Breathwork and you

Over the past year I have started doing breath work. What is it? It exactly what it sounds, breathing, duh! But... it's breathing with purpose, and breathing in particular patterns. 

I started following some of Wim Hof's patterns and quickly trained to hold my breath for 3 minutes! I read a book written by him and Justin Rosales called "Becoming the iceman".  I enjoyed both the stories and learning about the positive physiologic changes that can occur by simple performing breathing exercises. I've been exercising all my life, but I had never given much thought to the how I breathe, or that I could use breath as a form of exercise and effect positive physiologic effects affecting the ANS (autonomic nervous system),  and blood chemistry amongst other things.

In addition to breath work, I also starting to experiment with cold exposure, and bathe in 50 degree water about 2-3 per week, even accomplishing 2 1/2 minute breath holds under 50 degrees. (Working on getting to 3!). 

About a month ago I attended my first actual breath work class with an old friend Jon Paul Crimi (JP) in Santa Monica. I didn't have any major expectations but I had heard about his classes and how people experienced very emotional responses in his class. Just to walk you through what the class looks like, you lay on the ground (on a mat) and you follow a very easy breathing technique that JP teaches you. You do this for about 30 minutes while he plays music and bangs a gong (awesome experience). My experience during class was as follows: initially I didn't feel much, but as the minutes and songs went by I started feeling what I could only describe as a whole body vibration developing all over my body, particularly in my hands and feet. This I understand is the response to the hyper-oxygenation experienced as the result of the breath work.  I didn't experience any major emotional release as other people did (yes, people got pretty emotional in class, cried, wept, and everything in between) but the vibrational feeling I felt was amazing enough for me to go back agin two weeks later, in which I experience another similar response.

Though my experience with breath work is very limited, I am excited to learn and practice more. I can't imagine full scope of the positive physiologic effects possible by doing this type of breath work.   If you haven't experienced this, I highly recommend that you do. We don't teach in our office, so you'll have to go JP's class or find other teachers or explore online options such as videos or virtual classes (JP does a class online on Sundays).  

Dr. Eric - Your Santa Monica Chiropractor