Today I combined two breathing techniques and realized that it made me walk with perfect posture...
I have been interested in breathing for better health/energy/sleep since I discovered the one and only Ice Man, Wim Hof
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The guy is freakin' amazing, you should check him out, but not the topic of this post, just the inspiration.
Wim's breathing technique involves (but is not limited to) taking deep breaths and releasing only about 1/3 of the breath before inhaling again, keeping the lungs mostly full and saturated with oxygen) it is done quite rapidly, probably about 1 breath cycle per second, Wim has described it as similar to blowing up a balloon. Generally in through the nose, and out through the mouth.
As I was out taking a 20 minute walk in the 47°C (117°F ) heat today
I thought of Wim and decided to do some breathing, but as I was out for a relaxing walk, I decided to do it at a slower pace, I would say around 3 seconds per breath cycle.
Immediately I noticed how my posture straightened with the deep breath, then slumped on the exhale, which tends to happen quickly through the mouth.
Then I remembered another interesting guy from the internet, Patrick Mckeown.
Basically, he doesn't think we should breath with our mouths, and has written multiple books on the health benefits!
I just watched the video
So, I decided to do my slow Wim Hof breathing, nose only!
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With the slower exhale I no longer slumped and found that I was walking with perfect posture. Turns out it's very difficult to slouch if you keep your lungs mostly full.
Everyone knows they should keep there head up, shoulders back, chest up etc, but who wants to walk around thinking about all that?
When you can simply...
