Breath Holds for Athletes: How to Train Your Cardiorespiratory System

What Are Breath Holds and Why They Matter

Breath holds are short periods where you pause your breathing after an exhale or inhale to deliberately increase internal stress on your cardiorespiratory system. They raise carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels and slightly lower oxygen, which challenges how your body regulates breathing, circulation, and oxygen delivery. For athletes, this type of CO₂-focused work can improve respiratory efficiency and aerobic capacity while helping you stay calmer at higher intensities.

Benefits of Breath-Hold Training for Athletes

Used correctly, breath holds act as a “micro-dose” stressor that supports performance without always adding more mileage or high-intensity work.

Improve CO₂ tolerance so you can maintain steadier, more economical breathing under load.

Support better pacing and delay the sensation of breathlessness at a given pace or power.

Strengthen ventilatory and cardiovascular responses that underpin cardiorespiratory fitness.

Build mental resilience by training your ability to stay relaxed and focused as internal discomfort rises.

Avoid maximal breath holds and stop immediately if you feel dizzy, lightheaded, or unwell.

Simple Breath-Hold Protocol at Rest

Start at rest before layering breath holds into training sessions, and build up gradually so you never feel like you are forcing or panicking.

1. Sit or lie comfortably and breathe gently through your nose for 1–2 minutes.

2. Take a normal nasal inhale and normal exhale.

3. At the end of the exhale, softly close your mouth (or pinch your nose) and hold.

4. In the beginning, start with very short holds of around 5 seconds, then release and return to relaxed nasal breathing.

5. As this feels easier over multiple sessions, add a few seconds at a time and work toward whatever duration feels comfortably challenging without strain (a 6–7 out of 10 effort, not panic).

6. Resume relaxed nasal breathing for 1–2 minutes between holds.

Perform 6–10 rounds at a duration that feels sustainably challenging, 2–3 times per week, staying well within your comfortable range rather than chasing maximal times.

Using Breath Holds in Warm-Ups

Once you’re comfortable at rest, you can integrate breath holds into easy movement to prime your system before training.

Walk at a gentle pace while breathing through your nose.

After a normal exhale, hold your breath and count steps until a 6–7 out of 10 urge to breathe.

Resume nasal breathing and walk until your breathing normalizes.

Repeat 5–10 times as part of a 5–10 minute warm-up.

This style of combining nasal-only breathing with short apnea bouts has been shown to improve CO₂ tolerance and submaximal power output, suggesting useful crossover to many endurance and field sports.

Putting It All Together

A simple weekly structure might look like:

2–3 sessions of seated breath holds (starting with ~5-second holds and progressing gradually to your comfortable duration across 6–10 rounds).

1–2 warm-ups per week with 5–10 walking breath holds.

Over time, athletes who integrate structured breath-hold and nasal-breathing work often report calmer breathing at the same workload, improved endurance, and better control under pressure.

References

1. Dynamic Health & Fitness (2025) ‘The performance benefits of CO₂ tolerance training for athletes’. Available at: https://dynamichealthfitness.com/the-performance-benefits-of-co2-tolerance-training-for-athletes/.

2. Murphey, J. (2021) ‘Effects of nasal only and apnea breathing on performance and CO₂ tolerance in cyclists’, International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings, 8(8), Article 5. Available at: https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ijesab/vol8/iss8/5/.

3. Smith, A., Lopez, R. and Chen, Y. (2025) ‘The application of breath-holding in sports: physiological adaptations and performance implications’. Available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40126615/.