The New Year is the time when people start thinking about fresh starts. This usually includes resolutions for improving fitness and health by exercising more and eating healthier. But have you thought about improving your breathing habits? If not, then you’re missing a trick, because better breathing can improve both your fitness and your health.
Good Breathing Habits
Anything that helps you utilise your diaphragm is beneficial. This is because the diaphragm is your main breathing muscle. So, it’s good to get into the habit of breathing from your diaphragm rather than your upper chest. You can find out more about your breathing muscles and how you can train your diaphragm to become stronger in our blog, ‘How Does Breathing Training Work?‘
Here are a few breathing habits you can start building this year to make every breath work harder for your health, fitness and wellbeing.
Habit 1: Train Your Diaphragm
Using your diaphragm is the most efficient and effective way of drawing in oxygen to fuel your body. Inspiratory Muscle Training (IMT) is a good way to help you connect with your diaphragm. Therefore, using a POWERbreathe IMT device to perform this type of breathing training is a powerful way to build this breathing habit. And it’s drug-free, so it’s suitable for most people. In fact, the POWERbreathe Medic IMT device is used by medical professionals in the UK to treat numerous health conditions, including helping to reduce breathing complications following surgery.
To find out more about how healthcare professionals assess and train the breathing muscles, watch The Better Breathing Institute’s on‑demand webinar ‘The Basics of Respiratory Muscle Testing & Training’ with Dr Rich Severin below.
By using your POWERbreathe IMT device daily, you are targeting your main breathing muscle, the diaphragm. And just like any other muscle, regular training will make it stronger and more resistant to fatigue. This is beneficial in everyday life, such as feeling less breathless when climbing stairs or exercising, and is therefore a hugely beneficial breathing routine to adopt.
Research also shows that inspiratory muscle training with a POWERbreathe device can be a practical, low-cost way to improve breathing strength and walking distance in adults with a weight problem, because it can be done at home without the need for supervised hospital‑based exercise. In this way, inspiratory muscle training can act as a gentle ‘primer’ that helps people move more comfortably and feel more confident about being active.
Find out how POWERbreathe breathing training benefits your Health and Wellness, Sport and Fitness, and those in the Performing Arts.
Habit 2: Daily 5-Minute Breathing Routine
Using a POWERbreathe IMT device can build stronger breathing muscles in just 5 minutes a day within 4-6 weeks. You can achieve this by following the scientifically proven training plan.
This is foundation training, and performing this proven protocol will benefit anyone who breathes! Remember, this is a form of training, and while performing your daily practice with POWERbreathe, you will need to breathe in through the device using your mouth.
At all other times, you will be breathing through your nose, which is best practice. Nasal breathing is optimal because your nose acts like a natural filter. The hairs inside your nose filter out dust, pollutants and viruses, and your nose also warms up the air before it enters your lungs. So nasal breathing is always recommended, apart from when you’re performing your specific inspiratory or expiratory muscle training.
Try to turn your final breathing session of the day into a good bedtime habit to help you sleep well. Perform your breathing training, then follow it with 1 minute of relaxed nasal breathing afterwards. Your mini-plan could include the tried-and-tested calming breath: a long exhale. This relaxing breath helps slow your heart rate by activating your vagus nerve system, which lowers your stress response and anxiety.
Habit 3: Support Your Blood Pressure and Brain
High blood pressure is very common, and many adults are unaware that they may have raised blood pressure. Research suggests that high‑resistance inspiratory muscle strength training (IMST) can help lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure in people with above‑normal readings, when performed using the POWERbreathe K3 breath trainer for just a few minutes a day over about 6 weeks.
Long‑term high blood pressure is also linked to a higher risk of cognitive decline and dementia, which is why protecting your blood vessels is so important as you get older.
POWERbreathe K3
Habit 4: Uncurl From Your Screen
You may not be aware of it, but you have likely picked up a bad habit that affects your breathing, thanks to our 21st-century obsession with mobile technology.
As a user of any mobile device, the very nature of checking communications on the go will result in you adopting a slightly bent-over position. This will affect how well you breathe.
This poor posture results in shallower breathing. This is because you are breathing mostly from the upper chest rather than the now slightly squashed diaphragm. It’s become known as ‘screen apnoea’, as people sometimes stop breathing or hold their breath while browsing or responding to communications.
Practical tips for improving your posture for easier breathing:
- 1. Improve your core stability by strengthening your diaphragm. Your diaphragm and other trunk muscles play a key role in improving postural stability.
- 2. Try to keep your screen at eye level, so you’re not bending over and compromising your breathing.
- 3. Make a conscious effort to pause and take a few deep breaths every 30 minutes.
Over time, these small changes will help your breathing feel easier, deeper and more natural during screen time.
Together, these breathing habits give you a simple framework for healthier breathing in the New Year: train your diaphragm, build a daily 5‑minute routine, support your blood pressure and brain health, and uncurl from your screen so your lungs have room to work. By focusing on just one small change at a time, you can make better breathing part of everyday life, not just a New Year’s resolution.
If you would like to see how others are using POWERbreathe in their everyday lives and training, explore our YouTube Shorts for quick, real‑world examples and inspiration.
Start the year by building better breathing habits you can keep. Whatever your reason, training your breathing muscles to become stronger and more resistant to fatigue will benefit you throughout your life, whatever you do. And at POWERbreathe, you will always find a breath trainer that is right for you.
