How to Use Bellows Breathing to Acclimate to an Elevation

Bellows breathing is a highly energizing yoga breathing technique that involves rapid but deep breathing to increase alertness. It involves learning how to hyperventilate safely. Practicing this technique can help climbers learn how to adapt to higher levels of elevation and decreased oxygen, which requires utilizing safe hyperventilation. Though climbers typically carry bottled oxygen once altitudes reach over 25,000 feet, some have become so adept at Bellows breathing that they have scaled Mt. Everest without the use of supplemental oxygen. To train for climbing at high elevations, you can practice Bellows breathing at ordinary altitudes.

Instructions

• 1

  Sit with your head, neck and trunk straight and unsupported by a wall or back of chair.

• 2

  With mouth closed, inhale and exhale small puffs of air rapidly and evenly through your nose.

• 3

  Make your breathing active, even and abdominal. Fold your hands on your belly to feel your abdomen moving.

• 4

  Keep your shoulders relaxed and your chest still. Practice while looking in a mirror to be sure that you do not move your shoulders or heave your chest up and down.

• 5

  Pace yourself to breathe in and out comfortably about 30 times in 15 seconds --- two-second inhalations, two-second exhalations. If you lose control, slow down. Start out by only doing Bellows breathing 15 seconds a session, once a day.

• 6

  Gradually increase weekly by 5 seconds. Do not exceed one full minute. Gradually increase your speed to one-second inhalations and one-second exhalations at your own comfortable pace. For some, this might happen over weeks. For others it will take months. There's no rush. It depends on what your system can comfortably tolerate. Over time, increase the breaths to 120 per minute at your own comfortable pace. Advance practitioners approach 300 breaths per minute.