The 5 Most Common Questions we are asked about Breathing
Over the years, we’ve noticed the same questions come up again and again—whether we are speaking with amateurs, workers, elite athletes, or people recovering from injury or illness. Below are the five most common, with practical, evidence-based answers. If you have another question, feel free to send it through.
1. Do we take breathing for granted? Should we be paying more attention to it?
Absolutely, breathing is one of the most overlooked systems in the human body.
It’s helpful to think of breathing like the heart. Both operate automatically, without conscious effort. The key difference is that we can consciously control our breathing, and that gives us a powerful lever over our physiology, stress response, and performance.
A simple example is anxiety. One of the hallmark features of an anxiety or panic episode is over-breathing. While people often assume “more oxygen is better,” excessive breathing actually reduces carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels. When CO₂ drops too low, symptoms such as dizziness, tingling, muscle cramping, confusion, and escalating anxiety can occur.
The old “paper bag” method—while no longer recommended in many settings—was based on this principle: restoring CO₂ levels to help regain control of breathing and symptoms.
From a workplace health perspective, this matters. Many people present to work already stressed, fatigued, sleep-deprived, or managing chronic conditions such as asthma, COPD, sleep apnoea, or the long-term effects of smoking. In these cases, breathing is not just automatic—it’s impaired. These individuals benefit greatly from structured breathing rehabilitation, just as you would rehabilitate a shoulder or lower back.
2. How can breathing help treat or prevent a range of health conditions?
The respiratory system is both trainable and adaptable. When trained correctly, it can significantly improve health outcomes across multiple conditions.
Asthma
Research shows that respiratory muscle training improves symptom control, reduces hospital admissions, lowers breathlessness, and decreases reliance on reliever medication. This is not about “breathing more,” but breathing more efficiently and with greater strength and control.
Stress and anxiety
Breathing is one of the fastest ways to influence the nervous system. In our approach, we begin with volume and control training—teaching people to regulate inhalation and exhalation under different conditions, often using real-time visual feedback. Once someone can control their breath, they gain control over heart rate, stress responses, and anxiety symptoms.
Chronic respiratory conditions (e.g. COPD)
Many lung conditions stem from smoking or long-term exposure to pollutants—common realities in certain industries. Strengthening the breathing muscles reduces breathlessness, improves exercise tolerance, and significantly improves quality of life. This work is deeply personal for me, having seen firsthand how breathlessness impacts daily living and independence.
Snoring and sleep apnoea
Poor sleep has a direct impact on safety, productivity, injury risk, and mental health. High-load respiratory muscle training has emerged as an effective, drug-free intervention for snoring and mild-to-moderate sleep apnoea. Short, structured programs—often just minutes per day—can produce meaningful improvements.
Post-pregnancy rehabilitation
Pregnancy changes breathing mechanics, posture, and core function. Re-establishing efficient diaphragmatic breathing plays a critical role in managing back pain, pelvic stability, and return to function. A structured breathing program offers a simple, safe, and non-pharmacological approach during this phase of life.
3. How should we train the breath? How can people start breathing better?
A simple starting point anyone can try today:
Place both hands on your abdomen
Inhale slowly through the nose for 5 seconds, expanding the belly
Exhale through pursed lips for 10 seconds
Repeat for 2 minutes, once or twice daily
This alone can improve awareness, control, and relaxation.
From a training perspective, we treat breathing muscles like any other muscle group—you train them progressively. Strengthening these muscles makes breathing easier, more efficient, and less fatiguing during work, exercise, and stress.
As with any training program, early supervision matters. A structured consultation model allows people to train safely, correctly, and effectively—whether the goal is health, performance, or symptom management.
4. How does breathing affect training, endurance, and anxiety?
When we exercise—or work in physically or mentally demanding environments—the breathing muscles fatigue just like the legs or shoulders. Once they fatigue, performance drops.
By improving respiratory muscle endurance, people can:
Sustain higher intensities for longer
Recover more efficiently
Better manage breathlessness and panic under load
Importantly, not all breathing techniques are appropriate for everyone. Some popular methods deliberately increase breathing rate or alter blood chemistry. While this may suit certain individuals, it can be unsafe for people with asthma, lung disease, or high anxiety sensitivity.
This is why breathing should be treated like any other intervention: context-specific, goal-driven, and individualised.
5. How do you use breath training with athletes and performers?
No two athletes—or jobs—have the same breathing demands. We tailor breathing training to the specific task, environment, and risk profile.
Swimmers benefit from faster, more powerful inhalation and delayed respiratory fatigue
Big-wave surfers need maximal breath volume, calm under pressure, and control during prolonged hold-downs
Performers and manual workers often use breathing retraining to improve core stability, manage pain, and reduce injury risk
The diaphragm plays a critical role not just in breathing, but in spinal stability and load management. Improving its function has direct implications for chronic back pain and injury resilience.
Final thoughts
Breathing is not just about relaxation—it’s about capacity, control, and resilience.
In workplaces, better breathing means safer workers, better recovery, improved focus, and reduced injury risk. For individuals, it means improved health, performance, and quality of life.
Our work spans clinical practice, workplace health, and high performance. As leaders in this industry our focus is simple: helping people breathe better so they can live, work, and perform better.
In short:
Breath training builds better humans.
When you make breathing easier, everything else becomes easier too.
