Moving Into Harmony

MOVEMENT & BREATHING: HEALTH / PERFORMANCE PROGRAMS

Oxygen Advantage

Nasal Breathing has greatest impact on your health & fitness sustainability

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If you did one thing to dramatically impact your whole body-mind’s health and fitness – make nasal breathing a priority. According to leading experts in the fields of ear/nose/throat, cardiopulmonary, psychiatry and physical rehabilitative health care, nasal breathing is by far the most impactful natural action one can incorporate to positively impact their health and optimize fitness.

Why?

Because over 30 vital actions of the body-mind rely upon proper breathing. If you are concerned for your health and fitness from the food you eat and gut health, sleeping well, sustaining mental capacities, being apart of healthy relationships, ease with sustaining sexual functions, exercise for all it’s benefits, and optimizing your health span, then it’s even more important to realize the only way for this is breathing through you nose during all daily activities* and night.
*exception – high intensity exercise (which is less than 5% of your daily life)

Here are some HUGE benefits of nasal breathing:

Nitric Oxide

Nitric Oxide (NO) is a bio-active gas that is produced by the lining of the para-nasal sinuses. It has a short existence, and is circulated to the lungs, heart and brain for the primary purpose of increasing oxygen delivery. Oxygen availability is the primary necessity of all organs, tissues and cells for healthy function.

Nitric Oxide was discovered in 1992 as a “miracle” substance naturally occurring in the human body that aid in all body function, health and longevity. And in 1998 scientist were given a Nobel Prize in medicine for it’s role in health, and now over 200 discovered benefits are known.

In addition, the benefits of nasal breathing far out-weigh any benefit of mouth breathing. Mouth breathing destroys the internal environment and endothelial layer – a mucousal membrane that hosts the microbiome (beneficial bacteria) responsible for turning inorganic Nitrates from the food we eat, primarily dark leafy green vegetables, into available Nitrite which is converted into available Nitric Oxide (NO) in the digestive tract. So a double benefit of nasal breathing incredibly impacts all organs, tissues and cells for a healthy life span.

AND you need the right amount of oxygen delivered to the blood vessels and organs for Nitric Oxide Synthase (NOS) to have the transformation for available NO. It’s a two way dependent process. And you need the right amount of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) to break the bond of Oxygen to Hemoglobin so Oxygen can be released into the tissues for the process. Over-breathing, very likely with mouth breathing, lessens the amount of CO2 for proper Oxygen delivery to the cells. This is respiration, cellular respiration, which is the life giving process and sustainability for health, fitness and performance.

Check out this article for more on Nitric Oxide.

Your Immune Function

The nose has an incredible innate immune capacities to ward off and mitigate incoming pathogens (virus and bacteria) and environmental toxins through its series of channels and membranes before reaching your lungs. There are many envelopes that have a specialized lining to help move and take care of things that come in that are not for you. The passage of air and particulates has a long ways to go before it hits the back of your throat, and is lined with the best defense for your health. It requires a healthy membrane, endothelial membrane, for these functions to be a full capacity.

Also your immune system is supported with the circulation of Nitric Oxide that is produced in the para-nasal sinuses. NO has significant viral and pathogen mediation properties, as well as inflammatory responses (which go hand in hand with immune function). See Nitric Oxide above for more information.

Hydration is important for a robust immune system. Nasal breathing has its own way of warming and moistening the air coming in. And you don’t get dehydrated as you would breathing through your mouth. In addition, to have resilience against environmental stressors – hot, cold, dry, smoky, pollution, etc. – the nasal membranes must be supported. See this article on Nasya practices, a 3000 year tradition daily health practice.

Optimizing Function of the Diaphragm

Your diaphragm is the most important muscle. Not only for respiratory function, or breathing, it is the nexus in all movement. And it is most effective when using the nose to breathe. Mouth breathing is primarily upper chest breathing for highest intensity activity, or maximal, breathing. Whereas nasal breathing because of the resistance in the nasal cavity engages the diaphragm more effectively thus accessing the lower lobes of the lungs for greatest oxygen carrying capacity. There is also better coordination of movement when the diaphragm is taking part in all functional movements.

Lower chest/lung breaths are most important because the majority of the gas exchange of oxygen (O2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) occurs in the lower lobes of the lungs. The use of the nose to engage the diaphragm the best also helps to mobilize the tissues and fluids of the lower lung chambers (pneumonia often exists in the lower lobes and is often seen greater in people who primarily breathe in their upper chest).

Not only for breathing, the diaphragm functions as a suspender for all the abdominal organs and tissue below, therefore it assists in:

  • optimizing digestion of food and water,
  • core strength and spinal health,
  • moving fluids back up to the heart (including venous blood and lymph),
  • massaging and mobilizing the organs for proper circulation to and from organs,
  • regulating pressures,
  • regulate fluids to and from the brain,
  • and more – see this article for more on diaphragms’ role in health and fitness.

Mental Health

Nasal breathing has an overall calming affect when the breath is soft, quiet and regular rhythm. Breathing through the nose allows for a depth of the breath, accessing the lower lobes of the lungs, producing a grounding, centered feeling that gives feedback to the brain of ease and calm. On the other hand, upper chest breathing (and mouth breathing) signals to the brain as state of alertness, fixation, tense feelings, and unable to rest and recover.

Nose breathing provides best function with the diaphragm created more of a balanced state in the nervous system. Many will tell you it stimulates the vagus nerve. This may be true, and what part of the vagus nerve is being stimulated? I believe it brings back a state of balance, where the body-mind complex has more options and less reactivity to any experience. It can aid in the vehicle, your body-mind complex, not speeding on high RPMs all day long diminishing any chance of accessing your healthy capacities. Nasal breathing allows for a slower, smoother and more rhythmic state of being that open the range of possibilities for your health.

If you have any interest in eating well, absorbing nutrition, eliminating waste, sexual function and reproduction potentials, mental capacities for success in school or work (or play like succeeding in a game requiring strategy and thinking on point), memory, sleep and more the daily active life balancer within the autonomic nervous system will support these very important functions. My teacher always said “you can eat, pee, poop, or make love when you are running from the tiger.” Stimulating the vagus nerve helps regulate the systems that rely on the autonomic nervous system. Your body is connected and inter-dependently supported in more ways than we can realize.

Releasing you from Chronic Stress

When you breathe through your nose easily you feel begin to feel an downward movement of support. You will feel the lower ribs move as you engage the diaphragm with nasal breathing. This massages the organs where emotional and mental stressors are stored. It mobilizes the spine in a snake like motion, giving the regulator in the brain a sense of connectiveness and access to all limbs for optimal movement in daily life. Stress creates withdrawl of vital circulation (and oxygenation to our furthest points) often resulting in cold hands and feet, thus giving information to the brain of an unsafe environment which then creates a cyclic downward spiral in one’s health – stress kills.

With a downward feeling, it produces a dropping down of your low center of support. This has it’s own inherent medicine that stabilizes many functions of the body. It gives feedback to the brain and nervous system as a true supportive center. It is the best counter-balance to stress, helping you to lessen the tendency to react intensely with uprooted-unsupported feelings that create more stress responses with your life.

Here is a recording of a public talk I gave from the Ashland Food Co-op’s educational event.

Article by Shawn M Flot, MPT. He is an experience Certified Oxygen Advantage® Instructor. Combined with his 30 years of experience in Exercise Physiology, Physical Therapist for health and performance, and a dedicated Yoga practitioner is making for a power-house to help many people succeed in re-discovering their own health and healing, being optimally fit for their adventures and living well.

Do you know your breath’s healthy range? It can get better.

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Do you believe that your need to breathe is because you need more oxygen?

Well, actually oxygen is so readily available AND your body’s response to low oxygen doesn’t occur until you reach very low levels of oxygen in the blood. The real stimulus to breathe from your body’s intelligence and actions is due to carbon dioxide.

Yes carbon dioxide, CO2. It’s not a bad gas. It’s the by-product of ALL cellular metabolic process in your wonderfully orchestrated body. The signal comes first from the body, the kidneys, and then triggers the diaphragm to begin contracting to take a breath. The most natural way this is experienced is at rest without the mind watching, and controlling the breath…….sleep, so it’s hard to fully grasp what the body is doing. But there are ways to touch into this dynamic.

I’ll explain after I discuss your health and CO2.

Breathing has two phase, the “inhalation” and the “exhalation.” The inhalation is triggered by CO2. Through a lifetime of bodily and mental adaptions, your tolerance to CO2 in the blood lessens. This leads to an increase in your respiratory response to activities often resulting in over-breathing or hyperventilation. Therefore what you experience when you try to slow down the breath is a feeling of breathlessness. This is a significant impact on your health.

Hyperventilation, or exaggerated ventilatory (breathing) response, is a greater volume of air brought in than what your body needs or requires for its metabolic processes. This lessens your health and your healing capacities. And if you exercise or participant and train in sports, you will plateau with your performance to the activities you want to do. Also this affects mental health.

Here is a video explaining your respiratory response to metabolic need and how easily you could be in a hyper-ventilatory, or over-breathing, state during the day, during meditation or breathwork, during exercise, and even…yes even at night.

AND there is good news!

You can train yourself and regain a broader range of reaction to this drive with a tailored program to progressively improve your body-mind capacities. This is done with everyday breathing “exercises” and physiological stressors with recovery (similar to training to be stronger….you do something to stress the tissue and in recovery hopefully the capacity of those muscles, or your cardiovascular health improves).

AND because its intimately tied to all activities, including your sleep, why not weave it into your daily activities for health?

How do you get started in understanding how you relate and respond to CO2? And, more importantly, how do you know where to begin or what “exercises” to do to improve?

You need to know where you are. This simple measure will be very helpful for developing a tailored program and to know where to weave a breathing practice into your everyday life. Everyday breathing patterns influence your exercise AND sleep.

Here is how you can measure yourself: (this is not a test, or performance measure…this is simply to begin to know where you are)

Want to learn more about how you can harness the power behind each breath you take, and how to make the most out of health program that fits what you want and desire in your life?

Article by Shawn M Flot, MPT. He is now a Certified Oxygen Advantage® Instructor. Combined with his 25year experience in Exercise Physiology, Physical Therapist for health and performance, and a dedicated Yoga practitioner is making for a power-house to help many people succeed in re-discovering their own health, healing and well-being.

It’s Time to Stop normalizing the pain. Start discovering your potential!

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It’s time to find real solutions to your struggles and barriers to you moving well in your life. No more normalizing the pain that limits you and the things you want to do in your life.

Why does someone begin normalizing their pain? Because they didn’t get the results they believed they could achieve. Because the care they sought had many pitfalls to their success…..with a caveat – they participated in their attempts to resolve their pain and were committed to moving better in their lives. Over 30 years of working with people struggling to move well again, I often have the experience of helping people who did not succeed in their previous care for their pain. And over those 30 years, these were the common things true to today that they presented me with:

  • Not getting the resolution they want because the pain returns – the result of treating the painful area rather than the patterns and tendencies that are involved (it’s been identified, the rate of success among musculoskeletal pain and dysfunction was less than 60% with physical therapy care, and why most payers for the care have downgraded the tier of value for physical therapy services since 2019…and it keeps getting less valued, which means less valuable care by those dependent on being reimbursed….it’s important you know this) . I see this many times over….the painful region is often the over-worked region, taking over the roles of the compensated and dysfunctions elsewhere. The painful area is often crying for help, it is not the problem. The analogy I give is – you are on a team of 5, and 3 people often don’t show, or worse yet they show up but can’t fully do their role making mistake after mistake…..who is going to be overworked? When you can identify the missing links, your body and mind will work more together, and redistribute the work load for the given tasks of daily life.
  • Missing the mark on the trajectory to health and fitness – “this is as good as it’s going to get” and “I’ll have to do these same exercises the rest of my life” are often phrases people repeat when they see me after getting care elsewhere. Many arrive thinking they are stuck with what they got (and research shows this contributes to apathy, dis-empowerment of health and depression). I don’t believe this! There are somethings that are going to be hard to overcome. And again, what is the focus – it’s usually been on the painful or “degenerative” place, instead of the potential hidden in those places that contribute to your health that have gone dormant and lost from your mind. It’s time to find another avenue to your health.
  • Totally missing key elements in one’s health, such as breathing patterns. Why exercise if your breathing is not supporting your health. This is a very commonly missed vital variable that can actually attenuate a great deal of compensations and imbalances. Imagine with every breath you take, your spine is pulled in a certain direction – and how many times does that torque occur in your day?…..and night? Or the breath is only taken by the upper chest – shallow and fast – leaving the crux of your movement stability in the lower back region to be significantly compromised (research shows a certain breath pattern that almost 90% of a “fit” population demonstrate contributes to low back pain), and yet it’s not even observed by the clinician.
  • Not giving their potential for progress enough time – this is based on a model of “sick-care” that has little vested interest in you becoming a better part of yourself. With a limited number of visits (usually focused on the “wrong” place) that are misdirected by reimbursement concerns rather than what you would benefit from. So after your 4 – 6 visits you are released with what you got. Health care is something totally different in my perspective, and with the right information from screening the movement and breath (the FMS Screen and the BOLT score are well backed clinically and scientifically for over 25 years), the right program can be given, AND the progression comes with your investments – efforts and time, not expensive methods.
  • no long term roadmap to want they want to do – just do these exercises to keep your ________ from hurting. Once the pain subsided or didn’t seem to hamper life, the person would return to what they were doing. And some of those things they returned to doing were hampering their continued progress, often promoting a painful pattern, and would falsely believe the exercises they were given would minimize the problem…….you can see the insanity, and yet this is the common scope of what’s offered to someone struggling to move.

You do have choices, despite what has happened in the past. Give me a try! I think you will be surprised how quickly you can get back on your feet well and gaining confidence in doing the things you want to do, and do them well!

Article by Shawn M Flot, MPT – Masters in Physical Therapy (1994). He is an experienced Certified Oxygen Advantage® Instructor, and Functional Movement Systems specialist. Combined with his 35 years of experience in Exercise Physiology, Physical Therapist for health and performance, and a dedicated Hatha Yoga practitioner, is making for a power-house to help many people succeed in re-discovering their own health and healing, being fit and living well for their adventures.