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Host Brad Kearns welcomes Primal Health Coach Ryan Baxter to the show to discuss the importance of intentional breathing as it relates to minimizing workout (and life) stress and optimizing fat burning. Ryan discusses the important role breathing plays in whether we burn carbs or fat during aerobic workouts. Beyond the need to observe the “180 minus age” in heartbeats per minute, the efficiency of our delivery of oxygen to working muscles is also relevant. Ryan explains how improving our CO2 tolerance can improve oxygen delivery, making workouts less stressful and improving performance.
The less CO2 you can tolerate the quicker you are going to want to exhale it from your body—that’s why we default to shallow, panting, inefficient breaths – not only during workouts but also at rest. This stimulates sympathetic (fight or flight) nervous system function while nose breathing stimulates parasympathetic (rest and digest) nervous system function. The greater you can tolerate C02 the slower you will be able to exhale it. You’ll learn how to dabble in the popular practice of nose breathing both at rest and during workouts. Try the shiftadapt test (linked below) to see how well you tolerate CO2 now and track improvement over time.
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