Why mouth taping may not be doing what you think its doing (and might be doing the opposite)

Breathing and breath work has been having a bit of a moment in the health and fitness industry, and rightly so. However, there is a little bit more to it than simply taping one orifice shut and assuming magical things happen when the air comes in through the other one!

 

doing this might not be doing what you think it is doing, and in many cases is doing the opposite

Whilst there are certainly correlations between nasal breathing and parasympathetic activity, these are not necessarily mutual causations.

There is a correlation between nasal breathing and parasympathetic activity:  you are more likely to see nasal breathing in parasympathetic individuals

However it is not a causation: forcing a person in a sympathetic (fight or flight) state to breathe through their nose does not cause them to become parasympathetic, and in fact can in many cases do the opposite and drive them further into their sympathetic state.

To summarise briefly, a person who has more parasympathetic dominance (living in a predominately restful state) will be more comfortable breathing through the smaller orifice of the nose, as their requirements for gas exchange are lower than those living in a sympathetic (flight or fight) state.  The person living in a sympathetic state is likely to find this uncomfortable and  more difficult to meet their primary respiratory needs of gas exchange.

I will attempt to summarise the chemistry side of this!

Brain pH is affected by gas exchange.  Carbon dioxide is acidic,  if we are not removing the carbon dioxide produced during respiration efficiently enough, then we can slightly lower our pH, which in turn elevates stress levels, and increases sympathetic activity.   A person living in a sympathetic state therefore,  has greater need for increased gas exchange – this is more difficult to achieve through a smaller orifice (the nose).  The increased tidal flow available from a wider orifice (the mouth) will help them rebalance things more quickly.

This is the correlation between nasal breathing and parasympathetic activity:  you are more likely to see nasal breathing in parasympathetic individuals

However it is not a causation: forcing a person in a sympathetic (fight or flight) state to breathe through their nose does not cause them to become parasympathetic, and in fact can in many cases do the opposite and drive them further into their sympathetic state.

We can draw a parallel here with professional basketball:  there is a correlation between being a professional basketball player and being over 6 foot tall, however, there is not a mutual causation – playing basketball does not cause a person to become over 6 foot tall, and neither does being 6 foot tall mean a person is capable of being a professional basketball player – it is simply an attribute that we see more frequently in this population.

Taking a person who lives in a predominately fight or flight state, and removing one of their main mechanisms for rebalancing their pH,  without understanding or addressing the reasons for them existing in that fight or flight state (psychological and emotional drivers) ,  simply makes things harder for them.

Before making interventions in any of our body’s systems it is important to understand the connections between them, are we changing what we think we are changing, and do we need to change them at all?

The video explains the connection s between position, breathing mechanics, and just about everything else that we do.

This topic, and how to integrate it into client assessments, coaching, and programming is covered extensively in the Strategic Strength Online course  – available here 

 

2023-03-16T10:44:19+00:00March 16th, 2023|0 Comments

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