measure your co2 tolerance
Your Carbon Dioxide (Co2) tolerance can be a helpful tool in understanding your resistance to stress and anxiety. By knowing your baseline score, you can determine where you're at and how much you can improve. A higher tolerance to Co2 means greater resistance to stress and anxiety, as well as decreased breathlessness during fitness and exercise.
How Carbon Dioxide Works in the Body
Carbon dioxide (Co2) has a very bad reputation. Many refer to this precious chemical as a waste gas, and while it is a byproduct, that couldn't be further from the truth. Co2 has an incredibly important role in the body when it comes to everything from circulation to digestion to sexual intimacy to lifespan.
As Co2 builds in the bloodstream it acts as a vasodilator, opening the up the blood vessels, creating better circulation throughout your body and up to your brain. But the problem is that most of us breathe too much. We take shallow, rapid breaths and breathe out all of our Co2 before it has the opportunity to do it's job.
what happens when we breathe too much?
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When we breathe too much, we end up expelling carbon dioxide too fast, and our blood Ph levels rise, becoming more alkaline. If we start to make a habit of this, our body will respond by releasing a compound called bicarbonate from the kidneys into our urine. Once the bicarbonate is released, our blood PH levels return to normal.
All seems normal. But...
For those who make a habit of overbreathing, it can be extremely detrimental to the body. As bicarbonate leaves the body, it takes essential minerals like magnesium, phosphorus, and potassium. Without healthy stores of these minerals, various systems in your body begin to break down: Nerves malfunction, cells can't efficiently create energy, and smooth muscles spasm.
Take the Co2 Test
Before you take the Co2 test, make sure you've been sitting for a few moments. You want to perform the test when your breathing is light and effortless. So avoid performing the test immediately after you've run up a flight of stairs.
Have a stopwatch handy as you'll need it to time yourself.
1. Sit comfortably and take two full breaths in and out of your nose. On
the third breath, breathe in as full as you can.
2. When you reach the top of your inhale, start the timer, and begin to
exhale as slowly as possible. (The goal is to be letting out air
consistently but to do it as slowly as possible.)
3. At the very bottom of your exhale when you can't breathe out anymore, take a breath in and stop your timer. See below for score results.
Check Your Results!
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How to improve your Co2 Tolerance
1. Practice the Co2 Test
Simply practicing the carbon dioxide test can help you improve your score quickly. Try performing the test first thing in the morning 3-4x per week for the best results.
2. Breathe with your nose
Consciously breathing with our nose more often will force us to breathe slower. The slower we breathe, the more tolerant we become to carbon dioxide.
3. Practice breath holds
Breath holds are the fastest and most fun way to improve your C02 Tolerance. There are a number of exercises you can do for this. You can practice breath holds with your lungs empty of oxygen, or full of oxygen
Breathe Slow & Deep
One of the easiest ways to transition from shallow/quick breathing is to practice breathing slower. This will re-train your body to become accustomed to deep breathing which not only imrpoves your tolerance to Co2, but also reduces your heart rate, blood pressure, and sets your body into rest and digest (parasympathetic) mode. Try our favorite exercise below for breathing slow & deep.
