Sitting still and breathing normally, your blood is already about 97% saturated with oxygen. Breathe as deep and hard as you like, and the best you'll reach is 100%. That's a rounding error. It changes almost nothing about how you feel.

So breathwork was never about oxygen. It's about carbon dioxide.

We're taught CO2 is waste. It's actually the signal your body uses to run your breathing. The burning in a breath hold isn't low oxygen; it's rising CO2. And CO2 decides how much oxygen your blood actually hands over to your muscles. Hemoglobin only lets go of oxygen when CO2 tells it to (physiologists call this the Bohr effect). You can sit at 99% oxygen saturation and still starve a working muscle.

Here's the useful picture. CO2 is a dial. Slow, light breathing turns it up. Fast, heavy breathing turns it down.

That's why the fight between the slow-breathing camp (Buteyko, Chorence, etc.) and the hypoxic camp (Wim Hof, Hormesis) never resolves. Both use the same dial and turn it in opposite directions. Both get real effects. The question was never which method is right. It's which direction the moment is asking for. So it's all about context.

Turn it up (more CO2) for endurance and steadiness. A long horse stance, a hard yoga hold, a calm evening. Slow nasal breathing keeps CO2 in the tank, so oxygen keeps flowing to the tissue that needs it.

Turn it down for a state shift or low inflammation. Full, vigorous breathing followed by long holds is controlled stress. It changes your state and deepens meditation faster than slow breathing can. That's Hormesis Breathing. It also decreases inflammation in your body (slow breathing does too, but via different pathways).

If you want more oxygen where it counts, the drill is the opposite of what most people do. Breathe less. Walk at an easy pace, nose only, and let a mild air hunger build without speeding up. Or after a normal exhale, hold, and stay with the first wave of the urge a few seconds longer than usual. A few times a week for a month, and the hunger arrives later and softer. Your breathing at rest gets quieter too.

Breathe well,
Kitaro

P.S. The first Breath Rituals certification cohort is already 80% full. It starts October 23. There's no direct sign-up. Join Breath Rituals, then message me that you want the certification upgrade, and I'll take it from there. Check my last email for more info.

Ready to go deeper?​ ⭐️ Join Breath Rituals to reset your nervous system: https://www.skool.com/breath-rituals/about ​ ➡️ Live WEEKLY video sessions with Kitaro, structured courses and guided sessions UPDATED WEEKLY, exclusive live cohort courses for members only, 100+ guided breathing & meditation videos, a breathwork configurator to build your own breathing sessions, and a very strong breathwork community so we can all cultivate a habit of health, balance, and spiritual growth!

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