FIX YOUR BREATHING TO OPTIMIZE YOUR PERFORMANCE: Amplify Performance With Sympathetic Huff Breath

While the major focus on breathing strategies in our industry today are centered around the down regulation of the central nervous system with a parasympathetic emphasis (and rightfully so as western society is stressed the hell out), there are advantageous times and places to actually up regulate the CNS in order to optimise performance with a sympathetic spark.

Yes, this goes against common practice and belief, but as it’s been said, there is room for ALL in a more intelligent approach.

The breath cycle is a leading mechanism to quickly and effectively manipulates the central nervous system spectrum according to the goal, environment and challenge at hand. By utilising the sympathetic huff breath pre-set, especially for power or strength performances, we can spike the brain and body’s response to potentiate for performance when we need it the most.

But before you go huffing and puffing in preparation for each and every set in your workout, we must realise that there is a marked difference between riding the sympathetic wave strategically with a sprinkle approach and overdoing this and fatiguing yourself centrally which will lead to reduced power and strength outputs and a fried CNS. Here’s how to get the most out of the sympathetic huff breath, and the most advantageous places in a strength or performance program to use this powerful technique.

When To Use This Technique:

No matter your goal of training or the orchestration of your training program as a whole, each individual day should be centered on a main performance goal, also known as the key performance indicator (KPI). The KPI represents the most important aspect of the training day, and the strategic exercise, technique or output that is the long-term focus for improvement across the board. Simply put, the KPI is what is measured repeatedly to ensure positive progress is being made towards goal achievement and is usually the movement that is loaded the heaviest or trained the fastest.

While the dynamic warm up and accessory movements in a training plan are of course important, they do not require the up regulation of the CNS in order to optimise performance. This is what differentiates these methods and focuses from the KPI, where performance is the sole focus. It is at these times where the pristine execution and performance of the KPI can be enhanced by using a strategic sympathetic huff-breathing pattern to amplify the CNS’s preparation to perform.

But as powerful of a tool as the huff breath can be, it can also fry your CNS and leave you pre-fatigued before your big KPI’s if overdone or over used throughout too many sets or for too long of a time period. So proceed with caution with the sympathetic huff breath, as more is not better, more strategically implemented is better. Like being in a firefight with bullets in the chamber of the gun without another clip in your pocket, every bullet counts so use them wisely.

How To Execute The Sympathetic Huff Breath:

This breath type is the simplest of all featured in this resource as its execution is dependent on something that a majority of people are already too keenly skilled at, powerful compensatory chest breaths. We can prepare for a big KPI by rapidly bringing air into our lungs and rapidly pushing it out with a huff against resistance. We will complete 2-4 rapid inhales to rapid exhales for a total time of 2-3 seconds.

When best executed, the powerful rapid forced exhalation can be accompanied by a depression of the shoulders while the rapid forced compensatory chest inhalation can elevate the shoulders through active range of motion. This increased range of motion places the secondary respiratory muscles like the SCM, scalenes, pectoralis group and upper trap into advantageous positions to be stimulated, thus up regulating the CNS’s response to the change in position.

Note that the position of the lips and mouth matter in order to achieve the highest level stimulation from this technique as well as the external movement form the shoulders. The lips should be pursed creating less room for the air to exit the mouth when forced exhalation occurs. This will create resistance with the goal of again up regulating the vital metrics before a big bout of power or strength focus.

Tempo of Breath: Rapid Inhale / Rapid Exhale 

Tempo of this breath type is pivotal. The speed and contraction quality of the diaphragm centrally, and the secondary respiratory muscles more superficially must be completed in fast and succinct ways in order to tap into the power of the CNS to prepare the body and mind for maximal performance.

Think rapid and fast when executing the 2-4 sympathetic huff breaths, and follow this method up with the double breath bracing strategy covered in the section above. This technique is best saved for a last top end set where you really need to amplify your CNS for performance. When utilized in a similar way as a trap slap, sprinkling this power breath type into programming can be an ace up the sleeve for getting the most out of your performance on a more reliable metric day in day out.

When used strategically, 1-3 sets of sympathetic huff breaths per workout is going to be a general recommendation. And for total weekly use, do not exceed 8 sets where preparation with the sympathetic huff breath is implemented in order to manage fatigue and recovery to the best of our abilities.