The oxygen advantage
by Patrick McKeown · first published 2015
64% recommend29% neutral7% critical
Why HN recommends it
A practical guide to breathing exercises and CO2 tolerance, drawing on Buteyko ideas. It offers actionable routines and ways to measure progress, suited to readers new to breath training.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"Learn how you can: increase your exercise intensity while expending less effort and breathing less heavily; achieve your perfect weight by suppressing your appetite naturally; improve your energy levels and mental focus; have far greater control of your asthma for the rest of your life; achieve a personal best athletic performance."--Dust jacket.
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If you want to learn more about breathing I recommend checking out the book The Oxygen Advantage by Patrick Mckeown. It's got a bunch of different breathing exercises and ways to measure progress. It basically reteaches you how to breath too, which is fascinating on its own. Worth checking out for…
on “5-min breathing workout lowers blood pressure as much as exercise, drugs (2021)” ↗The book : Oxygen advantage[1] makes similar points. It points out to the research of why swimmers have higher life expectancy than the average athelete, why almost all of us are hyperventilating. Then he outlines simple exercises…
on “Breathing habits are related to physical and mental health” ↗Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (father of behavioral psychology) was incredibly impactful. A few notable runner ups: - The Oxygen Advantage by Patrick Mckeown (as fitness enthusiast this was a giant gap in my knowledge - Principles by Ray Dalio (this is incredible and I need to go through it again) - Richer, Wiser, Happier by William Green…
on “Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?” ↗I've read that book and also Patrick McKeown's 'Oxygen Advantage', which also talks about CO2 tolerance and the benefits of Buteyko. https://www.amazon.com/Oxygen-Advantage-Scientifically-Breat... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m8jIhQyiDY Good stuff honestly,…
on “Buteyko Method” ↗Oxygen Advantage is a great book. I'd recommend James Nestor's - 'Breath' [0] as a first read, however. I feel like the book has more real world application and I picked up a number of things outside of what I learned…
on “5-min breathing workout lowers blood pressure as much as exercise, drugs (2021)” ↗You're on the right track. To go further, I suggest reading "How to Breathe: The symptoms If You Get It Wrong, and How To Fix It" or "The Oxygen Advantage". Best wishes.
on “Proper Breathing Brings Better Health” ↗After having read "The Oxygen Advantage" about a month ago I haven't slept a single night without taping my mouth. I definitely feel a positive influence.
on “Proper Breathing Brings Better Health” ↗…opinions. (I'm new to all of this.) - James Nestor - Breath: "I love this book and it‘s more a kind of overview about different breathing systems and techniques. He writes about Wim Hof and also about Oxygen Advantage. It‘s a good starting point into the topic of breathing. Highly recommended." "Breathe is like a pop sci intro to breathing. It covers a lot and not very deeply, but it is engaging, makes a good case,…
on “5-min breathing workout lowers blood pressure as much as exercise, drugs (2021)” ↗Feedback: - This is great to link to breathing - After reading multiple breathing books (Breath by James Nester, Outlive by Peter Attia, Oxygen Advantage, etc.), there's a lot of evidence to breath slower. Specifically, 5.5 seconds in, and 5.5 seconds out, make the dot match or be closer to matching that rate could actually cause a lot of physical benefit…
on “Show HN: Improve cognitive focus in 1 minute” ↗Two books helped convince me this effect was "real" enough to try it: The Oxygen Advantage and Breathe. A ~year later, anecdotal evidence: it works.
on “Sleep apnea: Mouthguards less invasive, just as effective as CPAP” ↗The best resources I have found for breath technique is two books: Breath by James Nestor and The Oxygen Advantage by Patrick McKeown. Breath is a much better book and very interesting, but is a bit less actionable in terms of real guidance it offers on what to do and practice. The Oxygen Advantage is a much worse…
on “Importance of muscle mass, strength and cardiorespiratory fitness for longevity” ↗I would also suggest looking into the Oxygen Advantage system. Just finished reading the Breathing Cure by Patrick McKeown, makes some interesting claims but mostly found helpful exercises to retrain nasal breathing
on “Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source” ↗I've tried that as an experiment during the lockdown, after reading "Oxygen Advantage". For the first few days I was waking up without a tape, but got used to it. I eventually ditched it because I didn't see any improvements.
on “Ask HN: What life changing thing have you bought for less than $100?” ↗I learned about this and many other techniques from the book "The Oxygen Advantage". It definitely makes a big difference but I wouldn't say that it completely resolved it but then I haven't been practicing consistently.
on “Strong humming for one hour daily to terminate chronic rhinosinusitis (2006)” ↗After reading James Nestor's Breath, I went through the Oxygen Advantage certification for fun. Lots of studies that show that the 4/6 or 5/5 cadence (ten second round trip, leading to six breaths a minute) strongly improves heart rate variability and engages the parasympathetic…
on “Show HN: Improve cognitive focus in 1 minute” ↗