Dr. Andrew Huberman

Sorry, you said what are the benefits of, sorry, sooner rather than later, start it later.

What are the physiological and practical differences between breathing techniques akin to Wim Hof and the physiological side in relation to stress, focus, et cetera?

Okay, we can make this pretty straightforward.

First of all, I know Wim.

We go way back to 2015.

I went over to the Pyrenees and visited him and hung out and then brought him to the States.

And Wim Hof breathing is tumo breathing, but in science speak, we call it cyclic hyperventilation.

It's just cyclic hyperventilation.

So...

If you inhale vigorously and long, your heart rate goes up.

If you exhale vigorously and long, heart rate goes down through a process called respiratory sinus arrhythmia.

Volume of the heart changes when you breathe in versus breathe out.

Speed at which blood moves through the heart changes as the blood gets bigger or smaller according to inhales and exhales.

And basically, the net effect is inhale, heart speeds up a little bit, exhale, heart slows down a little bit.

So if you do Wim Hof, aka TUMO breathing, and you inhale vigorously and let it fall out of your mouth, and then you're gonna increase heart rate, increase autonomic activation, et cetera.

If you do a pattern of breathing like inhale, inhale, long exhale, inhale, inhale, long exhale, cyclic sighing,

Over time, you're going to slow the heart rate down and you're going to calm down.

That's just how it works.

So when I hear about box breathing or now you hear about box breathing, okay, it's relatively equal ratios of inhale, exhale.

So a little bit of pause in there.