Are Breathing Restrictions Affecting Your Brain Performance?

by: Manny Aragon

 

One of the most basic movements that we all perform is the simple act of breathing and we do it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from the moment we are born until the moment when we take our last and final breath. In fact, we breathe roughly once every 3-5 seconds on average. If you count that up that’s 12 times a minute, 720 times and hour, 17,280 times each day, and 6,307,200 each year! That’s a lot of breaths.

Did you know that the brain consumes fully 25% of all of the oxygen in your blood? The other 75% is consumed by your various muscles, organs, and tissues to help your body perform the basic tasks of staying alive along with any and all bodily functions and movements.

So what happens when you are active? You need increasingly more oxygen to perform at an increasingly higher physical level (along with a whole lot of other things like vitamins, enzymes, and nutrients to facilitate the process of actually getting the oxygen from your lungs to the mitochondria in your cells- but I digress)

Many people whether active or not are suffering the consequences of low oxygen availability to their brain and body tissues and a subsequent drop in performance of both the brain as well as the physical body.

But you feel “normal”- like there isn’t any problem- so how can that be?

Consider that any restriction in breathing, and consequent restriction in the volume of oxygen reaching your brain and body is going to be repeated 17,280 times each and every day of your life.

Problem is, a chronic inefficiency in your breath, unless severe, you will likely have become accustomed to and will be difficult to detect because you have no point of reference for how easy it could be.

So, if we were to take a poll of how many of you actually are aware that you have a breathing restriction and subsequent inefficiency of oxygen and over expenditure of energy- likely every last one of you would answer to me that you don’t have one.

This is exactly why we recommend that you measure your breathing ranges to see if you have any restrictions that could be affecting your performance. Measurement of your breathing ranges is one of the easiest ways to see if you have a physically restricted breathing intake that is silently limiting your performance.

Once you have a good measurement of all three of your breathing ranges (around the circumference of your trunk so as to measure lung expansion in 3 dimensions) you’ll have a good idea of what your breathing ranges are and whether you are potentially suffering from a structurally limiting oxygen intake capability and subsequent brain and body performance hit.

Here is the measurement process:

1) You will need a cloth measuring tape long enough to wrap around your body at the points along the trunk specified by the markers in the picture.

2) Lift your buttocks off of the floor and slide the tape measure under your buttocks and back into the first position shown in the photo- just above the hips at the navel- Make sure your clothing is not restricting your breathing.

3) Work with a friend or family member so you can focus on breathing and they can focus on measuring (this can be done alone but is easier with another person to do the measuring part.

4) Inhale completely- trying to inhale evenly throughout your trunk (Chest and abdomen- not filling only the abdomen). At your fullest inhale have your partner measure your expansion value. Note the value on a piece of paper.

5) Now completely exhale. Have your partner measure the circumference of your abdomen when you’ve fully exhaled. Note the value on a piece of paper.

6) Now subtract the expansion measurement from the exhaled measurement and you will have your breathing range- the difference is usually between 4-5 inches but don’t be surprised if its much less than this. Some people have as little as ¼” expansion range!

6) Now repeat the process above with the second region (at the costal arch where the ribs “V” out from the sternum. Note the inhalation and exhalation values on a piece of paper. Find the difference between the inhalation and exhalation values

7) Now repeat the process above with the third region (at the nipple line for men- just above or below the breast for women). Note the inhalation and exhalation values on a piece of paper. Find the difference between the inhalation and exhalation values.

8) Divide the respective exhalation numbers by the respective differences between inhalation and exhalation. This is the percentage increase from exhalation to inhalation.

When we measure people who have what appear to be full, easy, unrestricted breathing we find they have a range of at least 15%.

Don’t be surprised if one or more of your breathing ranges are much less than this. Many of our clients have breathing ranges of 2″ or less–some as little as 1/4″. These same clients are often successful at what they do and have no idea that their breathing is restricted.

As we release the microfibers that are restricting their breathing, they report being more relaxed, energetic and productive–all signs that their brain is getting the oxygen it needs.

If you are below the optimum expansion measurements consider inquiring about our microfiber reduction program.