An Unconventional Way to Boost Health

Firstly, what is intermittent hypoxic training?

Hypoxia is defined as - a condition where not enough oxygen makes it to the cells and tissues in the body.

Intermittent is defined as - occurring at irregular intervals; not continuous or steady.

So intermittent hypoxic training is the act of temporarily stopping the flow of oxygen to the cells and tissues in the body.

Imagine a set of scales that tips from one side to the other on every breath that you take. Inhaling tips to the left, exhaling tips to the right. Oxygen is on the one side; CO² is on the other.

When we breathe in, the scales tip to the left as oxygen comes in. When we breathe out the scales tip to the right as CO² goes out. This back-and-forth motion happens with every breath that we take. So, when we breathe out and hold no breath, the scales momentarily stop where they are. This allows our oxygen levels to drop, and our CO² levels to rise. 

This is important because carbon dioxide is what helps to release oxygen from a sticky protein called haemoglobin. Haemoglobin binds oxygen to our red blood cells and it won't let go unless it's told to do so. That's one of the main roles of carbon dioxide. So, through specific breathing exercises that boost oxygen levels and then pause the breath, the abundant oxygen cells can be released from the haemoglobin and then distributed to the cells in the body that need it.

Intermittent hypoxic training is the simple practice of extending the time without breath to activate more of the health benefits that are associated with intermittent hypoxia.

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If this sounds dangerous at all, think about how fasting from food helps the digestive system cleanse, heal, and regenerate once enough time has passed. A similar effect happens when the breath is paused for 60–90 seconds or more through specific breathing exercises.

It's only when a person goes without food for too long or too often does it become a problem. The same can be said of the breath. However, because the body can survive for months without food there is less urgency for it to respond so more time is needed for the effects to kick in. (Hence we need to go for days without food to experience the long-lasting effects of fasting.)

However, when it comes to the breath, the body knows it only has a few precious seconds to react whenever the breath stops so it doesn't waste any time in activating every cell in the body and alerting the heart and brain of its absence. (Hence we only need 60–90 seconds + to experience its effects.) 

The benefits of intermittent hypoxic training

Carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide is one of the most misunderstood and under-appreciated gases we humans depend on. 

It is most commonly known as being the waste gas we breathe out but this has often discredited the role it plays in our overall health. And nothing understands this more than oxygen. 

That's because oxygen needs carbon dioxide to release it from our red blood cells as I mentioned above. Otherwise, that sticky protein haemoglobin holds oxygen hostage and doesn't let go. So, without carbon dioxide doing what it does, we certainly wouldn't experience oxygen's life-giving energy anything like as much as we do.

Other benefits of CO² include:

• Reduces inflammation
• Reduces the risk of infection, illness, and disease
• Boosts the immune system
• Balances the nervous system
• Supports growth and healing
• Aids neuroplasticity (the growth of neural networks in the brain)
• Strengthens muscle tissue
• Maintains a healthy pH balance

So, as you can see, it's not such a waste gas after all!

The long-term effects of intermittent hypoxic training are that fewer breaths are needed to be breathed per minute. And fewer breaths breathed per minute is a great way to promote mental clarity, peace, relaxation, good digestion, a healthy heart, and a calm nervous system.

We breathe 15,000–20,000 times a day and every breath counts. Here are tools and techniques to create healthy breathing…medium.com

Getting to know how the breath works can mean the difference between gaining access to these benefits and not. An easy way to do this is to train the body to become more oxygen efficient by taking slower, deeper breaths through the nose. 

A highly nutritious diet requires less food to gain the same goodness. The same is true of the breath: when each breath contains enough oxygen, fewer breaths are needed. This better supports the digestive system, organs, heart, brain, and nervous system. 

A quick metaphor

If you had two options available to you on how to power your car for ultimate speed and performance and both came inherently free when you brought your car, which of these two options would you choose:

1. Low-grade, low-energy fuel that only maintains and oils the most essential parts of the engine.

Or,

2. Super high-grade, high-energy fuel that oils, licks, and greases each individual part of the engine, frame, and bodywork to produce the most effective and long-lasting performing car that you've ever seen.

As extreme as these two options are and as obvious as an answer might seem, many people are choosing option one because they don't know that option two exists. 

In truth, we have both options available to us every time that we breathe. So, just like how a car will run smoother and longer if it's well maintained and regularly serviced, our body is no different.

How we drive our car and how we breathe the body is a choice we face on a moment-to-moment, breath-to-breath basis, but there is always a choice, and that's the important thing to remember here.

It's the same choice we face when we're considering which foods to eat, what exercises to do, and what activities to engage with everyday.

But as we're breathing 15,000–20,000 times a day, from birth until death, we get 15,000–20,000 opportunities to promote health. That's far more than the few times we eat a day and the once or twice we exercise a week. 

Intermittent hypoxic training is a fantastic practice to do to support this process. 

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Learn more 

Soma Breath has a strong focus on intermittent hypoxic training as a big part of their technique for these exact reasons.

To learn more about this incredible technique and what they have to offer, you can find out more information here

Or alternatively, sign up for a free online masterclass here