S4E7– Brian Firth – Breathing – you’re doing it wrong!

The Unforgiving60

Breathing is something most of us take for granted. But the more we’ve looked into it, the more there seems to be to this ostensibly simple practice. You don’t have to search far to find a wide range of advice on breathing – ranging from the obvious, to the counterintuitive, to the downright strange! In this week’s episode, Ben and Tim take a deep dive into Buteyko breathing with one of Australia’s leading practitioners, Brian Firth.

Brian’s own struggles with asthma led him to discover Buteyko breathing. As Brian explains, Buteyko is not a breathing technique, but rather a method of re-training yourself to breathe better – for life. Brian takes us through the principles behind the Buteyko methodology and along the way busts some of what he considers the biggest myths about breathing.

5:43 Breath by James Nestor. A good read

6:00 Brian’s issues with asthma, his history as a mouth-breather and his discovery of Buteyko

8:00 The history of Buteyko

10:00 How did it get so bad?! Why would we need to be taught to breathe more efficiently?

11:50 Why deep breathing is NOT a good thing!

15:30 …and why this gets worse when we sleep

17:30 How complex is the Buteyko method?

21:00 Wider benefits of Buteyko

31:00 Buteyko and asthma

41:14 Mouthbreathing – bad! But should you tape your mouth shut when you sleep?

44:40 Sleep apnoea

47:30 Buteyko is not a breathing technique per se; what are Brian’s views on the myriad of techniques out there?

53:15 What about exercise? Are there benefits to nasal or mouth breathing techniques during exercise?

1:01:09 What breathing advice should you give to someone suffering a panic attack?

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Music

The Externals – available on Spotify

Ben Frichot - available on Spotify