Buteyko - What's Your CP?

[DaveFoster]

A primary metric for measuring CO2 saturation in lung alveoli is the control pause promoted by Dr. Buteyko, wherein you inhale normally, exhale normally, and hold your noise until you feel a pulsing sensation from your diaphragm or throat.

Use a stopwatch to time the number of seconds between the point of clamping your noise while ceasing your breathing, and the pulsing sensation.

After recovering from a major downturn in my health, my CP is 18. I hope to get it up to 60 within three months, and ideally up to 120 - 180 over the long-term.

 

[tomisonbottom]

A primary metric for measuring CO2 saturation in lung alveoli is the control pause promoted by Dr. Buteyko, wherein you inhale normally, exhale normally, and hold your noise until you feel a pulsing sensation from your diaphragm or throat.

Use a stopwatch to time the number of seconds between the point of clamping your noise while ceasing your breathing, and the pulsing sensation.

After recovering from a major downturn in my health, my CP is 18. I hope to get it up to 60 within three months, and ideally up to 120 - 180 over the long-term.

Have you studied a lot about it? Is that your CP when you first wake up? Mine is 15 upon waking, but 25 in the afternoon.
I'm very interested in Buteyko. Going to a class with the guy from normal breathing this month. But he made it sound like very VERY few people get to a CP of 60. He also said it requires 2 hours of exercise a day. But then again, I doubt the studies they've done and students they've had were with people eating a Peat inspired diet.

 

[DaveFoster]

Have you studied a lot about it? Is that your CP when you first wake up? Mine is 15 upon waking, but 25 in the afternoon.
I'm very interested in Buteyko. Going to a class with the guy from normal breathing this month. But he made it sound like very VERY few people get to a CP of 60. He also said it requires 2 hours of exercise a day. But then again, I doubt the studies they've done and students they've had were with people eating a Peat inspired diet.

I'm too realizing that 30 seems to be the norm. A CP of 180 seems mythical, and you apparently get super powers.

I'm still reading as much as I can, but it seems very straightforward. 1) Relax your diaphragm and maintain an air shortage; 2) Do this regularly until you adapt to higher CO2 levels through ugly detoxification phases (I'm currently in one right now, probably from a lack of sleep). And yeah, that's when I wake up, between 15-18.

 

[Pointless]

I'm new here. I'm interested in breathing techniques and their metabolic effects. It seems like a way to handle stress at a higher level instead of addressing symptoms.

Yeah, mine's about 17 I think, but I don't know if I'm looking for the right thing. My breath hold time with Wim Hof method is not that good either.

 

[PeatInspired]

I have had an insane chronic cough my whole life and recently started working on the buteyko method about a month ago. My CP is 10 on a normal day and 13 on an awesome day! I'm working with a breathing coach now. It really makes a big difference in the length and severity of my coughs.

I try to take my Cp right when I wake up. You sit up straight with your feet on the floor in a chair where your knees fall below the line of your hips. Take a normal/gentle breath in through your nose then a relaxed breath out through your nose. Then pinch your nose closed. Start your timer and stop just as soon as holding your breath feels uncomfortable. There's usually a twitch of a muscle in the throat about this time. You know you held your breath too long if it made you take a larger breath than normal after you release your nose.

I now use a soft medical tape to tape my mouth shut at night to ensure I'm not mouth breathing at night. If my nose feels inhibited at all I use a breathe-right strip as well.

 

[ecstatichamster]

mine is about 35 - 45. It is true that getting past this point to 60 is difficult. It requires hours of breathing exercise every day. To get here, I had to monitor my CP and do breathing exercises and fix issues in my life. I sleep sitting up (in a recliner). I am always doing pauses during my day without really thinking about it. I don't have to tape my mouth at night anymore, but I still carry tape when I go on vacations just in case.

You can't believe the changes that this has made. I threw away 6 medications and have never taken any since. I was on the way to an early grave and I've been extremely healthy.

 

[mirc12354]

My MCP right now is about 25-28 seconds. It used to be about 12 sec. couple months ago. During thre day my CP usualy falls down to 20 or so. Mostly because of frequent feedings and lots and lots of calories I need to feel good. It was a strugle for me to get to where I am now I would say about 2 hours of almost daily practice for 3 months and I don't even feel better:)))But my case is specific because I am an ex smoker with early stage COPD.

 

[PeatInspired]

mine is about 35 - 45. It is true that getting past this point to 60 is difficult. It requires hours of breathing exercise every day. To get here, I had to monitor my CP and do breathing exercises and fix issues in my life. I sleep sitting up (in a recliner). I am always doing pauses during my day without really thinking about it. I don't have to tape my mouth at night anymore, but I still carry tape when I go on vacations just in case.

You can't believe the changes that this has made. I threw away 6 medications and have never taken any since. I was on the way to an early grave and I've been extremely healthy.

I'm so glad to hear this! I'm intimidated by how much work it sounds like. But I keep trying to remember it will be totally worth it!

 

[Kasper]

I don't know but artour says that ketosis, fasting and hours of exercise boost your CP. This would make sense as it lowers metabolism, therefore less CO2 production in the body and therefore easier to hold breath.

 

[Ewelina]

My CP was 15 when I started and now is abot 35. Didn't take that much work, but I noticed that CP is very much related to the gut, diet and inflammatory hormones. When my estrogen is up my CP is always down.

 

[Dezzy]

Haven't measured my CP in a long time; so I don't know what it is right now.
I'm using the BreathSlim Frolov type device for morning breathing exercise;
I'm up to 5sec in/25 sec out for anywhere from 12 minutes to 1/2 hour/day.

 

[ecstatichamster]

Artour is big on ketogenic dieting now. Didn't used to be. I don't agree with him. Fundamentally there remains a discrepancy between Peat and Buteyko although both agree on co2 importance.

 

[Kasper]

Artour is big on ketogenic dieting now. Didn't used to be. I don't agree with him. Fundamentally there remains a discrepancy between Peat and Buteyko although both agree on co2 importance.

Question remains if CP means anything, if fasting and ketosis improves CP

 

[forterpride]

mine is about 35 - 45. It is true that getting past this point to 60 is difficult. It requires hours of breathing exercise every day. To get here, I had to monitor my CP and do breathing exercises and fix issues in my life. I sleep sitting up (in a recliner). I am always doing pauses during my day without really thinking about it. I don't have to tape my mouth at night anymore, but I still carry tape when I go on vacations just in case.

You can't believe the changes that this has made. I threw away 6 medications and have never taken any since. I was on the way to an early grave and I've been extremely healthy.

I also mouthtape. Do you think your results came from the taping or sleeping upright? I don't really have a way to sleep upright.

 

[Xisca]

This morning I had 20 in bed. I can get up to 30 during the day, with little practise. I started after having been ill with around 15 and got up to 20 very very quick, and recovered very quick too.
But after reaching 30 I started to have pain in my mouth, was under antibiotics to remove a dead tooth and in the end the dentist did not want to do it this day.... But I am going to remove this end of april, that was good I had the information about focal infections! So I understood right away the problem, instead of thinking it was the orange juice... I also keep more ocntrol on the very little foot fungi I have and decided to not stop treating until well after it is gone (or it always comes back). I use tea tre oil. So then I hope to work the method and get the CP up!

 

[DaveFoster]

I'm so glad to hear this! I'm intimidated by how much work it sounds like. But I keep trying to remember it will be totally worth it!

Same. When hamster says things like that, it makes me hopeful for tomorrow.

 

[tomisonbottom]

mine is about 35 - 45. It is true that getting past this point to 60 is difficult. It requires hours of breathing exercise every day. To get here, I had to monitor my CP and do breathing exercises and fix issues in my life. I sleep sitting up (in a recliner). I am always doing pauses during my day without really thinking about it. I don't have to tape my mouth at night anymore, but I still carry tape when I go on vacations just in case.

You can't believe the changes that this has made. I threw away 6 medications and have never taken any since. I was on the way to an early grave and I've been extremely healthy.

That's awesome! How long did it take you to get to 35-45? You said you're always doing pauses now without thinking about it; that's great to hear, because that's one of the questions I had about it. Was wondering if I'd have to do exercises forever or if habit would take over eventually.

My CP was 15 when I started and now is abot 35. Didn't take that much work, but I noticed that CP is very much related to the gut, diet and inflammatory hormones. When my estrogen is up my CP is always down.

How long did it take you to get there? And how much did you practice? Or did you just try to breath less all the time?

 

[m_arch]

I don't know but artour says that ketosis, fasting and hours of exercise boost your CP. This would make sense as it lowers metabolism, therefore less CO2 production in the body and therefore easier to hold breath.

Yeah this and what mirc said.

Eating a lot and having a high metabolism seems to decrease CP time.

People who posted above with high CP's (over 20s) - whats your temps like? Do you have good metabolisms?

 

[Ahanu]

I have CP above 35 and temps about 37. Started with CP 12 and temps maybe 36. Got CP up 50 but had cold feets and low temps so i knew something isnt right. Found peat and got temps up while maintaining a relatively good CP
so yes you can push the CP by lowering the metabolism but you can also improve CP AND Metabolismus in my experience.

 

[Ewelina]

That's awesome! How long did it take you to get to 35-45? You said you're always doing pauses now without thinking about it; that's great to hear, because that's one of the questions I had about it. Was wondering if I'd have to do exercises forever or if habit would take over eventually.


How long did it take you to get there? And how much did you practice? Or did you just try to breath less all the time?

Probably about 2 months. I was practicing with a bag 15 minutes 3 or 4 times a day. I noticed an improvement in sleep quality almost instantly. However, now I got a bit lazy and don't do any bag breathing or breathing exercises in general. I have no doubts that Buteyko is very helpful but at the beginning I was hoping that just increasing CO2 would solve many heath issues, wheras now I think that the relationship between practicing Buteyko and inflammation is interdependent. It's very difficult to keep good breathing habits when there is something wrong going on in the gut and helping the gut would almost automatically improve breathing.