6 Minute Guided Breathwork with Kieran

We guide a five‑minute breathwork session to shift state on demand, using simple counts, contrasts, and stillness to teach control over the nervous system. You learn to breathe low and wide, lengthen your exhale, and use brief breath holds to settle fast.

• body awareness and rib expansion cues
• 3‑in 5‑out pattern for downregulation
• gentle pauses to relax face and jaw
• 2‑in 1‑out set to upregulate safely
• comfortable inhale hold to build tolerance
• return to neutral breathing and body scan
• when to use it for sleep, work, recovery

Save it in your favourites, listen whenever you need a slowdown, before bed, before work, or after a long day when you get home

Chapters

• 0:02 Welcome And Purpose
• 0:30 Body Awareness And Setup
• 2:04 Power Breathing 3 In 5 Out
• 3:42 Fast Breaths And Breath Holds
• 6:04 Cooldown And When To Use It

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:02

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Science of Fitness Podcast. Today's episode is a special feature episode by popular demand as requested by our members. We regularly deliver a breathing class as part of our Group Fitness program. And today's episode is going to be a shortened five-minute version of a breathwork practice that you can do in your own time, in your own space, at your own leisure. So without further ado, we'll get straight into it. To begin this session, I want you to close your eyes and bring awareness to your body. And what does that actually mean? Well, as you sit there with your eyes closed, if you pinch your shoulder blades together, if you lift your chest up, if you take a big inhale in through your nose, where does that breath travel? Pause for a moment. Exhale and let it go. Again, inhale and try and draw that breath down and wide to the base of your rib cage. Pause for a moment and then let it go. And as you regulate your breathing, as you take a little bit of time to lengthen out your inhale for a count of three. Pause and observe where and how you've taken that breath in. Is it deep and down to the base of your ribs? Is it up and shallow into your chest? Exhale and let it go. You get to feel your nervous system connect and calm down and regulate and actually match your breathing. And it's very simple for us to simply go about our day and not necessarily pour our conscious attention to the way we are breathing. The whole idea of this episode and this short five-minute expert is to give you a little bit more conscious control of your breath and therefore your nervous system and therefore the way you manage and regulate yourself day in and day out. So going into our first working set, this is known as power breathing, and it's got a handful of other names depending on what breathing practice you do, but it very simply is an inhale for a count of three and an extended exhale for a count of five. We're going to start all together nice and simply with a big inhale in two, one, in you go for one, two, three, pause, and exhale five, four, three, two, one, pause. Inhale, one, two, three, pause, exhale, five, four, three, two, one, one more rep here. In you go. One, two, three, pause. Exhale. Five, four, three, two, one, hold. And just stay still for a moment. Don't breathe. Relax your brow. Relax your jaw. Relax the back of your throat. Relax your hands, your shoulders, the muscles in your stomach, in your hips. Two. One. Draw a big breath in. And let it go. Let your breathing normalize for a second. Keeping your eyes closed. Just scan your body. How does it feel? As we move to our next phase, we're going to increase the intensity in the system. You're going to inhale for a count of two. And then you're going to exhale for a count of one. In for two, out for one. Starting in two, one. Inhale one, two, exhale one. In one, two, exhale, one. In one, two, exhale, one. Go bigger and use your whole rib cage. Two. Exhale. One. In right to the edge of your lungs. Exhale. In one two. Exhale. Four to go. In one two. Exhale. In one two. Exhale. In one two. Exhale. Last one. In one, two. Let it go. Now inhale one, two, and hold at the top of that inhale. Pause for a moment. Feel the upregulated, the tingling, the fuzziness that comes with increased frequency of breathing. Exhale for three, two, one. Hold your breath and stay still. Don't move for a moment. Feel how your body goes from the lower CO2 level. Gradually builds up a bit of pressure. Feel how nice it feels just to stop breathing, just to be still for a moment. Lean in a little bit further as you observe your body build and hold. And stay focused and stay connected with the system. Override the autonomic response. That is your need to inhale. Lean a little bit further for five, four, three, two, one. Inhale. Let it go. Take a moment, let your breathing normalize. And as simply as that, we have now concluded a small five-minute breath work practice. And so take this one with you, save it in your favorites, listen to it whenever you need a slowdown, be it before you go to bed, be it before you step into work, or after a long day when you get home.