Hey guys.
Welcome to this week's update.
There's a moment in every breath that most people never think about.
The pause.
Two and a half thousand years ago,
They had a word for it.
Kumbhaka.
The torso as a vessel holding air.
Was written into Yoga Sutras around 400 BCE.
And here's what's remarkable.
They considered the pause the central part of the practice.
Not the inhale.
Not the exhale.
The hold.
Everything else was preparation for it.
They had no way of measuring carbon dioxide.
No blood gas analysis.
No pulse oximeters.
But they'd worked out that the pause was where the change happened.
And they were right.
There are two ways to hold your breath,
And they do two very different things.
Holding after the inhale is called kumbhaka.
Lungs full,
Chest expanded,
Pressure in the thorax.
It's energizing,
It tends to lift you,
In the tradition it was associated with heat and activation.
It's the one athletes use for lung capacity,
And it's the one that helps one feel powerful.
Holding after the exhale is called bhaya kumbhaka.
Lungs empty,
Nothing left,
Just the paws.
And this one is completely different.
It's grounding rather than energizing.
It settles you rather than lifting you.
It builds carbon dioxide tolerance faster because you're starting with less air in the system.
And it's harder.
Most people can hold twice as long on a full lung as opposed to an empty one.
The empty hold is the one I teach for stress and anxiety,
Because that grounding effect is exactly what a dysregulated nervous system needs.
Let's talk about what's actually going on.
When you hold your breath,
The first thing you notice is the urge to breathe.
Most people assume it's a lack of oxygen.
It isn't.
The urge is carbon dioxide building up.
Receptors in your brainstem detect the rise and send an increasingly urgent signal to breathe.
Your oxygen levels are still fine at that point.
Comfortably fine.
What you're feeling is a chemical alarm,
Not an emergency.
And that's the whole training effect.
You're teaching those receptors to be less reactive.
A person with low CO2 tolerance panics early.
Their breathing rate climbs at the smallest provocation.
A person with high tolerance stays steady.
There's a second effect,
And this one matters more than most people realise.
Carbon dioxide is what makes your blood release oxygen into your tissues.
Higher CO2 means better oxygen delivery.
Lower CO2 means oxygen stays stuck in your bloodstream.
So building tolerance doesn't just make you calmer,
It makes your oxygen work harder.
Now,
What changes when you get upwards towards 60-90 seconds on a hold?
The first thing is the dive reflex.
It starts almost immediately but it deepens over time.
Your heart rate drops,
Blood vessels in your limbs constrict and blood is redirected to your brain,
Heart and lugs.
It's an ancient reflex shared with diving mammals and every human being has it.
The second thing is the spleen.
Your spleen holds a reserve of red blood cells.
Under repeated breath holding,
It contracts and releases them into circulation.
More red blood cells means more oxygen carriers.
It's a temporary effect,
But it's real and it's measurable.
The third thing is involuntary contractions.
Around the 60 second mark,
For most people,
Your diaphragm starts to spasm.
It feels dramatic.
It isn't dangerous,
It's your body's CO2 alarm turned all the way up.
Trained breath holders treat those contractions as a signal that the work has started,
Not that it's time to stop.
But I want to be very clear about something here.
Long breath holds are not for everyone,
And they are not for every day.
If you're pregnant,
If you have uncontrolled high blood pressure,
Epilepsy,
Or a heart condition,
Don't do this.
Always consult your medical doctor.
Never do it driving,
And never push to the point of dizziness or panic.
That's not training,
That's just harm.
For most people,
Myself included,
Most of the time the benefit lives in the shorter holds.
10,
20,
30 seconds on the exhale,
Done regularly.
And believe me,
When you get to 30 seconds on the exhale,
It's a challenge.
That's where the tolerance builds.
That's where the calm comes from.
The 60 and 90 second holds are interesting,
But they're not where the everyday value is.
I'm Ross Pollard,
Former paramedic,
24 years of service,
12 of them on the helicopter.
What I find remarkable about all of this is they got there first.
Two and a half thousand years before anyone could measure a blood gas,
Someone worked out that the pause is where the change happened.
We've just spent the last century explaining why.
Please leave a rating on Insight Timer.
It means everything to me and shows me where I can improve and where you want more things.
Take care of yourself,
And as always,
Be well,
And breathe right,
And I will see you next week.
