Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art

They discovered that our capacity to breathe has changed through the long processes of human evolution, and that the way we breathe has gotten markedly worse since the dawn of the Industrial Age. They discovered that 90 percent of us—very likely me, you, and almost everyone you know—is breathing incorrectly and that this failure is either causing o

It turned out that the most efficient breathing rhythm occurred when both the length of respirations and total breaths per minute were locked in to a spooky symmetry: 5.5-second inhales followed by 5.5-second exhales, which works out almost exactly to 5.5 breaths a minute.22 This was the same pattern of the rosary.

THE LOST ART AND SCIENCE OF BREATHING

“The key is to find a rhythm that works for you,” Olsson keeps saying. The rhythm is definitely not working. I return to my more manageable practice, inhaling for two steps and exhaling for five, a pattern competitive cyclists use. This isn’t exactly comfortable, but it’s tolerable.

It turns out that when breathing at a normal rate, our lungs will absorb only about a quarter of the available oxygen in the air. The majority of that oxygen is exhaled back out. By taking longer breaths, we allow our lungs to soak up more in fewer breaths. “If, with training and patience, you can perform the same exercise workload with only 14 bre