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I use Breathly. It's great visually and audibly. And, you can use a custom timing. It also has a few other presets, including box breathing. And, it keeps the screen on, though I wish it would work when my android is locked (in my pocket). https://github.com/mmazzarolo/breathly-app
I have used 3-7 breathing to prepare for diving. Inhale 3 seconds, exhale 7 seconds, for at least a full minute, followed by hyperventilating 5 times. Lets me hold my breath for 4–5 minutes if I don't move too much.
Someone I went to school with almost died from this. Was in a coma for 48h and spent a month in hospital afterwards. And that was in a public swimming pool where he was discovered quite quickly.
I have used 3-7 breathing to prepare for diving. Inhale 3 seconds, exhale 7 seconds, for at least a full minute, followed by hyperventilating 5 times. Lets me hold my breath for 4–5 minutes if I don't move too much.
It effectively removes the normally leftover carbon dioxide from blood, but it does not oxygenate blood significantly more than normal.
The end result: if you hold your breath after hyperventilation and start doing physical activities, you can get dangerously deoxygenated blood. Without the usual feeling of asphyxiation that is normally triggered by high CO2 content.
Deoxygenated blood + brain = fainting. Which can be lethal when swimming.
For an intro to the topic, James Nestor's Breath is excellent.
For those who have a scientific interest in breathwork, I suggest James Nestor's _Breath_. It goes into the biological aspects with a minimum amount of woo. And for those who want a crash course, I recommend getting a getting a pulse oximeter or other real time heart rate tracker and experimenting with various breathing patterns (Google [box breathing], [resonance breathing], etc) to watch your heart rate change. It…
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/366645304_Effect_of...
To me, breathwork falls under that category of positive exercises that can give a boost in life. I would never overhype “the power of breathwork” to anyone. Just like going to the gym, yoga, dancing, and most other similar activities.
I use Breathly. It's great visually and audibly. And, you can use a custom timing. It also has a few other presets, including box breathing. And, it keeps the screen on, though I wish it would work when my android is locked (in my pocket). https://github.com/mmazzarolo/breathly-app
I think the timer should be a multiple of the time to complete one full cycle, ending on an exhale.
For those who have a scientific interest in breathwork, I suggest James Nestor's _Breath_. It goes into the biological aspects with a minimum amount of woo. And for those who want a crash course, I recommend getting a getting a pulse oximeter or other real time heart rate tracker and experimenting with various breathing patterns (Google [box breathing], [resonance breathing], etc) to watch your heart rate change. It…
Or just ... breathe normally? Your body can handle this pretty well on its own. What's the point of this hyper-optimization? (Unless it cures a condition obviously.)
cures isn't the right word, but it lets you set conditions in your body once you've practiced for a bit. slow, deep breathing can help you remain calm and focused. inversely, quick, shallow breaths lead to a bit of hyperoxia and can help bring your emotions to a more intense state as well as basically "banking" oxygen for short bursts of physical activity. It's about being in control of your body and mind, and gaining that control through experimentation and observation. There are already a couple examples of the science behind breathwork in this thread but I feel compelled to point out that breath work is the foundation of meditation and practiced meditators have shown truly incredible control over their bodies and emotions.
The primary source of benefits from breathwork is believed to be controlling the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal hormonal axis in the body. These three glands are basically in charge of the body's stress hormones, and those stress hormones are how the body broadcasts to all of its constituent parts what state the body is in and leaves each part to respond appropriately. So in someone with a hyperactive HPA axis you're going to see the immune system overrespond because the body is getting ready to deal with wounds that could become infected, you're going to see the cardiovascular system overrespond to prepare for phsyical exertion, you're going to see the digestive system underrespond because now's not the time to break down that sandwich there's a goddamned bear chasing me, all sorts of ways your body optimizes for emergency mode when the HPA axis is active.
Thing is, what triggers emergency mode has changed a lot as we've developed as a species. Used to be the aforementioned bear. A bear is an emergency, but it's a 5 minute emergency. After 5 minutes it's over and either you survived it or you didn't. Now our lives are so complex and weird that people have emergencies that last decades. Trying to pay the rent with a minimum wage job is arguably an emergency that lasts your entire adult life and the HPA axis is responding to very real fears of having no food, nowhere to live, no social status and other things that matter to us on a biological level. If the HPA pathway remains too active for too long all of those downstream systems I mention earlier start malfunctioning because they've been running permanently in a mode that was only ever intended to be temporary. The ability to consciously take control of that by regulating your breath and focus doesn't just make you feel calmer, it allows those systems that have been redlining for a long time to take their foot off of the gas. It can lower your blood pressure and heart rate, which lowers the risk of heart attack and stroke. Its linked to abatement of symptoms in things as disparate as lupus, irritable bowel syndrome, adhd, dementia and fibromyalgia. Not to mention that people report being happier, less stressed and more engaged with their lives and loved ones with 20 minutes/day of just sitting quietly and paying attention to how their breathing works without actually trying to alter it at all.
tldr - it's linked to relief in several conditions
most of my info (prolly all of it tbh) comes from Dr K's lectures at healthygamer.gg - full disclosure, i don't work for them, i don't get paid by them, they don't know i exist but i am a member who has worked through a couple of their courses. They also have a youtube channel if you want an opportunity to check out some of the info for free.