Let's start with a very uncontroversial statement: The Single Biggest Easy Win to make sure you are trending toward health, is to analyze your breathing and make sure you understand physiologically how to breath well.

Certainly, breathing mostly happens on auto-pilot, but spending some time learning about why mouth breathing is detrimental to your health and how to breath in optimal ways, is one crucial way to begin to take control of your health. Having a well oxygenated body is the core functionality needed to live a thriving life.

“The biggest obstacle to your health and fitness is a rarely identified problem: Chronic overbreathing. We can breathe two to three times more air than required without knowing it.”

The best source to really learn about breathing and how to breathe in the most healthy ways is The Oxygen Advantage by Patrick McKeown (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062349473)

This book taught me so much, and I have always had a strong respiratory system. He really takes you through the world of breathing on an in-depth journey, while providing simple exercises based on air hunger and high altitude training strategies that will help you right-size your breathing, so that it powers both your daily existence and your physical exertions in the most optimal ways.

“We assume the body reflexively knows how much air it needs at all times, but unfortunately this is not the case. Over the centuries we have altered our environment so dramatically that many of us have forgotten our innate way of breathing. The process of breathing has been warped by chronic stress, sedentary lifestyles, unhealthy diets, overheated homes, and lack of fitness. All of these contribute to poor breathing habits. These in turn contribute to lethargy, weight gain, sleeping problems, respiratory conditions, and heart disease.”