Long Breath
A six-week program where you practise breathing out longer, slower and with more control. Two steps every day, a weekly measurement of your longest comfortable exhale, no breath holds.
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Long Breath is a six-week program where you practise breathing out longer, slower and with more control. It's also a good practice for people who sing, play a wind instrument or run out of breath when they talk.
How a day goes
Each day's session has two steps, and each step is half of the day's length. The daily length is between five and eight minutes, six is suggested. Today's program session sits at the very top of the technique list, and when you start it that day's steps come in by themselves.
There are no breath holds in the program. Even when a technique that has holds comes up, its hold is removed.
The weeks
The first four weeks are the same for everyone. The techniques change in turn and the exhale gets longer step by step:
- Week 1: Extended Exhale and Pursed Lip Breathing.
- Week 2: Extended Exhale and Ocean Breath.
- Week 3: Humming Bee Breath and Extended Exhale.
- Week 4: Humming Bee Breath and Pursed Lip Breathing.
The last two weeks have Humming Bee Breath and Extended Exhale. This time the exhale target is set for you: it looks at your measurements and your sessions, but doesn't move far from the week 4 target. After a day that went comfortably the target grows by a second, and if you struggle two days in a row it gets a second shorter.
You can set up the program even if Ocean Breath or Humming Bee Breath isn't unlocked yet: the technique unlocks when its turn comes in the program.
Measurement days
On the first day of the program, the last day of each week and the final day, you measure your longest comfortable exhale. After a comfortable inhale you breathe out with a closed-mouth "mmm" for as long as you can without forcing it. There are three tries, with thirty seconds of normal breathing in between. The longest one counts.
The important word here is "comfortable". The measurement isn't a race, and there's no need to push. If the app can't hear a measurement, it doesn't make up a number: it says "couldn't measure". You can try again the next day.
When the program ends you see a small chart of your weekly measurements and your first and last best exhale. If the difference is small it says "similar". No age norm or "should be" value is shown.
Who it suits
Anyone who wants to lengthen and control their exhale. Also a good fit if you sing, play a wind instrument or do a lot of talking, where the exhale matters.
If you feel dizzy or uncomfortable, stop and go back to your normal breathing. If you mentioned blood pressure, pregnancy or shortness of breath in the intake questions, the targets come one step gentler.
How to set up the program, what happens when you miss a day and what you see when it ends are in Setting up a program.
What it is based on
Six weeks is the length commonly used in studies on the breathing muscles. The longest comfortable exhale measurement was adapted from the maximum phonation time measure used in voice research. That measure is usually done with an "aaa" sound; we use an "mmm" hum, which the microphone hears more reliably. The program doesn't promise a result.
- Craighead et al. (2021), Journal of the American Heart Association 10(13):e020980.
- Speyer et al. (2010), Journal of Voice 24(3):281–284.
- Shinoda et al. (2017), Aging Clinical and Experimental Research 29(4):781–786.