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Other/Mixed James Nestor’s Breath vs Oxygen Advantage vs Wim Hof

Other strength modalities (e.g., Clubs), mixed strength modalities (e.g., combined kettlebell and barbell), other goals (flexibility)
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Tirofijo

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There are lots of choices when it comes to learning about breathing.

Anyone have a strong preference among the three mentioned?

I’ve read the Kindle sample of Breath, and it’s very readable. The writer’s experience and experimentations as he learns about nasal breathing become part of the story. Presumably he gives exercises and methods.

Oxygen Advantage may be more science (and to me, less readable.)

Wim Hoff is Wim Hof. I like the idea of breath holds - which I don’t know if they are part of the Breath or O2 Advantage methods.

Thoughts?
 
One can write books about the different but here are my thoughts:

I read books of the 3 authors.

- James Nestor - Breath:
I love this book and it‘s more a kind of overview about different breathing systems and techniques. He writes about Wim Hof and also about Oxygen Advantage. It‘s a good starting point into the topic of breathing. Highly recommended.

- Patrick McKeown - Oxygen Advantage:
The base of this book is the Buteyko method and Patrick follows a very scientific approach. He can explain all hows and whys without beeing to complicated. Also highly recommended. You will find breath holds and reduced breathing in different techniques. Focus is on sports and conditioning. Highly recommended.

- Wim Hof - The Wim Hof Method:
It’s basically about breathing, cold exposure and the mind. The breathing work is about overbreathing (hyperventilation) followed by a breathhold. There are times that I love it, but science is mostly against it. I guess nobody knows why this works. Pavel is against breath holds after hyperventilation by the way (SECOND WIND). But there are lots of people having success using the WHM. I can also recommend the newest book.

Start with breath and proceed to any of the two other books. Try the techniques, feel if it is something for you and then continue from there.

Hope that I was able to help.
 
Considering the number of times James Nestor and Patrick McKeown have talked together, I think Breath is very compatible with O2 advantage. ;)
If you want to read something about Oxygen advantage but focus on the exercise and not the science, he just released a new book, The breathing cure.

In a nutshell, when it comes to breath holds, the ones done in Oxygen advantage result in hypercapnic and hypoxic status, while they are hypocapnic and hypoxic in WHM. In both cases, make sure that your breathing is already functional.

And of course, I can only recommend to go to Second wind, or at least do the practical course online! (I am going to Second wind for the second time in July, even though I am already a certified Oxygen advantage instructor).
 
I like all three, but for different reasons.
Nasal breathing with the emphasis on the exhale, stimulates the parasympathetic system, relaxing.
Rapid inhale and exhales through the mouth, stimulates the sympathetic system, stimulating.
 
I have read Oxygen Advantage and done quite a bit of Wim Hof breathing.

Oxygen Advantage didn't work for me - I got sick more often and felt like I had less vital lung capacity (but I did not test it).

Wim Hof worked great for a long time and improved my immune function.

But then I found other ways to improve recovery (for example better food, reading in bed, wearing a sleep mask) and stopped doing Wim Hof.

Finally, I took the leap and purchased the Second Wind Express online course. To me, this is much better suited for relatively healthy athletes than the alternatives (which might be great for certain conditions). I have been practicing the program minimum breath exercises for five weeks or so and already my night resting heart rate has dropped from 42 to 40 and I feel pretty good.

In a nutshell, neither A, B nor C, but D :D

Second Wind it is!
 
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I've read and implemented stuff from all three. Here are some observations of how I made sense of each thing in my head.

1. Breathe is like a pop sci intro to breathing. It covers a lot and not very deeply, but it is engaging, makes a good case, and have a few actionable things that have a larger payoff (mouth tape).

2. O2 Advantage goes a lot deeper and helps you systematically evaluate and improve your co2 tolerance and thereby improve your body's ability to use oxygen. If I only could recommend one of these three, it would be this one with Breathe as a close second (simply because it is so accessible). It gives clear guidelines, tests, and actionable steps to improve your breathing. It is a very useful book.
Oddly enough some of these exercises in this book I recognize from my old Hwa Rang Do days. In one of the old HRD books when Do Joo Nim talked about meditation he said one practice was to breathe so lightly that your nose hairs do not move, which is a great visualization for light deep breathing. I like things that I see presented in multiple places from completely unrelated sources.

3. Wim Hof. It mainly focuses on a intense breathing technique and cold exposure. I know a lot of people that swear by them. I've never had any benefits from them that I could tell. After talking to some people that were really into this, they pointed out that I'm way more stressed all the time than they are. Adding more stress when you are already at max doesn't exactly help and probably hurts (more info here). This is my least favorite of the three as it has a very narrow benefit and that benefit isn't applicable to a lot of people. since it is basically a book on how to increase stress levels through breathing and cold.
 
For the last 4-6 weeks all my CV sessions ( except for KB mile stuff ) has been with nasal breath only. Very relaxing, recovery is better, and I can string more sessions together. Pretty sure I'm better able to nose breathe during sleep because of the practice during the day with the jogs and walks.
 
Related Question,

Anyone read "Breathing for Warriors" by Dr. Belisa Vranich and Brian Sabin? She cites Pavel in the book and it has blurbs from Dan John, Dr. McGill, and Joe DeFranco (which is interesting since that isn't the usual "stable of DragonDoor authors" that all write blurbs for each other's books.) I'm really surprised I haven't seen anything about it.
 
silveraw said:
Wim Hof. It mainly focuses on a intense breathing technique and cold exposure. I know a lot of people that swear by them. I've never had any benefits from them that I could tell. After talking to some people that were really into this, they pointed out that I'm way more stressed all the time than they are
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That is and interesting point. I am a pretty calm person and trained in relaxation practices - and liked to get a little more alert and hyper via Wim Hof breathing.
 
silveraw said:
Related Question,

Anyone read "Breathing for Warriors" by Dr. Belisa Vranich and Brian Sabin? She cites Pavel in the book and it has blurbs from Dan John, Dr. McGill, and Joe DeFranco (which is interesting since that isn't the usual "stable of DragonDoor authors" that all write blurbs for each other's books.) I'm really surprised I haven't seen anything about it.
Click to expand...
I just asked the library in my area to purchase.
 
Not a big WH guy. I liked his idea of pillars, cold exposure but the breathing didn't do it for me.

Breath was a decent read, I didn't get anything groundbreaking from it.
O2 Advantage I liked, leans toward the science and rehab moreso than performance. Found the nose blocking exercise helpful

Second Wind, great study. Maybe science heavy for most. Geared to health and performance, and the only one to my mind that made a distinction between these.
 
silveraw said:
Related Question,

Anyone read "Breathing for Warriors" by Dr. Belisa Vranich and Brian Sabin? She cites Pavel in the book and it has blurbs from Dan John, Dr. McGill, and Joe DeFranco (which is interesting since that isn't the usual "stable of DragonDoor authors" that all write blurbs for each other's books.) I'm really surprised I haven't seen anything about it.
Click to expand...
Has anybody read this one? Highly interested in a little summary from someone!
 
I had a quick read some time ago.
If I remember well, it has a lot to be with increasing respiratory volume and respiratory muscles endurance.
It has some measuring tips, some stretching and mobility for respiratory structures and breathing exercises.
I read all the mentioned books.

My favourite source is second wind express, and Breathing for warriors is a very good complement.
 
I found this explanation very helpful: What is the difference between The Oxygen Advantage & Wim Hof Method?
It explains the differences between OA and WHM very well from my point of view.

I did quite a bit of WHM training a few years ago and found the WHM breathing becoming a bit 'strenuous' ... in lack of a better word. I liked the 'alertness' (as @Bauer stated above) you get from it, but over the time I felt almost 'addicted' to it. I leaned a lot from it, still doing the cold exposure but not the breathing anymore.
 
I bought and read the Breathing for Warriors book.

It is truly amazing! I already started implementing things from there. It‘s a great fit to the SF principles and to the SF community.
 
I’ve done Apnea Training for around 4 years now and I think it’s the greatest breath training ever. I had exercise-enduced asma all my life, while playing 3 sports competitively. I used to have to take inhalers all the time to stay competitive. Once I started doing Apnea Training, my exercise-enduced asma literally went away. I haven’t touched an inhaler in 4 years and I’m in the best shape of my life.
 
I borrowed Breathing for Warriors from the library but honestly came away wanting. It's a good summary of things, name drops all the right people, but I found it lacking in the science/practical takeaways. Maybe it's because I've read all the others - very likely in fact why - but I wouldn't call it a must-read
 
acutaiar12 said:
I’ve done Apnea Training for around 4 years now and I think it’s the greatest breath training ever. I had exercise-enduced asma all my life, while playing 3 sports competitively. I used to have to take inhalers all the time to stay competitive. Once I started doing Apnea Training, my exercise-enduced asma literally went away. I haven’t touched an inhaler in 4 years and I’m in the best shape of my life.
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Did you follow a specific breath holding protocol/program? I'm curious what your training look like.
Thank you.
 
I alternate two types of workouts usually.

The first is where my rest (time breathing) stays constant, but my breath hold times increase.

The other is where my breath holds stay constant, but my time breathing decreases.

I alternate these and do it when I can. Workouts take between 30-40 minutes usually. Every now and then I’ll test my max breath hold time. Right now my max is 4 minutes 5 seconds
 
Hello,

Interesting podcast on OA YT channel about OA / nasal breathing and its use in CrossFit among other things :


Kind regards,

Pet'
 
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