Thread by @ErwanLeCorre

Back to the subject of breathing and cellular respiration.

A high oxygen blood saturation (SpO2) between 95 and 99% only shows that a normal level of O2 circulates in your blood but it is not an indication of optimum cellular oxygenation.

So how do you know if your CELLS, not your blood, are well oxygenated if that’s not by looking at your superficial oxygen blood saturation on an oximeter?

Answer:

By paying attention to your regular breathing.

An optimum state of cellular respiration is revealed in the way you breathe.

At rest an overall well-oxygenated body - not just well-oxygenated blood - doesn’t need to breathe a lot.

Your breathing should be nasal, slow, light, smooth and silent.

Breathing through the mouth, fast, heavy, in a jerky fashion, and/or noisily are indications that your cellular respiration is struggling. You may be breathing a lot of oxygen, your blood may be saturated with oxygen, but your cells don’t get to use as much O2 as they need.

If your cells, not just your blood, were well oxygenated, your breathing would become and remain nasal, slow, light, smooth and silent. You would feel relaxed, energetic and clear-minded as a result.

When you breathe too fast, you inhale more O2 than your body can possibly use, which is useless. It’s a form of hyperventilation and a continuous waste of precious energy. We only need a FEW breaths per minute to receive all the oxygen our body needs.

The flip side of the coin: when you breathe too much - too fast, too heavy - you continuously exhale more CO2 than your body should, which makes you deficient in CO2.
The issue with that?
Your cells need enough CO2 in order to be able to use the amount of O2 they need.

CO2 is essential at making O2 available to your cells.
In short, even when plenty of O2 is surrounding your cells and available to them, if there’s not enough CO2 around your cells can’t use that oxygen.

Again, what could be the reason for low levels of CO2? Exhaling too much.
Why do you exhale too much? Because you inhale too much, and each superfluous inhale is systematically followed by a superfluous exhale.

With each superfluous exhale, precious CO2 leaves your body, leaving your cells unable to use as much oxygen as they need even in the presence of a LOT of it.
The problem your body is dealing with is not a lack of oxygen but a reduced ability to use oxygen.

Obviously, breathing “deeper”, i.e hyperventilation, which you are ALREADY doing, isn’t going to fix your problem.
On the contrary HYPOventilation, i.e much slower and lighter breathing, will help.
Why? Because it will enable you to CONSERVE sufficient level of CO2 in your body.

If you can maintain a nasal, slow and light breathing, you will still breathe MORE oxygen than your body needs while keeping ENOUGH carbon dioxide (CO2) in your body so you can optimally supply your cells with O2.

Your problem is that breathing slow makes you “feel” that you need to breathe more.
Why?
That’s because your CO2 blood level increases and your tolerance to CO2 is low.
Why is that?
Well remember that breathing too much all the time lowers CO2 level in your body?

You have become overly sensitive to CO2. CO2 level is what triggers the urge to breathe.
You need to consciously retrain yourself to progressively tolerate a higher level of CO2 in your blood which is done by practicing slower breathing.

Another extremely quick and effective way to up your CO2 tolerance is to learn to hold your breath. That’s what I teach.
It’s safe, progressive and actually enjoyable.
I call this practice BreathHoldWork. You want to approach it as a meditation. Because that’s what it is.

naturalmovement.com/livegroupprogr…

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