Episode 153. Functional Breathing with Dr Allan Abbott (Part 1)
In an earlier episode titled Breathing for Performance we had the privilege to explore heathy breathing patterns and the Bohr effect which governs oxygen delivery to tissues with physiotherapist and breathing expert Allan Abbott, if you haven’t had an opportunity to listen to that podcast, I recommend it as an introduction to the subject we are covering today.
Allan has been exploring breathing techniques to enhance exercise performance and improved health for many years and has created a dynamic company called Health Innovations that can be found at healthinnovations.net.au in order to bring this important knowledge into public forum. Although most of us pay little attention to breathing technique in our busy world, many cultures and alternative health practises such as YOGA and Ayurveda have focused on this for centuries and the recent excellent book Breath by James Nestor explores the importance of breathing technique in detail including the influence on facial structure and disease brought about by mouth breathing and poor execution of this seemingly automatic task.
Allan takes us further in this podcast episode in which we explore functional breathing, breathing during exercise and how we can utilise breathing techniques to replicate high altitude training at sea level to improve performance and stamina in ways you may not have considered possible. Allan was generous enough to give up a good deal of his spare time taking me on a deep dive through these breath training techniques one on one. We focused first on nasal breathing light, slow and deep utilising the diaphragm rather than purely chest muscles and aiming for a 4 second nasal inhalation followed by a slow nasal exhalation over 6 seconds. This develops the habit of six breaths per minute.
We then worked on the breath oxygen level test - the so-called BOLT with the objective of building CO2 tolerance to reduce the ‘gassing out’ feeling that can occur when one trains at a moderate exercise intensity. Subsequently Allan took me to ‘altitude’ with some strong breath holds during exercise simulating the reduced partial pressure of oxygen experienced as we venture 2000 metres above sea level and more, slowly resetting central CO2 chemoreceptors, increasing our haematocrit, erythropoietin and 2-3 DPG levels as well as enhancing myoglobin production, mitochondrial density, and cardiac output.
Allan is meticulous about this training and on establishing correct technique noting this would not be appropriate for those with advanced lung disease. I really enjoyed learning from him and have implemented these exercises into my daily routine. I hope this conversation will pique your interest as it did mine as we share the art of functional breathing.
Please welcome Allan to the conversation.
References:
Allan Abbott: www.healthinnovations.net.au
Acute Effects of Repeated Cycling Sprints in Hypoxia Induced by Voluntary Hypoventilation. Woorens/ European Journal of Applied Physiology. September 2017
Repeated Sprint Training in Hypoxia Rugby. Woorens. European Journal of Sport Science. 2018.
Intermittent Hypoxia Training. Sohagatay et al. Journal of Human Kinetics Vol32/2012 197-210
Hypercapnic Hypoxic Training. Bakovic et al. Journal of Applied Physiology 2003, Vol 95 No 4 1460-1466
Breathing Pattern Disorders and Functional Movement. Bradley et Al. International Journal of Physiotherapy Feb 2014,9(1),28-39
James Nestor- Breath - The New Science of a Lost Art. Riverhead Books, 2020
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