Breathing techniques for improved wellbeing and performance in sport

‘From the moment we are born to the moment we die, we breathe.’ Jon Kabat-Zinn (2013: p.40)

Breathing is a fundamental to both our lives and our sport, yet it is not often explicitly taught in sports context beyond basic reminders to ‘remember to breath’ when you exert yourself or are under pressure and general advice to breathe from your belly (‘diaphragmatic breathing’), rather than your chest or throat, in order to take in more air. Both of these tips are useful and relevant to ensuring that you get enough oxygen during aerobic exercise – but in this article we’ll go a little deeper to consider the benefits of different breathing techniques for sports performance and wellbeing. The practices outlined below will help you improve your awareness of how you breath and give some advice on how better breath support can help both your physical performance, especially by improving your abdominal breathing, but also maintain or restore mental and emotional balance through techniques such as slow, regulated breathing.

I’ll draw on areas of some disparate areas research and personal experience which all touch on breath awareness and support: the first of these is examining the use of the breath as an anchor in mindfulness meditation, the second is my experience of how the breath is used in different contexts in Shotokan karate, in which I trained for over 20 years, and finally, I’ll also draw some lessons from breathing techniques used in woodwind, as I am a recreational recorder player. Bringing ideas on breathing together from these areas, I’ll discuss the benefits of specific types of breathing such as abdominal breathing, slow breathing, and nasal breathing and suggest several breathing exercises that you can use to enhance your breathwork to improve your sports performance and wellbeing.

It’s important to note that I am not a medical practitioner, so if you have any personal respiratory issues, then I’d strongly recommend seeking medical advice before applying the techniques considered as part of your daily or weekly sports routines.

How we breathe

Before reviewing breathing techniques, it is useful to summarise briefly some information about the process and purpose of breathing. ‘Breathing’ is the flow of air in and out of the body. The resting breathing rate for adult humans is around 12 breaths per minute, although most people usually breath faster than this at around 15-18 breaths per minute (www.normalbreathing.com, 2020). Inhalation oxygenates the blood, which is then pumped by the heart from the lungs through arteries and capillaries to cells to provide the oxygen needed to function. Carbon dioxide is carried from the cells by blood pumped through veins and expelled from the body on exhale (Kabat-Zinn, 2013: p.40).

Breathing is facilitated by the diaphragm, a large dome-shaped muscle at the bottom of the rib-cage. When the diaphragm flattens, the ribs expand and create a vacuum in the body, which is filled with oxygen-rich air on the inhale. The diaphragm then relaxes, the lungs deflate and carbon dioxide is released from body on the exhale – thus maintaining a stable level of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the body. The breathing process is controlled by two groups of respiratory muscles in the body: the primary respiratory muscles are the diaphragm, the intercostal muscles between the ribs, and the abdominal muscles in the belly; these are supported by accessory muscles in the neck, shoulders and ribs. The primary respiratory muscles do most of the work required in breathing – around 80 per cent (Burch, 2008: p.97-99).

Abdominal breathing

All breathing uses the diaphragm, so it is clearer to refer to abdominal or belly-breathing, rather than ‘diaphragmatic breathing’ (Kabat-Zinn, 2013: p. 47). Making better use of the primary respiratory muscles is a more effective way of improving your breathing than relying on ‘chest breathing’ using the muscles in the neck, shoulders, and upper ribs. In physical activities such as sport and music (especially when playing wind instruments), coaches and teachers often tell students to use abdominal breathing. But how do you do this? Well, an important point to remember is that if you keep your abdomen tense when you inhale, the diaphragm won’t be able to descend fully, so your breath will stay shallow and in the chest. Relaxing the abdominal muscles in your belly when you breath in allows for a much fuller inhale. On the exhale, you can keep the abdomen relaxed until the end of the out-breath, at which point you can squeeze the last bit of air out of the lungs by tensing your tummy. If you are not used to this style of breathing, it might help at first to try it with your eyes closed and one hand on your stomach to feel the expansion and contraction as you breathe in and out.

National Health Service patient guidance on abdominal breathing (Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, 2020) offers some additional tips:

Feel as though you are pulling your abdominal muscles towards your spine as you contract them to exhale.
Ensure your face, neck and shoulders are relaxed as you do so – the movement should be in your stomach / abdomen.
It might help to make long sound as you breath out and squeeze the abdominal muscles towards your spine – ‘shhhh’, ‘sssss’, or ‘fffff’.
Allow your stomach to expand on the inhale without restriction.
Try using abdominal breathing while you sit, stand, or walk so it becomes normal.

A systematic review of medical research on the health benefits of abdominal (or ‘diaphragmatic’) breathing by Hidetaka Hamasaki (2020) shows that abdominal breathing improves the efficiency of respiration in terms of reduced alveolar dead space in the lungs (i.e. the amount of alveoli in the lungs that are not used in exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide) and increased oxygen levels in the arteries, therefore potentially improving blood oxygen levels.

Mindful breathing

The breath is often used as an anchor for attention during mindfulness meditation. It’s a really good point of focus for meditation because as a physical constant in our lives it’s accessible, yet in our daily lives we don’t pay it much attention. We can bring ourselves to the present by focusing on the depth, rhythm, pace, and bodily sensations of breathing. This can be used in sport to maintain or restore composure and encourage focused concentration. In their book on flow experience in sport (i.e. the mental state associated with peak performance – ‘being in the zone’), Susan Jackson and Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi note:

‘When you are in danger of getting distracted, it helps to be able to focus on the rhythm of your breathing or on the minute changes in the way your muscles feel. Learning to listen to what the body tells you is one of the surest ways to achieve concentration and improve performance.’ (Jackson and Csikszentmihalyi, 1999: p.67)

Mindful breathing is not a special technique or regulated breathing. To breathe mindfully is simply to observe how you are breathing right now; you might be taking long, slow breaths, or you may be breathing in a shallow, rapid way – that’s okay. To breath mindfully you don’t change your breathing pattern, you just observe how you are breathing in this moment. It sounds easy, but as renowned mindfulness teacher Jon Kabat-Zinn notes, when learning to meditate many people find it hard to watch the breath without trying to change or think about it (2013: p.42, p.44). Indeed, you don’t need to think about how you are breathing, instead you just examine your breath lightly in your attention (i.e. a gentle awareness, not an intense focus), noticing where in the body you feel the inhale / exhale, areas of expansion / contraction, and tension / relaxation. It’s a simple, yet effective practice which gets you to notice how you are now, and in doing so it creates some mental space for you to check in with yourself and respond with compassion – giving yourself what you need to be okay or even to thrive in the present.

Many people mix up mindfulness and relaxation techniques. Relaxation or calmness is not the goal of mindful meditation, although it can be the outcome. While the breath might naturally slow and become more steady during meditation, this is not the objective. The aim of mindful breathing is just to hold the breath gently in your attention. Your mind might be busy at the start and it might still be busy at the end – that’s fine – it’s just how you are right now. What you are doing is practising the skill of focused attention. With practice you can then start to apply that quality of present-focused equanimity in your daily life and sport, enhancing your sense of composure.

To practise mindful breathing, I’d suggest that you sit in a comfortable, yet alert position. Find something that works for you. I notice that if I lie down then I get too relaxed and am prone to falling asleep. It can help to sit upright, straighten the spine, relax the shoulders, and place the hands on your lap. Once you’ve set up your posture, just turn your mind to the breath – noticing how the body moves with each inhale and exhale. You can start by focusing on a specific point, such as the tip of the nose, and noticing the cool air entering the body on the inhale and warm air being expelled on the exhale. Perhaps you can feel the nostrils expand and contract, or even the movement of the nose hairs. Follow the breath into the body – through the nostrils, into the throat and mouth cavity, feel the lungs and belly expand as you take air in, and then contract as you let air out. After a few minutes, expand your attention to the whole body and notice how the entire body moves with each breath – the rise and fall of the shoulders, the movements in the back, possibly also subtle shifts in your weight distribution. You can do this for as long as you wish – as short as a couple of minutes or as long as half an hour. As you end the meditation, remember to check in with yourself emotionally to see how you feel after bringing yourself to the present by focusing for a short while on your breath. I often feel less distracted and more mentally and physically composed.

Breathing in karate

Breath technique is a fundamental, but often not explicitly taught, aspect of karate. The main advice given to karate students is to use abdominal breathing and exhale on the punch or kick. The hara, or core – the area of the abdomen that includes the belly but also extends around the back of the lower torso – is seen as the area of the body from which power is generated in a punch or kick. To do a punch one not only has to rotate the hips to generate power, but also to shift the centre of gravity (i.e. the core) forward. Japanese instructors sometimes shout ‘hara o dashite’, something like ‘push with your core’ to encourage students to generate power in their techniques.

The use of the core is not limited to shifting the centre of gravity, however, karate students are also encouraged to use abdominal breathing – to breathe from the core – rather than from the chest when punching, kicking, or blocking. There is a sense of controlled exhalation on exertion when doing a karate technique. For example, you breath out when you start a punch with the arm relaxed. The exhale is then stopped at the point of impact or focus for the punch, at around 80 per cent of full exhale, rather than just letting the breath run out. This sense of physical and breath focus for a technique is called kime (from the verb kimeru, to decide, fix or set). This moment of tension is held only for a split second before the arm and hand are relaxed and withdrawn quickly back to the hip with a simultaneous inhale.

I read with interest mindfulness instructor Vidyamala Burch’s description of the following breathing exercise: clench your fist and notice what happens to the breath. When you hold the breath and clench your fist you can feel a sense of tension; release the breath and you notice that your fist relaxes a little too (2008: p.102). This rings true from a karate perspective: stopping the breath at the moment of impact or focus creates a spit-second point of focused tension (kime), which is followed immediately by relaxation on the inhale.

Another important technique in karate is the kiai. To the casual observer this just sounds like a guttural shout. The literal translation of the two Chinese characters for kiai are ki, spirit / life force, and ai, conjoin or combine. So a kiai is a meeting of energy expressed in a shout from the belly on a decisive punch or kick either in sparring or kata (forms). Viewed in practical rather than esoteric terms, the kiai can be seen as a combined focus of breath, body and technique on the finishing point of a technique. It enables the karate practitioner to exhale and tense not only the hand or foot, but also the hara (core) on the impact point – so the physical impact is enhanced through breath support.

There are occasions, such as in some tension kata, where a slow-breathing technique is used in karate. A good example is in the Shotokan kata Hangestu (‘Half Moon’). In Hangetsu, several combinations are executed slowly with increasing tension leading up to the kime point for the punch or block. In terms of the breath, a slow, regulated exhale through the mouth is made as technique is started, with increasing tension in the arm being accompanied by increasing tension in the abdomen up to the focus point. This is then followed by either a quick inhale and release of tension before a strike is made with increasing breath and bodily tension on execution, or a slower inhale on block preparation. Iain Abernathy has a good video which describes this breathing pattern in more detail: https://www.iainabernethy.co.uk/content/breathing-hangetsu. The use of abdominal tension for breath support on exhale coming to a focused point of maximum tension is common to both standard-speed karate and slow-tension movements in kata such as Hangestu. For me, it demonstrates the fundamental importance of the use of the core not only in terms of the biomechanics of generating power on impact, but also on how the breath is used to make this work.

It is also relevant to acknowledge that mindful breathing is also used in karate during mokuso, silent reflection, practice. This is a brief period of kneeling meditation done as part of the pre- and post-lesson bowing etiquette in traditional karate dojo (training halls). During this short period of meditation, no explicit breathing technique is taught or followed, the intention is just to bring yourself to the present through focused attention. Having said that, abdominal breathing and breathing through the nose can help facilitate balance and recovery after exercise and the breath can be a useful anchor point for your attention during mokuso practice.

Considering the breath techniques commonly used in karate summarised above, the key lesson I take is that abdominal control is fundamental to the biomechanics of punching, kicking and blocking technique, but it is also a key part of the breath support that is an essential part of good technique. Using the core on exhale and inhale maximises tension on the moment of impact and facilitates quick release and recovery after executing a technique.

Woodwind / singing lessons

I am a relative novice at recorder playing, but it has already provided me with some valuable insights into breath technique, nothing too technical or advanced, but more about how to encourage a full and natural inhale and exhale. Before I started learning the recorder, I had assumed that recorder players breathed in through the nose and out through the mouth and instrument. This is not the case: to facilitate a fast and full inhale recorder players breath in through the mouth and out through the instrument to make notes. Mouth breathing is a good way to take air in quickly. Having said this, it is also possible to take in too much air and then start to feel out of breath if you don’t let it all out again during playing. Not exhaling fully leads to a feeling of shortness of breath and tension in the chest and throat, which then restricts playing. Given this, it’s important to learn to good breath technique.

Unlike reed instruments such as the oboe, which require a more forceful exhale to make a sound, the recorder is a fipple flute[1] and does not restrict the air on the exhale, so the musician needn’t blow hard to play a note. However, this lack of resistance means that they have to control the breath to stop the note, rather than just let their air peter out while playing.

My recorder teacher has encouraged me to view singing videos, as breath control in singing and recorder playing is similar. Singing coach Madeleine Harvey (2016) emphasises how singers should try to ‘get out of the way of the breath’ for a natural inhale by focusing on relaxation rather than tension. Thinking about the area at the back of the throat where the tongue, jaw and throat meet, Harvey notes that dropping the jaw with the mouth open encourages a natural inhale – try it! At the same time, it’s important not to restrict the abdominal muscles and ‘let go’ of the tummy during the inhale to create a vacuum in the body which can be filled with air. Combining the dropping of the jaw with targeted relaxation of the abdomen allows for a quick, full inhale using abdominal breathing. It’s possible to inhale on 1 count and then exhale steadily for a count of 7. Recorder-player Sarah Jeffries (2017) gives this technique a memorable name – ‘the splat’ – because the release of tension and dropping the jaw causes a kind of instant inhale. I have found ‘splat breathing’ really helpful in improving my abdominal breathing technique.

Saxophonist and flautist Erica Von Kliest (2014) adds that it is not only important to use abdominal breathing in playing woodwind instruments, but it is also vital to relax the shoulder and trapezius muscle in the shoulders and upper back. Tension in the shoulders and throat area can restrict breathing and playing. She suggests a good way to practise this is to put one hand on your tummy and one on your shoulder, breath in for a count of 3 while expanding the abdomen but not moving the shoulders, and then doing a quick exhale on a 4^th count, contracting the abdominal muscles to provide extra support.

It’s relatively simple to apply these technical tips on how to do better abdominal breathing in meditation or sport. I have noticed, for example, that dropping the jaw and opening the mouth cavity during nasal breathing (i.e. with the mouth closed) still encourages an inhale, especially when combined with releasing tension in the abdomen. It helpful too to focus on relaxation to optimise your inhale and exhale, maxing better use of your lung capacity. Often we already have enough air, we just don’t use it efficiently.

The benefits of slow breathing

The previous sections discuss the benefits of being aware of your breathing (i.e. mindful breathing), as well as using controlled abdominal breathing, breath support, to optimise your power in karate, or sustained playing or singing in music or singing. This section examines how there are additional wellbeing benefits to slow, regulated breathing. Both religious traditions and modern science suggest that there are health benefits to slow breathing. In his book ‘Breath’, journalist James Nestor notes how a range of traditional meditative practices, such as chanting, have used a breathing pattern of 5.5 second inhales and 5.5 second exhales – a count of around 5.5 breaths per minute (2020: p.83). Nestor mentions a technique called ‘resonant breathing’ of 5 and a half second inhales and exhales ‘that places the heart, lungs, and circulation into a state of coherence, where the systems of the body are working in peak efficiency (ibid., p.221).

A systematic review of slow breathing techniques by Russo, Santarelli, and O’Rourke (2017) corroborates Nestor’s observation. Slow breathing places the body’s autonomic nervous system (sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system) in balance – making us both calm, yet alert. Russo, Santarelli, and O’Rourke observe that optimal breathing is around 6-10 breaths per minute. This pattern of balance, slow breathing increases your tidal volume (how much air you take in and breath out during respiration), especially if activated through diaphragmatic breathing.

Breathing around 6 breaths per minute is also optimal for maximising your Heart Rate Variability (HRV), the variation in the time interval between consecutive heartbeats in milliseconds. Your HRV increases when you are relaxed. A high HRV is good for you and it is optimised by slow breathing at a rate of around 6 breaths per minute, as Russo, Santarelli, and O’Rourke state:

‘Controlled, slow breathing appears to be an effective means of maximising HRV and preserving autonomic function, both of which have been associated with decreased mortality in pathological states and longevity in the general population.’ (Russo, Santarelli, and O’Rourke, 2017).

The authors also note that breathing through your nose rather than your mouth is also important to optimise breathing, although I would add that this is not always appropriate when you need to take air in quickly such as during running or playing woodwind.

In terms of why slow breathing is good for us, Michael Moseley interviewed neuroscientist Professor Ian Robertson for his series on wellbeing: ‘Just one thing’ (Moseley, n.d). Robertson observed that breathing controls the amount of noroadrenaline in the brain, the brain’s equivalent to the body’s adrenalin. It prepares us for action. Too much noroadrenaline and we are overstimulated, too little and we become lethargic. Under pressure, carbon dioxide levels in our blood rise and this triggers the locus coeruleus, a part of the brainstem which releases more noroadrenaline into the brain. Increased noroadrenaline levels mean that we think less clearly. Slow, regulated breathing can help reset this process, rebalancing the fight / flight mechanism (sympathetic nervous system) and our rest and digest function (the parasympathetic nervous system). It restores our balance.

It’s worth noting that any kind of regulated breathing is not ‘mindful’ breathing, since we seek to control the breath for performance or wellbeing benefits, rather than just observing it. Having said that, a mindful awareness of how we are breathing is still an essential part of putting techniques such as slow breathing into practice.

In summary, key points to note are:

slow, rhythmic breathing can help balance your breath and has respiratory benefits for your body, as well as balancing the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems – making you calm, yet alert.
a breathing rate of around 5.5 seconds (around 6 breaths per minute) optimises this process.
this method of breathing is helped by abdominal breathing.
there are also health benefits to breathing through the nose rather than the mouth (when appropriate).

Kris using nasal breathing — Slow, nasal breathing

6 Breathing exercises to try

Drawing on the research and experiences summarised above, here are 6 breathing exercises that you can try. They will help you pay better attention to your breathing, develop better abdominal breathing technique, and also tap into the benefits of slow breathing.

Exercise 1: ‘Splat’ breathing – Sit upright or stand. Focus on full inhales and exhales from the belly. Practice enabling a full, unforced inhale by using relaxation, rather than tension. Open the throat, drop the jaw with the mouth open, and let the belly expand without any tension on the inhale. All this is done quickly and simultaneously on a count of one – ‘splat!’ I find this a really good way to practice not holding any tension in the abdomen to restrict the inhale. Madeleine Harvey’s video (see references below, 2016), demonstrates this technique well.

Exercise 2: ‘Back breathing’ visualisation – This is a technique described by Vidyamala Burch in her book ‘Living well with pain & illness: using mindfulness to free yourself from suffering’ (2008: pp. 103-104). We often associate the breath with the front of the torso – the chest or belly. However, the ribs and lungs form part of our back and our spine also moves with our breath. Cultivating an awareness of how the back moves with the breath deepens our sense of embodied breathing and allows us to be more fully present (i.e. mindful). Try this visualisation exercise:

Sit upright or stand. Relax the shoulders and chest and take full breaths using your abdomen.
Focus your mind on the expansion you notice in your core on the inhale, and the contraction you feel on the exhale. Shift your awareness from the front of your torso to your back.
Starting from your sacrum (triangular bone at the bottom of the spine) and coccyx (tailbone), with each breath gradually take your awareness up the spine, vertebra by vertebra, from the lower back to where the neck meets the skull.
Imagine the delicate interlocking bones of the spine tethered together with spinal cord, floating up on the in-breath and down on the out-breath.
Pay attention to the expansion and contraction of the back – opening up on the inhale and closing in on each exhale (Burch, 2008: p.107).

Exercise 3: Forward Bend – recorder player Lobke Sprenkling (2020 and n.d.) advocates this practice to develop a better awareness of how abdominal breathing isn’t just in the belly, but also includes the back. As with the ‘back breathing’ exercise above, it enables you to have a fuller, embodied awareness of the breath in the torso, not just in your tummy.

Put both hands on your lower back, where your kidneys are.
In a sitting position, bend over with the head hanging loose. This restricts the expansion of the belly, so you’ll feel the air more in the lower back. Feel the lower back expand as you inhale and contract as you exhale.
Move the torso up to a leaning forward position. Pay attention to the movement in the lower back as you inhale and exhale.
Now sit upright is a normal seated position. Pay attention to how the lower back expands with the belly on the inhale and contracts on the exhale.

Practising first bending forward and then rising to an upright position enables you to feel the movement of the entire torso with each inhale and exhale, encouraging full, deep abdominal breathing.

Exercise 4: 10-finger breathing – I have also seen this described as ‘starfish-hand breathing’ (Prince, 2017: p.18). It’s an easy to remember exercise you can do any time or place. It is simple and so is taught to children to help calm them down when anxious or upset.

Hold your left up in front of you with the palm facing you and fingers and thumb spread like a starfish.
Take the index finger of your right hand and trace the outline of your left hand in a slow and steady motion. Not too fast, not too slow.
Breath in as your index finger goes up a finger; breath out as it goes down a finger.
Swap hands when you get to the wrist.
Pay attention to the quality of the breath: it’s pace, depth, and rhythm. Notice also the physical sensation of the index finger tracing the hand.
The focus on the breath and physical sensation gives you a point of focus and that, combined with steady breathing, can help calm you if you are distressed.
Repeat the tracing for as long as you wish – it could be as short as one minute or as long as ten.
For a variation, you can try the exercise with your eyes closed.

Tammie Prince adds that the point between thumb and forefinger is an acupressure point called ‘union valley’. Massaging it is supposed to help reduce muscle tension and relieve stress (2017: p.18).

Exercise 5: 5-finger balanced breath – This is my adaptation of the ‘fingertip touch and breath’ exercise described by Tammie Prince (2017: p.3). It’s a good exercise for practising ‘slow breathing’ and realising the benefits that come through steady, regulated breath, as described in the section above.

Find a position that works for you: feel free to stand, sit, or lie down, whatever you find comfortable.
Close your mouth and breath through your nose.
If you wish, you can place one hand on your stomach and feel it rise on the inhale and fall on the exhale. This encourages you to breath from your diaphragm rather than your chest.
Open the other hand. Inhale for a count of 5 and half seconds. You can do this by counting in your mind (DON’T COUNT OUT LOUD) and closing one finger with each count.
Say in your mind: ‘one breath, two breath, three breath, four breath, five breath, half’ as you inhale. Hold the breath as you say ‘half’ in your mind for half a second. Close one finger with each count.
Do the same in reverse as you exhale. Count 5 breaths in your mind as you exhale, this time opening one finger with each count as you exhale. Keep your shoulders and upper body relaxed as you exhale.
Remember you need to breath SLOWLY and FULLY! Don’t take in or let out the breath too quickly, otherwise you’ll struggle to reach 5 and half seconds for the inhale or exhale.
Say in your mind: ‘one breath, two breath, three breath, four breath, five breath, half’ as you exhale. Hold the breath as you say ‘half’ in your mind for half a second.
Remember to breathe through your nose!
Repeat the pattern 10 times, five inhales and five exhales, or for however long you need to restore your balance if you are under pressure or out of breath.

Don’t worry if you can’t reach 5.5 seconds on the inhale or exhale. You can always start by counting to 4 (or whatever you can manage) and then increasing this up to 5 and a half over time. It’s also okay if your breath goes out of line with the count. Just notice this and re-establish the count together with the breath on the next inhale. If you’re self-conscious, you don’t need to use your fingers, but they can serve as a useful prompt to steady the breath.

Exercise 6: Longer exhales practice – This is a variation on the 5.5 second breathing pattern used in the 5-finger breathing. Nestor notes that a longer exhale triggers a stronger parasympathetic nervous system response, which helps us relax (2020: p.229). The exercise is adapted from a practice described by hypnotherapist Penelope Ling (n.d.):

Standing, sitting or lying down, breathe out slowly and relax.
Inhale to your fullest capacity and count how many seconds it takes (e.g. say to yourself ‘one second, two second, etc.’
Exhale slowly, counting again. Exhale for 1 second more than you did for the inhale – so if your inhale was 5 seconds, do a 6 second exhale.
Inhale again to the same count as the first time.
Exhale for longer, adding 2 seconds to your inhale count.
Breathe in and out slowly to your inhale and exhale highest counts (e.g. 4 and 6.
Continue for 5 minutes.

Application and when to use the breathing exercises

You can use these exercises as stand-alone practices to help improve your breathing awareness and technique. For sport and exercise, I find that doing a short breathing exercise as part of your warm-up routine is a great way to focus on the present and bring myself to concentrate on being in the dojo, sports hall, or wherever you train. I also use regulated breathing, the 5-finger balanced breath, when I want to catch my breath after running. It takes a while to be able to settle into that slow, steady breathing rhythm after exercise, but I find that trying to slow and steady the breath does help restore my breathing to balance. More generally, I also find that focusing on my breath mindfully, without necessarily seeking to regulate it, is a great mindfulness practice to use when under pressure to help bring myself back to the present so I can focus on what I need to do in the moment.

‘First, last, outer, inner, only that breath breathing human being.’ Rumi (translated by Coleman Barks)

About the author

Dr. Kris Chapman has trained in karate for over 20 years with a 1^st dan in Shukokai karate and 2^nd dan in Shotokan karate, as well as a 1^st dan in Heki-ryu Insai-ha kyudo (Japanese archery). Kris did a PhD on Japanese martial arts in the anthropology department of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. His doctorate included 18 months of fieldwork in Tokyo training in karate and kyudo, where he gained his 2^nd dan in the Japan Karate Association headquarters and 1^st dan in kyudo in the headquarters of the All Japan Kyudo Federation.

Kris is also an enthusiastic, but relatively novice, recorder player (descant and treble).

He is a qualified mindfulness instructor with a focus on mindfulness for sport, offering half-day and longer online and face-to-face courses on Improving Sports Performance through Mindfulness and Compassion. If you would like more information about this, have a look at www.mindfulkindfulness.co.uk or contact him at kris@mindfulkindfulness.co.uk.

References

Abernathy, Iain (n.d.) ‘Breathing in Hangestu’, available at: https://www.iainabernethy.co.uk/content/breathing-hangetsu, accessed on 22.9.2021.

Brittanica (2007) ‘Fipple Flute’, available at: https://www.britannica.com/art/fipple-flute, accessed on 24.9.2021.

Burch, Vidyamala (2008) Living Well with Pain & Illness: using mindfulness to free yourself from suffering, Piaktus.

Hamasaki, Hidetaka (2020) Effects of Diaphragmatic Breathing on Health: A Narrative Review’ in Medicines (Basel). 2020 Oct; 7(10): 65, available online at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7602530/, accessed on 8.10.2021

Harvey, Madeleine (24.4.2016) ‘Easy way to develop great breath support’, available online at: https://youtu.be/G1zgE1SZ7-4, accessed on 10.9.2021.

Moseley, M (n.d.) ‘Just one thing – with Michael Moseley: how to reset your brain with your breathing’, available online at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1mW6885X3N2gKnVjXT00KCj/how-to-reset-your-brain-with-your-breathing?winst=1630660549407&of=0, accessed on 3.9.2021.

Ling, Penelope (n.d.) ‘The importance of breathing’, available at: https://lyfefocus.com/hypnotherapist-the-importance-of-breathing/, an excerpt from Driving Me Crazy – Overcome the fear of driving, accessed on 3.9.2021.

Nestor, James (2020) Breath: the new science of a lost art, Penguin Life.

Barks, Coleman (11.10.2007) ‘Only breath – poetry by Rumi’, available on: https://youtu.be/IZqAnIp5dMQ, accessed on 3.9.2021.

Russo, Marc A., Danielle M. Santarelli, Dean O’Rourke (2017) ‘The physiological effects of slow breathing in the healthy human’ in Breathe: practice-focused education for respiratory professionals, issue 13: pp. 298-309. Available online at: https://breathe.ersjournals.com/content/13/4/298?winst=1628076996032&of=0, accessed on 4.8.2021.

Von Kliest, Erica (23.5.2014) ‘Proper Breathing for Woodwind Instruments’ by Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Jazz Academy, available online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCEj3R_26wY&list=LL&index=6, accessed on 3.9.2021.

Jeffrey, Sarah (30.11.2017) ‘Improve your breathing / air capacity! | Team Recorder’ available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyhtLaFgcWg&list=LL&index=5&t=233s, accessed on 3.9.2021.

Sprenkling, Lobke (n.d.) ‘Recorder essentials: use of air and breath control for recorder players, singers, and other wind players’, available online at: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5c4de76cec4eb7a13663faef/t/5ef2a19988d0785aa623d332/1592959385975/Breathing+technique.pdf, accessed on 10.9.2021

Sprenkeling, Lobke (24.06.2020) ‘Use of air & breath control – for recorder players, singers and other wind instrumentalists’ available online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Jf0ax8Y6EQ&list=LL&index=4, accessed on 3.9.2021.

Prince, Tammie (2017) 100 ideas for primary teachers: mindfulness in the Classroom, Bloomsbury.

Kabat-Zinn, Jon (2013) Full Catastrophe Living: how to cope with stress, pain and illness using mindfulness meditation, revised edition, Piatkus. Chapter 3: ‘The Power of Breathing: your unexpected ally in the healing process’, pp. 39-53.

Jackson, Susan A. and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1999) Flow in Sports: the keys to optimal experiences and performances, Human Kinetics.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust (15.7.2020) ‘Patient information: abdominal breathing practice’, available online at: https://www.worcsacute.nhs.uk/patient-information-and-leaflets/documents/patient-information-leaflets-a-z/2664-abdominal-breathing-practice/file, accessed on 17.9.2021.

www.normalbreathing.com (10.8. 2020) ‘Normal Respiratory Frequency and Ideal Breathing’, available online at: https://www.normalbreathing.com/rate/, accessed on 15.9.2021.

[1] See https://www.britannica.com/art/fipple-flute for a brief, technical description.

Leave a comment Cancel reply