Hello and welcome!
This session is part of the 21 Day Breathwork Challenge.
If this is the first time tuning in and you'd like to start at day one,
If you follow my profile Inge Wolsink,
You can find all the available previous sessions there.
You can also find all the other tracks in the playlist,
The 21 Day Breathwork Challenge.
Are you ready?
Let's begin!
Welcome to your second practice session.
For this session you will need your journal,
A pen and a device that counts seconds like your watch,
Your phone or the app that plays this course.
In order to get a more objective measurement of the current quality of your breath,
We are going to measure your BOLT score.
BOLT stands for Body Oxygen Level Test.
For now,
What you need to know is that the BOLT gives you effective feedback on how functional your breathing is and how good your exercise tolerance and fitness level is at this moment.
The BOLT requires you to hold your breath after an exhale.
This ensures a reliable test because the results cannot be affected by individual differences in lung volume or willpower.
When we hold the breath after an exhale,
At some point your breathing muscles will start an involuntary inhale response.
The time it takes before your muscles start to automatically breathe again is your BOLT score.
The most ideal time to measure your BOLT score is right after waking,
Because during sleep we can't influence the way we breathe and you must likely measure the efficiency of your unconscious breathing patterns.
A little point of caution here.
Before you do any type of longer breath hold,
You need medical clearance or you need to be very aware of the contraindications to practice breath holds when you are pregnant,
A respiratory patient,
A heart patient or if you suffer from general anxiety or panic disorder.
If these apply to you or if you suffer from a condition or if you are in doubt,
Please pause this session and read through the contraindications at the course instructions.
If you understand why these conditions put you at risk and how you can adjust your practice or when a doctor or breathing specialist has approved you to hold your breath,
You can start by measuring your BOLT score.
If these conditions do not apply to you but you suffer from another illness that I haven't mentioned,
Also take a moment to read the contraindications just to be on the safe side.
If you are healthy or feel like you sufficiently understand how breath holds may affect you,
You can proceed.
Make sure you have a device in handy to time the seconds of your breath hold.
Before I cue you into the BOLT,
I will briefly explain what will happen.
In a moment,
I will ask you to take a normal and silent inhale through the nose,
A normal silent exhale through the nose,
Then lightly pinch your nose to hold your breath while pressing the stopwatch or counting the seconds on the InsideTimer app or another timer device.
The moment you feel a strong physical desire to breathe,
You start breathing again,
Ideally at a similar pace to which you started your session today.
Sensations you feel might include involuntary contractions of the diaphragm located just below your lower ribs,
The desire to swallow,
A constriction of the airway or a mental urge to resume breathing.
Note that because you aren't holding your breath even a second longer than your body's desire for the next breath,
Your first inhalation after the breath hold should be completely relaxed and normal.
If you feel like grasping or taking a big breath,
You have pushed past the ideal measuring point.
The point is not to push yourself here.
The point is to listen to what your body is telling you.
So what will happen next is you take a normal and silent inhale through the nose,
A normal and silent exhale through the nose,
You then pinch your nose to hold the breath and time the seconds and then you check the number of seconds until you feel a clear physical or mental desire to inhale and inhale whenever you need to.
Okay,
Whenever you're ready,
Let's begin.
Make sure you are comfortable and have a timer nearby.
Take a normal and silent inhale through the nose.
Take a normal and silent exhale through the nose.
Pinch your nose to hold the breath and time the seconds.
Check the number of seconds until you feel a clear physical or mental desire to inhale and inhale whenever you need to.
You are now left with your BOLD score.
Let me walk you through how to frame your score.
You may find that the first time you measure your BOLD you are surprised that your score is lower than expected.
But remember,
Even elite athletes can have a low BOLD score because their breathing habits aren't optimal.
The good news is that your BOLD score can easily be increased with simple breathing exercises incorporated into your existing way of life or exercise regime.
A low score is merely a sign that you can learn to do much more with much less breathing and that your breath can be more efficient so you will feel much better throughout your day.
If you are having any respiratory or anxiety issues,
It is very likely that your BOLD will be very low.
Please treat your BOLD score as a personal growth score,
Not as a comparative or competitive score.
Your BOLD is supposed to empower you as you will see the score increase when you practice your breathwork.
If you are consistent with your breathwork,
You will notice an increase in your BOLD in the first few weeks.
But you will also notice improvements in respiratory and anxiety levels.
Let's have an overview of what scores generally mean.
A BOLD below 10 is a clear sign of inefficient breathing habits.
This can have many causes like anxiety,
Temporary stress,
Respiratory problems,
Poor sleep,
Sleep apnea or other health issues.
All of which will improve with practicing regular breathwork.
A BOLD between 10 and 20 is a sign you would strongly benefit from improvement.
A BOLD below 20 mostly occurs when we have blocked noses,
Low energy levels,
Suboptimal sleep or poor concentration.
This course will help you improve on all of those.
A BOLD above 20 is a sign that your breathing is generally good,
Quiet,
Calm,
Relaxed and effortless.
There are still gains to be made,
Especially at an athletic level.
If you exercise regularly,
You will find that your VO max,
The amount of oxygen you absorb during exercise,
Will rise as your BOLD will rise.
So you can use this course to increase oxygen uptake and cognitive and physical performance.
Let's end with a little bit of expectation management.
To move from a score of 10 to a score of 20,
You will need at least three weeks of daily practice.
This course will probably get you there if you practice daily.
Moving from 20 to 40,
Which is top athletic level,
Will take a minimum of six months.
So be patient with yourself and trust your body to do the work.
All you need to do is show up and follow the instructions.
Soon we will have a practice session about how you can consistently show up for yourself.
Thank you so much for devoting your time,
Attention and effort towards becoming a healthier,
Better breather.
You have done many amazing things in the past sessions.
You know about the long history of breathing practices.
You have an understanding of what type of breathing patterns are healthy.
You know how to observe your own breathing and what your current breathing patterns are like.
And you have a relatively objective measure of your body oxygen levels.
You've got this.
If you want to learn more about the body oxygen level test that was developed by Patrick McKeown,
A prominent breathing coaching author,
I advise you to look up one of his most read books,
The Oxygen Advantage.
I am looking forward to our next session together where you will become more aware of all the muscles that are working in synchrony to make this beautiful process of breathing a reality.
