.