Off-Topic Experience Training First Responders

[Sam Goldner]

How many of you train (yourself or others) to perform under stress with only nose-breathing?

I think nose-only breathing is a little "over-played" for general fitness BUT I also have experienced its benefits when working on a tank of air and a tank lasting longer. I also found myself better able to work in NBC gear, although can't say I did that much. I think it largely comes from learning to control your breathing when you feel like you need more, but there might be more to it.

Anyways just an idea that might be relevant to firefighters.

I play with it but don’t do it seriously; MMA has made it that I can never breathe out of my nose easily so I don’t spend much time or energy working on it. Probably a blind-spot of mine. I will do skip-breathing almost the entire time I’m on air, though. Skip breathing is inhale, hold, inhale, exhale; called skip breathing because you skip an exhale. It’s one of the methods recommended for extending a bottle when trapped and waiting for rescue, but helps me stay calm and not use as much air even when I’m working. I don’t really talk about it with other firefighters, though; I‘ve been concentrating on getting their bottles to last longer by improving their fitness, but that would be an easy win. Thanks for the idea.