Why surfers and runners are turning to breathwork

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There's a quiet revolution happening in endurance sport. Athletes — from surfers and trail runners to cyclists and free divers — are discovering that the biggest gains don't come from harder training. They come from breathing smarter. And the science is compelling.

The paradox of athletic breathing

Ask any runner what they do when they push hard and they'll tell you: they breathe harder, faster, through the mouth. This feels intuitive — more oxygen in, more performance out. But the physiology tells a more nuanced story.

When you breathe hard through your mouth, you exhale large quantities of CO₂. As CO₂ drops, the Bohr Effect kicks in: haemoglobin holds onto oxygen more tightly, reducing the release of O₂ to working muscles. You're breathing more, but your muscles are receiving less oxygen.

Additionally, mouth breathing during exercise activates the sympathetic nervous system — keeping the body in a higher stress state, increasing perceived effort, and accelerating fatigue. Nasal breathing, by contrast, promotes a more efficient, parasympathetic-influenced state that is increasingly linked to better endurance and faster recovery.

Nasal breathing and the endurance advantage

Dr. John Douillard's research, detailed in his book Body, Mind and Sport, documented a remarkable effect: when trained athletes switched to nasal-only breathing during exercise, their perceived exertion dropped dramatically, brain wave patterns shifted toward calmer alpha waves, and performance improved over time — even though initial speeds decreased during the adaptation period.

A 2018 study published in the International Journal of Kinesiology and Sports Science found that nasal breathing during low-to-moderate intensity exercise resulted in significantly greater respiratory efficiency and lower heart rate compared to mouth breathing at the same workload.

CO₂ tolerance: the hidden variable in endurance

Patrick McKeown, author of The Oxygen Advantage and one of the world's leading Buteyko practitioners, has worked extensively with athletes to build what he calls CO₂ tolerance. The idea is simple: when your body can tolerate higher levels of CO₂ without triggering the panic-like breathing response, you can sustain higher efforts for longer without feeling suffocated.

Breath-hold training and reduced breathing exercises progressively raise this threshold. Athletes report being able to run, surf, or cycle harder while breathing less — a direct result of improved CO₂ tolerance and Bohr Effect efficiency.

Surfing: breath and water

Surfing presents a unique challenge: you need explosive power, calm under pressure, and the ability to hold your breath during wipeouts. Many surfers are now incorporating formal breathwork into their training — not just the dramatic breath-hold practices of big-wave surfers, but the quieter, daily Buteyko work that builds baseline CO₂ tolerance and reduces panic responses underwater.

Research on apnoea training — sustained breath-holding practice — shows that even non-competitive athletes can significantly increase their breath-hold capacity through regular training, with measurable improvements in blood oxygen management and calmness under stress.

Recovery: the overlooked benefit

Breathing isn't only about performance during exercise — it's equally important in the hours after. Slow nasal breathing in the recovery window activates the parasympathetic nervous system, reducing cortisol, lowering heart rate, and supporting the anabolic (muscle-rebuilding) processes that follow training.

A study published in PLOS ONE found that slow-paced breathing significantly reduced heart rate and salivary cortisol after moderate-intensity exercise, compared to normal breathing recovery. This suggests that even five to ten minutes of intentional slow nasal breathing post-exercise can meaningfully accelerate recovery.

Getting started: the athlete's breath practice

If you're an athlete new to this approach, the single most impactful starting point is this: breathe through your nose during all training below your aerobic threshold. This will initially feel uncomfortable and may require you to slow down. That's normal — your body is adapting to a more efficient system. Within 4–8 weeks, most athletes can sustain the same speeds with nasal breathing that previously required mouth breathing.

Pair this with 10 minutes of daily Buteyko reduced breathing practice, and the BOLT score improvements — and the performance gains that follow — will speak for themselves.