5 Ways the Buteyko Breathing Method Helps Improve Running and Our Health!

The Buteyko Breathing Method is perfect for anyone wanting to improve their running performance, boost overall fitness, live a healthier lifestyle, reduce stress, achieve easier weight management, and enjoy better sleep quality.

Many common health issues today stem from chronic over-breathing or hyperventilation, which often go unnoticed. Signs include mouth breathing, shallow chest breathing, frequent sighing, taking large breaths when speaking, or heavy breathing even at rest.

If you find yourself breathing heavily or relying on mouth breathing during your runs, this breathing retraining therapy can help you unlock more energy, feel more comfortable while running, and recover faster afterward.

The Buteyko Breathing Method is a transformative technique designed to address and reverse a range of health issues linked to over-breathing and mouth breathing—even those induced by exercise.

By promoting controlled, slower nasal breathing, incorporating breath-holding exercises, and reducing the habit of hyperventilation, Buteyko helps restore breathing volumes to a healthy, balanced level. The results are profound: increased energy, better sleep, enhanced athletic performance, and even easier weight management, as reduced breathing volume naturally helps regulate appetite.

5 Ways the Buteyko Breathing Method Improves Running and Our Health!

Female runner running easily and effortless in nature, breathing properly and relaxed

1. Protects Our Heart Function

Healthy breathing is essential for maintaining proper carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels in the lungs, which help regulate heart rate and ensure that muscles and organs receive an adequate supply of oxygen.

In contrast, heavy breathing or over-breathing reduces CO₂ levels, leading to less oxygen being delivered throughout the body. This also restricts blood flow to the heart, which relies on both oxygen and sufficient circulation to function optimally. Low CO₂ levels cause blood vessels to constrict, negatively impacting heart performance.

The rising concern about heart attacks among seemingly healthy athletes highlights a critical issue. Many of these cases could potentially be prevented if more athletes understood the risks associated with over-breathing and mouth breathing.

2. Reduces the Risk of Running Injuries

A calmer, more controlled breathing pattern activates the parasympathetic nervous system, promoting relaxation and easing tension throughout the body. By encouraging diaphragmatic breathing, running becomes smoother and more effortless.

With the Buteyko Breathing Method, we learn to breathe more lightly and build a healthier tolerance to carbon dioxide. This allows for easier, more efficient running, as the body no longer struggles to expel excess CO₂. Since less energy is spent on breathing, fatigue decreases, making runs feel more enjoyable. The more relaxed we feel while running, the lower the risk of injury, allowing for better performance and longevity in the sport.

For breath is life, and if you breathe well,
you will live long on earth.

-- Sanskrit Proverb

3. Relieves Asthmatic Symptoms

The Buteyko Breathing Method can relieve asthmatic symptoms and those of other breathing problems such as asthma, sleep apnea and snoring. If you suffer from exercise-induced asthma, this technique could significantly improve your running performance and overall well-being.

Over-breathing disrupts the natural balance of gases in the blood, leading to various health problems. Asthmatics often breathe through the mouth, take heavier breaths, and have a higher respiratory rate. This excessive breathing depletes carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels, preventing the lungs from maintaining relaxed airway and blood vessel muscles. As airways constrict, breathing becomes increasingly labored, creating a vicious cycle that worsens symptoms over time. Buteyko helps break this cycle, restoring healthier breathing patterns for lasting relief.

In 2014, the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) recognized breathing exercises from the Buteyko Method, awarding them an 'A' evidence rating—the highest grade given to any form of treatment.

4. Increases Nitric Oxide (NO)

When we breathe through the nose, our body naturally produces nitric oxide (NO) within the nasal passages. The NO then travels to the lungs, where it helps to relax blood vessels and improve oxygen uptake.

This gas plays a significant role in maintaining balance within our body. It helps decrease resistance in the respiratory airway and increase airflow to the lungs. It also helps neutralize germs and bacteria and helps relax the smooth muscle cells within the vessel walls which widen the blood vessels.

NO has also been shown to help regulate blood pressure, boost our immune system, kill cancer cells, increase blood supply to cells, aid muscular control, balance and coordination and protect against disease.

According to a study published in the Japanese Journal of Physiology, which compared NO production in nose breathing and mouth breathing, the levels of NO increased with exercise intensity while nose breathing. As exercise intensity increased while mouth breathing, there was no increase in NO.

Essentially, we can use nasal breathing as a significant source of NO for our body.

5. Simulates Altitude Training Without Travelling to the Mountains

The Buteyko Breathing Method helps us reduce the amount of air we need to breathe, providing similar benefits to those acquired during altitude training. We can improve our body's ability to use a smaller amount of oxygen by lowering our breathing rate and using only our nose to breathe (even while running).

With a reduced amount of oxygen required to breathe, we can experience the benefits altitude training provides and reduce the risk of damage to our body caused by excessive oxygen.

Sanya Richards-Ross

Sanya Richards-Ross, Olympic Gold Medalist, pictured below during the 2012 Olympics in London, uses nose breathing techniques to enhance her performance. Notice how calm and relaxed she looks even though she is racing!

Learn Buteyko at Home

The Buteyko Method was named after Dr. Konstantin Buteyko, the Russian physician who developed the technique.

Patrick McKeown is one of the top teachers of the Buteyko Breathing Method. He was trained by Dr. Buteyko and received qualification in 2002.

Since then he has been conducting workshops and teaching the technique in his home country, Ireland, and abroad. He has also written many books on Buteyko, and he developed a DVD instructional package so everyone can learn how to benefit from this technique.

Buteyko Clinic Method 2hr DVD, CD, Manual; the Complete Instruction to Reverse Asthma, Rhinitis and Snoring Permanently

One of his books, The Oxygen Advantage, was specifically written to improve sports performance by simulating high altitude training. By increasing the amount of oxygen that can be delivered to your working muscles and heart during exercise, you can become healthier, faster, fitter and stronger.

33%

The Oxygen Advantage: Simple, Scientifically Proven Breathing Techniques to Help You Become Healthier, Slimmer, Faster, and Fitter

$18.99

The Oxygen Advantage provides step by step detail to enable you to:

Measure and increase your Body Oxygen Level Test (BOLT) score, which determines how efficiently your body uses oxygen.
Improve your VO2 max and sports performance
Reduce your breathlessness during physical exercise
Improve delivery of oxygen to organs and working muscles
Prevent exercise induced asthma
Reduce inflammation and the risk of injury
Help maintain fitness during rest or injury

So what about you? Have you tried the Buteyko Breathing Method or nasal breathing while running? We would love to hear from you. Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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