How I Trained to Hold my Breath for 3+ Minutes

Yesterday I had a minor operation where I had to be sedated.

When I came to, I was left alone for a while and had a heart monitor attached to my finger. One of those hospital ones where you can hear your heartbeat. So I decided to run some experiments in an effort to consciously slow down my heart rate.

As a fan of The Huberman Lab, I decided to do some parasympathetic breathing. This is where you breath in through your nose as much as you can, then take another small inhale before exhaling through pursed lips.

Apparently, this is the fastest way to calm your nervous system.

Doing this with the heart monitor on I noticed a slowing in heart rate. So much so that the tone of the beep changed, which I’m guessing signals an audio warning that the heart rate is dropping more than the machine would like.

In fact, I even flatlined for a second or two several times!

The next thing I tried was Wim Hof Breathing.

A basic method of this is to take 30 deep breaths, then after the last exhale you hold your breath for a minute or so. Then you take a recovery breath by breathing in and holding it for 15 seconds. You can repeat this several times.

I noticed the Wim Hof breathing also slowed down my heart rate, similar to the parasympathetic breathing but perhaps a little more sustained.

I can’t remember exactly. To be honest, I was still under the influence a little and for safety probably shouldn’t have been doing it in an altered state.

Anyway, the takeaway I got was that my ability to slow down my heart rate was not sustainable. As soon as I started breathing normally again it returned to baseline.

It would be awesome if I could consciously slow down my heart rate for a longer time.

There are several benefits to this such as improved focus, stress reduction, and enhanced athletic performance. But the reason I’d like to be able to do it is to cultivate a stronger mind-body connection.

I also think that if I can slow my heart rate then I will be able to hold my breath for longer. This is because when your heart rate slows down, your body's oxygen consumption tends to decrease as well.

At the moment I can average about a 2 minute breath hold with minimal preparation or relaxing and taking a couple of deep breaths. If I take longer to prepare, such as taking 10 deep breaths before the breath holds, occasionally I can crack the 3 minute mark.

This is all at sea level. When I'm in the mountains these figures drop about a third.

I would love to be able to hold my breath for 3 minutes without preparation, or 5 minutes with preparation.

I’ve been slowly building up my breath hold capability for the past year or so. I started off with apnea training. It’s what freedivers do and is part of the Survival Fitness Plan training. Apnea training is also described in the Survival Swimming manual.

Eventually, I got tired of that because it was taking up too much of my meditation time. Also, I want to be able to hold my breath for a long time without preparation, so I can use it in an emergency situation. For example, if someone tries to drown me and I only have time to take one deep breath.

I really like Wim Hof breathing. Amongst other reasons, I feel like it increases my lung capacity. I do that 3 times a week.

Then once a week I do a max breath hold. Sometimes with preparation, and sometimes without.

I like this routine. It’s not as effective as apnea training, but for me it is more sustainable. I’m confident it will get me to my goal.