The practices

Every kind of breathwork, on one map

By GyroscopeUpdated November 15, 202611 sources

There are dozens of breathing practices, and they sort into six groups by what they do to your body. Slow ones calm you, counted ones give your mind a job, fast ones rev you up, connected ones can take you somewhere strange, and holds train the urge to breathe. Pranayama, yoga’s own system, has some of each. Every practice below has its own mini guide.

Most lists of breathing exercises give you ten names in a row, and you can’t tell which ones were tested, which ones are for calm and which ones can make you faint. Box breathing and the Wim Hof method end up side by side as if they did the same job. But box breathing slows you to under four breaths a minute, while breath of fire, as Kundalini teachers describe it, runs at two to three breaths a second.

How fast each one goes

The quickest way to see the groups is by pace. A resting adult breathes 12 to 18 times a minute, which is the shaded band. Everything calming sits to the left of it, and everything activating sits far to the right.

The practices with no dot on the line have no set pace. Wim Hof rounds leave the speed up to you, holotropic breathwork asks only for breathing “faster and deeper than usual,” and the holds are about how long you don’t breathe at all.

The map

Each card opens the practice’s mini guide: what it is and where it comes from, how to do it (with the timer, for the slow ones), what the evidence shows, who should skip it, and what we’d do. The tags say how fast it goes, how well it’s tested and how risky it is.

Slow and calming

Fewer, slower breaths with a long out-breath. Your heart slows on every breath out. Carbon dioxide: steady.

Cyclic sighing The physiological sigh Two breaths in through the nose, one long breath out through the mouth. 6 a minute Tested: moderate Risk: low Timer Coherent breathing Resonance breathing, six a minute Five seconds in, five out, no holds. The pace where your heart swings most. 4.5 to 6.5 a minute Tested: moderate Risk: low Timer Extended exhale Long out-breath breathing A short breath in and an out-breath twice as long or more. 6 a minute Tested: weak Risk: low Timer Belly breathing Diaphragmatic breathing Breathing low, so the belly moves and the chest stays still. Tested: weak Risk: low Timer Pursed-lip breathing In through the nose, out slowly through pursed lips. Taught for COPD and asthma. 10 a minute Tested: moderate Risk: low Timer

Structured counts

A count to follow, with holds. Something to do with your mind as much as your lungs. Carbon dioxide: steady, a little higher on the holds.

Box breathing Square or tactical breathing In 4, hold 4, out 4, hold 4. Easy to remember under pressure. 3.75 a minute Tested: weak Risk: low Timer 4-7-8 breathing In 4, hold 7, out 8 with a whoosh. The bedtime pattern. 3.16 a minute Tested: weak Risk: low Timer

Fast and activating

Rapid or forceful breaths in rounds. Carbon dioxide falls, adrenaline rises, and you feel wired. Carbon dioxide: falls.

Wim Hof method Thirty deep breaths, a hold on empty, a recovery breath. Three or four rounds. Tested: weak Risk: high Tummo Inner fire breathing A Tibetan practice of forceful breathing and visualization that raises body heat. Tested: weak Risk: high Kapalabhati Skull shining breath Sharp pumps of the belly push air out, and the in-breath happens on its own. 60 to 120 a minute Tested: weak Risk: some Bhastrika Bellows breath Forceful breaths in and out, like a blacksmith's bellows. 60 to 120 a minute Tested: weak Risk: some Breath of Fire Kundalini yoga's quick, even breaths through the nose, in and out. 120 to 180 a minute Tested: unknown Risk: some

Connected breathing

Deep breaths with no pause, for half an hour or more, often to music. The big-experience sessions. Carbon dioxide: falls, for a long time.

Holotropic breathwork Deep, fast breathing to loud music for two to three hours, with a sitter beside you. Tested: weak Risk: high Rebirthing breathwork Conscious connected breathing Circular breathing with no pause between in and out, from the 1970s. Tested: weak Risk: some Sudarshan Kriya SKY breath Cycles of slow, medium and fast breathing, taught in courses by the Art of Living. Tested: moderate Risk: some 9D breathwork A recorded session of connected breathing over layered sound in headphones. Tested: unknown Risk: some

Holds and breath training

Breathing less, holding longer, or training the breathing muscles. Carbon dioxide is allowed to climb. Carbon dioxide: rises.

Buteyko method Breathing less and through the nose, from a Soviet doctor's asthma clinic. Tested: moderate Risk: low CO2 tolerance training CO2 tables, air hunger drills Holds with short rests, so you get used to the urge to breathe. Never in water. Tested: unknown Risk: some The BOLT test How long you can hold comfortably after a normal breath out. Tested: weak Risk: low Breathing trainer Inspiratory muscle training Thirty hard breaths a day through a handheld device that pushes back. Tested: moderate Risk: low Nose breathing Breathing through your nose day and night, and what it does. Tested: weak Risk: low Mouth taping Tape over the lips at night to force nose breathing. Tested: weak Risk: some

Pranayama

Yoga's breathing practices, thousands of years old. Most are slow, two of them are fast. Carbon dioxide: depends on the practice.

Alternate nostril breathing Nadi shodhana In through one nostril, out through the other, switching with your fingers. 7.5 to 12 a minute Tested: weak Risk: low Timer Ujjayi Ocean breath Slow breaths with the throat slightly narrowed, so they sound like the sea. Tested: weak Risk: low Timer Bhramari Humming bee breath A long hum on every out-breath, ears often closed with the thumbs. 3 to 5 a minute Tested: weak Risk: low Timer

What the tags mean

Tested is how much good evidence there is that the practice does what people use it for. Moderate means at least one decent randomized trial or a careful review points the same way, like cyclic sighing’s month-long trial of 108 adults or the asthma trials of the Buteyko method. Weak means small or short studies, often without a fair comparison group. Unknown means we couldn’t find a trial of the practice itself. Nothing here gets strong. Even the best breathwork trials are small next to the trials behind a blood pressure pill, and a 2023 review of the field found most studies had some risk of bias.

Risk is about what can go wrong for a healthy adult doing it as taught. Low is the slow practices, where the worst that usually happens is feeling lightheaded. Some is practices that change your blood chemistry or strain your body for a while. High is fast breathing with holds, and hours of connected breathing, where people can faint. The Wim Hof Method’s own FAQ tells people who are pregnant or have epilepsy, heart disease or blood pressure they take medicine for to skip it.

Timer means the timer on this site can run it. Only slow, safe patterns get one. There’s no timer for fast rounds or connected breathing, on purpose.

Which one for what

The rules for every practice on this page

Anything fast, connected or held is done sitting or lying down, never in or near water, and never while driving. A CDC report on New York from 1988 to 2011 found 16 people who blacked out underwater from breath holding, and the 4 who died had all hyperventilated on purpose first. The slow practices are safe for nearly everyone, and if one makes you lightheaded, breathe smaller and shorten the holds. Who should skip which breathing exercises? has the full list, and how breathing changes your body has the science behind every group.