The Way of the Iceman by Wim Hof & Koen de Jong, (03) Breathing, Notes

• Stans Van de Poel (1950s) found that breathing too rapidly or deeply was common among people with chronic fatigue, burnout, fibromyalgia and myalgic encephalomyelitis. 3-STAGE BREATHING: Breathing efficiency is important. Really important.

  • Stage 1. It all starts with deep breathing, belly breathing or abdominal breathing. They are all the same, done by contracting the diaphragm. During this type of breathing, as air enters the lungs, the belly expands. This I call the first stage. At rest, while you’re in a meeting, easy walking, at work, having dinner, driving in your car, watching a movie. Breathing can be done easily through the nose; breathing in AND out.

  • Stage 2. At a party, dance, or while working in the garden or at other medium level exercise, the next, -second breathing stage is required. Initiated from the deep abdominal breathing stage, you add higher-up breathing through lung expansion. While breathing is still initiated from deep down, you add the active expansion of the lungs through the muscles. Breathing can still be done through the nose, but for most it is easier to breathe out through the mouth.

  • Stage 3. When you are running fast, during heavy weight training, pushing forward something heavy, walking stairs or playing volleyball at the beach, the final and third breathing stage is required. Still initiated from the deep abdominal breath, the third stage is a much higher-up breathing through active lung expansion in a higher frequency with your mouth wide open. The challenge is for you to be aware of what stage you are in. In many situations, once you are aware, you can shift down one stage. It’s ALWAYS better to bring your breath down to a slower pace, to a lower stage. Sometimes you’re not even aware you’re breathing through your mouth, even though nose breathing is always preferable. Your primary responses that make you breathe through your mouth are panic and associations with life-threatening situations. Deep breathing leads to the relief or prevention of symptoms associated with stress, high blood pressure, headache, depression, anxiety and others. Deep breathing techniques slow your heart rate down while high breathing keeps the heart rate unnecessarily up. Deep breathing stage 2 is what we want to maintain when running. When doing interval and speed training, let go and do stage 3 breathing. But learn to be aware and to bring the breathing quickly back to stage 2 or even -after a couple of minutes- back to stage 1. Which feels so good.

During exercise, breath rate is an important indicator of whether or not we are overexerting ourselves. Our knowledge of breathing can be used and repurposed in many ways.

Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide. Oxygen goes in. Carbon Dioxide goes out. Oxygen is transferred to the bloodstream via the lungs. Excess carbon dioxide is transported in the opposite direction.

• Oxygen enters the lungs through the windpipe. It passes the main branches into smaller branches known as alveoli, the air sacs in the lungs, where the oxygen comes in contact with the blood.

• The ratio of Oxygen to carbon dioxide in the lungs and in the blood is determined by the law of ‘communicating vessels.” The ideal ratio of oxygen to carbon dioxide in the blood is 3 to 2.

• Oxygen releases energy from nutrients. Carbon dioxide keeps the blood vessels open. Both are essential.

Breathing is directly related to heart rate. The heart and lungs are inextricably linked to each other. Breathe faster and the heart rate will increase. Breathing differently, both heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV) change. HRV is the variation in time between two successive heart beats. For example, a resting heart rate of 60 beats per minute has a pause of about one second per beat. It’s possible to have variability between pauses between ½ a second and 1 ½ seconds, the second case is much better.

People suffering from depression, stress, cancer or who are in the final stages of life have a low heart rate variability without exception.

The link between HRV and autonomic nervous system: “The two branches of the autonomic nervous system in equilibrium, they are continually in the process of speeding up and slowing down the heart. That change is why the interval between two successive heart beats is never the same. This variability is a sign of the proper functioning of the brakes and accelerator, and thus of our overall physiological system.

HRV The Nervous System and Breathing. The brake is the parasympathetic nervous system (regulates and is relating to recovery) while the accelerator is sympathetic nervous system (regulates fight or flight response.) There is a direct correlation between decreased activity of the parasympathetic nervous system and with physical problems. Breathing exercises activate the parasympathetic system. Heart rate goes up when we breathe in, down when we breathe out. A cheap heart rate monitor is a good place to start. Do the breathing exercises in this chapter and see what happen. If heart rate variability increases, we are doing okay.

Breathing and Health Problems.

• Pain in the Shoulders and Neck. We have accessory breathing muscles in the neck that help us breathe faster when necessary. If the breath is continually more rapid than necessary, these muscles will become overtaxed and start to hurt. If we breathe more calmly, the muscles rest and the pain goes away.

• Agitative Breathing. Breathing too quickly disrupts the body’s hormone management. Breathing rapidly produces too much adrenaline, making us feel agitated and restless.

• Intestinal Problems. Imbalances between oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood will have a strong effect on the intestines: bloating, belching frequently and suffering from flatulence.

• Tiring Quickly. Breathing too fast causes physical exhaustion by continually using more energy from glucose reserves. The body has two main sources of fuel: fat and glucose. If we breathe too fast, the body has fewer reserves of glucose. Consequently, we will crave starchy and sugary foods more often.

• Heart Palpitations. Excessive expulsion of carbon dioxide makes the blood vessels contract (the same ones that expand after cold exposure.) The heart compensates by pumping blood through the body as quickly as possible. This makes many people anxious or short of breath and they often get palpitations.

• Breathing and Serious Stress Related Disorders. Why do so many people breathe so rapidly? Excessive stimulation, worry, preoccupation and persistent mental pressure all affect our breathing. There is link between respiratory ratio and certain psychiatric disorders (Bram Bakke) Breathing too fast is a symptom of stress. Any stress related psychological problem increases the respiratory rate. Stress is most commonly related with anxiety disorders and depression. Rapid breathing plays a significant role in many as of yet unexplained physical complaints affecting more and more people:

  • Traumatic experience (unexpected or radical events that would have resulted in acute stress disorder and death or serious injury, post traumatic stress disorder) - Can affect the breathing in the short term or more permanently.

  • Other anxiety disorders are accompanied by agitated breathing. The most common is panic disorder (hyperventilation syndrome.) People who suffer from an anxiety disorder have an excessively high respiratory rate at rest. Breathing and relaxation exercises have been found to be effective for anxiety disorders.

  • Applied relaxation can be used to help someone recognize the early signs of panic and gain control through relaxation exercises. Steps:

    • Learn to relax.

    • Associate this feeling with a certain word that brings calm.

    • When panic signals occur, this word can be used to diffuse the panic.

Breathing and the Brain.

• The neocortex is the youngest part of the brain -- used to analyze and calculate. It is the language center. It is also the part that allows us to worry about what will happen in two weeks time or stay irritated about a past event. The neocortex filters external stimuli. We are exposed to as many external stimuli as someone living in the middle ages encountered during their lifetime. We make an average of 2,800 choices per day. It is not surprising then that at some point to be receiving more signals than we can handle. One way the resulting agitation manifests itself is through more rapid breathing (an overstimulated neocortex.) Fortunately, the neocortex can also be used to slow our breathing down through conscious practice of breathing exercises.

• The mammalian or emotional brain is where we process the emotions we share with other mammals such as fear, aggression, love and sorrow. The limbic system is found in this part of the brain.

• A layer deeper is the reptilian brain and the functions we share with reptiles. Our blood pressure, heart rate and breathing are regulated here. Likewise the reptilian brain keeps the body temperature at 36.8°c without conscious attention.

Wim Hof Techniques. The exercises are designed to enable us to control both mind and body, and to consciously influence the autonomic nervous system through the breath. Rooted in ‘Tummo’ meditation from the vajrayana religion, the meditation works from a cause and effect perspective. Look to the root causes of what ails us. The aim is to transform every experience into fearless wisdom, spontaneous joy and energetic love and that our experiences be true for us. Truly experiencing is the link to enlightenment.

Technique to relax:

• Breathe in deeply and then exhale, in through the nose out through the nose, pause (don’t pause as long as possible. Repeat 30 times.

• If the exercise does not relax you, repeat it but this time breathe out through the mouth, prolonging the breathe with a little with a longer pause. Repeat for 2 minutes.

Tummo Technique to help raise the body temperature during cold training:

• Combine the breathing with visualization. While breathing, as the air enters the lungs, visualize the oxygen fanning flames deep in the belly.

• Visualize the heat generated flowing out to the extremities through the blood.

• It is about experiencing, not believing. Practice. Feeling is understanding.

Wim Hof Technique. Perform for energy to start the day or during the afternoon to pause and reset our purpose for the day:

• Breathe in deeply, then exhale. Repeat 30 times.

• Breathe at a pace that feels most comfortable without forcing the breath.

• The last time, breathe out completely, then in again very deeply, out again slowly, and then wait. Hold the breath after breathing out, calmly wait until the need to breathe again.

• Repeat the exercise (1-2 more times) until feeling tingling, light in the head or sluggish.

• By breathing in deeply and out slowly, we expel a lot of carbon dioxide. As carbon dioxide concentrations decrease, the blood vessels contract. When holding the breath after breathing out, carbon dioxide levels go back up. The body compensates by releasing more oxygen into the mitochondria, generating more energy at the cellular level. Oxygen also activates the expulsion of waste substances. Holding the breath after exhaling causes a parasympathetic reaction (we relax.) The deep and conscious breathing done in the WMH technique generates more energy in the cell, a calm and focused energy as opposed to a stressed and nervous one.

Pineal Gland. After completing these exercises many experience an expanded form of consciousness. The mitochondria in the brain cells releases chemicals in the pituitary and pineal glands. The pineal gland (epiphysis cerebri) is very important for determining state of mind. It produces melatonin (a hormone that plays an important role in our sleep-wake and reproductive rhythms.) WHM breathing exercises allow more oxygen to enter the pineal gland, the body responds by making and generating a lot more oxygen, combating jet lag, sleeping problems and depression. In eastern philosophy, pineal gland is the seat of the soul, the link between the body and the soul.

Breath Retention. Measure how long you can hold your breath to check if the body changes during the breathing exercise. Measure before, then afterwards. If able to hold the breath longer, we are making improvements.