How efficient is your breathing?

Your breath has a huge effect on your health and quality of life. Let’s benchmark it.

If you’re reading this, you’ve alive which means you are breathing effectively enough.

But is your breathing efficient and serving your mental and physical health?

In our modern society, breathing dysfunction is surprisingly common and is associated with…

• Exhaustion
• Headaches
• Dizziness
• Light sensitivity
• Trouble sleeping
• Chest pain
• Cramps
• Anxiety
• Racing thoughts
• Difficulty with focus and concentration
• Increased risk for pain and injury (especially neck pain, low back pain and TMJ)
• and more…

You can even see breathing issues in highly trained athletes. So conditioning increases the size of your engine, but not necessarily the efficiency of your breathing.

Given that it’s so common, it can be helpful to see where you stand. Luckily there are a few easy ways to see if you are breathing efficiently, or if there is room for improvement.

In today’s article you’ll learn how to do a simple breathing screen including…

• 4 simple questions you can score
• An easy breath hold test
• How to interpret your results

Let’s go!

Part 1: The Breathing Questionnaire

Answer each of the following four questions to the best of your ability. The point value for each response in in parenthesis.

Write down your score for each question.

Question 1: Do you feel tense?

• (0) Never/not true at all
• (1) Occasionally/a bit true
• (2) Frequently/mostly true
• (3) Very frequently/very true

Question 2: Do you feel a cold sensation in your hands or feet?

• (0) Never/not true at all
• (1) Occasionally/a bit true
• (2) Frequently/mostly true
• (3) Very frequently/very true

Question 3: Do you notice yourself yawning?

• (0) Never/not true at all
• (1) Occasionally/a bit true
• (2) Frequently/mostly true
• (3) Very frequently/very true

Question 4: Do you notice breathing through your mouth at night (Do you wake up with a dry mouth)?

• (0) Never/not true at all
• (1) Occasionally/a bit true
• (2) Frequently/mostly true
• (3) Very frequently/very true

Part 2: The BOLT Test

Now that you’ve scored each question, the next step is a breath hold test.

The Body Oxygen Level Test (BOLT) is a sub-maximal test that can estimate your sensitivity to CO2 and therefore easily be used to benchmark your breathing.

All you need is a place to relax and a timer. Here’s how you do it…

Sit relaxed for about 3-5 minutes.

Take a normal breath in (not deep).

Take a normal breath out, then hold your breath, pinch the nose shut with your fingers, and start your timer.

This is not a maximal breath hold test. Only hold your breath until you feel the first clear urge to breath. You’ll often feel this as…

• Involuntary muscle contraction in the abdomen or throat
• The need to swallow
• A feeling of constriction in the airway

Keep in mind you are not holding your breath as long as you can. Only until you feel a clear urge to breathe.

Once you feel the first clear urge to breathe, press stop on the timer and take a breath in.

Your first breath in should be normal and relaxed. Not gasping. For an accurate test you need to be able to transition right back into a normal relaxed breathing pattern.

If you have a fairly relaxed breath, record you time and move on.

If you are breathing hard after the test, you’ve held your breath for too long. Relax for a few minutes and try again.

Part 3: Interpreting your results

The easiest way to interpret these tests are to put your results into one of three categories related to whether or not you would benefit from working on your breathing efficiency.

• Room to grow: There is evidence of breathing dysfunction and opportunity to improve. Prioritize treatment of breathing and be careful with any exercise that requires loading with resistance.
• Adequate: Some breathing efficiency deficits. You could improve your performance by adding breathing retraining treatments. But overall adequate and no restrictions are recommended.
• Optimal: Breathing is optimal and you likely move and perform well.

We’ll get started by interpreting the breathing questionnaire.

Breathing questionnaire

Look at the score of each of the 4 items and compare to the levels below.

Room to grow: One or more questions with a score of 2 or 3

Adequate: One or more questions with a score of 1, but none with a score of 2 or 3

Optimal: All questions scored 0

The BOLT

Room to grow: Less than 20 seconds

Adequate: 20-30 seconds

Optimal: More than 30 seconds