Sport and diet are not the only things that affect our health and fitness. What else matters?

What is easily overlooked alongside training and nutrition?

Training plans and nutrition receive plenty of attention. This article adds a third perspective: how breathing and inner calm are perceived in everyday life.

Patrick McKeown asks a simple question: does the way we breathe fit the situation? From there, the article explores nasal breathing, carbon dioxide and a conscious response to the urge to breathe.

Sport and nutrition are important foundations of health and fitness. Breathing completes the picture: it connects daily life with exertion and recovery and can be approached more consciously.

Why might you breathe poorly?

Breathing patterns change with exertion, habits and emotions. Someone who ventilates more at rest than their metabolism requires may breathe out too much CO₂. McKeown therefore starts with quiet breathing matched to the body’s needs.

Carbon dioxide, together with pH, supports the release of oxygen from haemoglobin to tissues. This relationship is called the Bohr effect. McKeown’s aim is an appropriate breathing volume that avoids unnecessary overbreathing.

How can you improve your breathing? Two rules

1. Get to know the urge to breathe. McKeown uses short, comfortable pauses and light breathing exercises to practise responding to it. The intensive Wim Hof Method follows a different sequence, with deeper breathing and subsequent pauses.

Why does McKeown use breath holds?

During a pause, the balance of respiratory gases changes and the urge to breathe increases. In a gentle introduction, the pause ends at the first clear urge to breathe. Awareness, rather than holding for as long as possible, is the focus.

2. Use nasal breathing consciously.

The nose prepares inhaled air: it filters, warms and humidifies it. At rest and during light activity, it is therefore a good starting point; at high sporting intensity, the mouth can supply additional air.

Observe your breathing in everyday life too: while walking, at your desk and during recovery. A persistently blocked nose or unexplained breathlessness needs assessment so that free breathing can become possible again.

Begin with these two ideas: understand the urge to breathe and establish calm nasal breathing in daily life. Notice changes and make breathing a conscious part of your development.