How long should a breathing exercise be
The short answer: three to five minutes a day. The long answer is about where length helps and where it stops paying off.
4 min read
The short answer: three to five minutes a day. If you want the long answer, here is where length helps and where it stops paying off.
Why three to five minutes
In the study people talk about most, participants practised five minutes a day for a month, and that is where the measured difference came from. So five minutes is not a number someone picked, it is a tested dose.
There is a lower limit too: one minute is often not even enough for the rhythm to settle, as the first half minute goes into finding the pace.
Why longer isn't linear
Twenty minutes does not give four times the benefit of five. There are two reasons. First, once the pace has settled, every extra minute repeats the same thing. Second, a long session becomes a reason to quit: on the day you can't spare twenty minutes you do nothing, while three minutes can always be found.
The real work is the habit, and the first thirty days are where it is done.
What changes with the technique
- Slow techniques like coherent breathing and Deep and Slow carry a long session well, and five to ten minutes goes by comfortably.
- Techniques with holds (4-7-8 Breathing, Box Breathing) are counted in rounds, not minutes. Four rounds is enough for most people; if you feel light-headed, cut the rounds.
- Stimulating techniques stay short. Kapalabhati is measured in rounds and the app puts a ceiling on it.
How the app picks a length
How far you can extend the slider depends on the technique: twenty minutes on Coherent Breathing, fifteen or ten on most of the slow techniques, five on 4-7-8 and Right Nostril Breathing, one minute on the Energizing Breath. The suggested range only goes past ten minutes once you start finishing long sessions on that technique with a good rhythm. The suggested range is marked on the slider too. It changes with your answers in the intake and with your past sessions: how suggestions work. If you set up a program, the program takes over the length and raises it day by day: Setting up a program and keeping it.
Does length affect the score
Not directly. The score looks at completion: did you finish the length you chose. A full three-minute session scores higher than a ten-minute one abandoned halfway. How the score is built is a separate piece.
A practical rule
Pick three minutes when you start the day. If you finish thinking "I could have done a bit more", do four tomorrow. Raise the length only on days you finish; lower it on days you don't. If you have never read how to do a breathing exercise, start there.