Oxygen Advantage

Oxygen Advantage Scientifically proven breathing technique to reduce breathlessness, simulate high altitude training, Find out more at www.oxygenadvantage.com
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The Oxygen Advantage Breathing Technique by Patrick McKeown

The Oxygen Advantage improves sports performance:

1. By understanding how oxygen is released throughout the body, and improving everyday breathing habits so that body oxygenation becomes more efficient

2. By practicing specially designed breath hold exercises which provide the same benefits as high altitude training

Both methods work by increasing the amount of oxygen that can be delivered to your working muscles and heart during exercise, allowing you to become healthier, faster, fitter and stronger. The Oxygen Advantage technique provides step by step detail to enable you:

-Increase your natural production of EPO safely and legally
-Improve your VO2 max and sports performance
-Reduce your breathlessness during physical exercise
-Improve delivery of oxygen to organs and working muscles
-Prevent exercise induced asthma
-Reduce inflammation and the risk of injury
-Help maintain fitness during rest or injury

For the past eleven years, Patrick McKeown has trained over 5,000 people in reduced breathing exercises. From seriously ill asthmatics to couch potatoes to weekend warriors and Olympic athletes—Patrick teaches a simple, fast way to transform health, well-being, and performance. The Oxygen Advantage, Patrick's latest and most complete book, is based on research supported by over 230 medical papers and studies published in prominent scientific journals. For the first time, this information is being published outside academic journals and made accessible to the public. The Oxygen Advantage allows those who previously avoided exercise due to excessive breathlessness, asthma, or other health and respiratory issues, to become the athletes they’ve always wanted to become. Equally, for the first time, individuals who don’t regularly exercise can use reduced breathing techniques to improve their fitness level substantially before they even set foot on a track, or walk into a gym. The health benefits of reduced breathing for exercisers and for non-exercisers includes better sleep, improved cardiovascular health, increased energy and concentration, easy weight loss and weight maintenance, and the elimination of asthmatic symptoms. The Oxygen Advantage book includes both detailed and simplified descriptions of each exercise, quick reference guides and summaries, case studies, and the science behind the information to enable the reader to fully understand and apply the Oxygen Advantage program.

Breath holds in the warm-up? The research is catching up.A recent paper in Frontiers in Physiology looked at the effect ...
31/03/2026

Breath holds in the warm-up? The research is catching up.

A recent paper in Frontiers in Physiology looked at the effect of dynamic breath holds during a warm-up in elite rugby athletes.

The researchers found that integrating six maximal breath holds during a 10-minute cycling warm-up significantly improved VO₂ peak during the subsequent test.

So what might be driving the improvement?

Possible mechanisms include:
• Improved oxygen delivery
• Better tolerance to CO₂
• Splenic contraction
• More efficient breathing and circulation

The authors concluded that dynamic breath holding shows real potential as a performance optimisation strategy when integrated into warm-ups.

This approach is very close to what we have been doing in Oxygen Advantage® training for years - integrating breath holds during movement to prepare the body for performance.

But it’s encouraging to see more studies exploring how breathing can influence performance physiology.

Paper: Wendi W. et al. (2024) Effect of Dry Dynamic Apnea on Aerobic Power in Elite Rugby Athletes.

If you’d like to experience this approach for yourself, join our free 4-Week Breath Hold Challenge.

Learn how to practise breath holds during movement, track your progress, and train your breathing in less than 10 minutes per day.

https://oxygenadvantage.com/pages/breath-hold-challenge







30/03/2026

Nasal breathing isn’t just about how you race.
It’s about how you train.

Many athletes use nasal breathing during training to:
• improve breathing control
• reduce breathing rate
• build CO₂ tolerance

Then when intensity increases, their breathing is more efficient.
Use your training sessions to train your breathing.

🎧 Full podcast with Patrick McKeown & Jacko now available.
https://youtu.be/XchTO7zkLQg

The problem with slow breathing 👇Many breathing techniques focus only on breathing rate.But breathing physiology is also...
28/03/2026

The problem with slow breathing 👇

Many breathing techniques focus only on breathing rate.
But breathing physiology is also about volume.

Slow breathing with large breaths can still lead to overbreathing, lowering carbon dioxide and reducing oxygen delivery to tissues.

Carbon dioxide is often misunderstood as just a waste gas, but it plays an important physiological role.
It helps regulate:
• blood flow to the brain
• oxygen delivery to tissues
• nervous system balance

When carbon dioxide drops too low, blood vessels constrict and oxygen delivery becomes less efficient.
This is why some people feel lightheaded, dizzy or uncomfortable when practicing slow breathing exercises.

It isn’t the breathing rate causing the issue.
It’s the volume of air being breathed.

Sometimes improving breathing isn’t about breathing more.
It’s about breathing a little less.

Your breathing and your nervous system are closely linked.When you feel stressed, your body naturally shifts into a figh...
26/03/2026

Your breathing and your nervous system are closely linked.

When you feel stressed, your body naturally shifts into a fight-or-flight response. As this happens:
• heart rate increases
• breathing becomes faster
• breathing becomes shallow and upper chest
• the body prepares for action

This response is useful in real danger. But today it is often triggered by everyday situations like work pressure or difficult conversations.

The interesting part is that the connection works both ways.

Just as stress changes breathing, changing breathing can influence your state of mind.

When breathing becomes slower, softer and more controlled, signals are sent to the brain that the body is safe. In response, the nervous system begins to settle.

Heart rate slows.
Muscles relax.
The mind becomes clearer.

Breathing can become a practical tool to help shift your state.
Swipe for three simple approaches..

24/03/2026

If the diaphragm isn’t functioning well, athletes often rely on upper chest breathing, which can make breathing less efficient during exercise.

This is why breathing mechanics are becoming an increasingly important part of performance training.

🎧 Full conversation with Patrick McKeown & Jacko available now.
https://youtu.be/XchTO7zkLQg

24/03/2026

What’s the real purpose of breathing exercises?

Not just to relax.
Not just to feel calm in the moment.

The goal of breathing exercises should be to improve how you breathe the rest of the day.

Because your everyday breathing habits influence:
• Your nervous system
• Your sleep quality
• Your focus and energy
• Your airway health
• Even your dental health

So the real question becomes: How well are you breathing right now?

One simple way to assess it is the BOLT Score (Body Oxygen Level Test) — a short breath-hold test that reflects your tolerance to carbon dioxide and the efficiency of your breathing.

Improving your breathing isn’t complicated, but it can have a powerful impact on sleep, concentration, energy, and overall health.

👇 Have you ever measured your BOLT score?
https://oxygenadvantage.com/pages/bolt-score-test

23/03/2026

Why use a pulse oximeter during breath hold training?
Because it allows you to see how your body responds.

During a breath hold after exhalation, oxygen saturation may briefly drop while carbon dioxide rises. This creates a controlled training stimulus that helps improve breathing efficiency, tolerance to breathlessness, and resilience under stress.

A simple pulse oximeter lets you observe:
• how low oxygen saturation drops during stronger holds
• how quickly it recovers afterwards
• how your breathing system adapts over time

It’s one of the ways we track progress during the 4-Week Breath Hold Challenge.
Participants in the challenge also receive a discount on the pulse oximeter we recommend.

If you'd like to join the challenge and get the details:
Comment START and we’ll send you everything you need to begin.

https://oxygenadvantage.com/pages/breath-hold-challenge

A few days ago we asked a question:If you wanted to improve blood flow to the brain… which breathing exercise would you ...
21/03/2026

A few days ago we asked a question:
If you wanted to improve blood flow to the brain… which breathing exercise would you choose?

There are a few possibilities — but they don’t all have the same effect.

One of the key gases influencing blood flow in the body is carbon dioxide (CO₂).

When CO₂ levels increase in the blood, the smooth muscle in the blood vessels relaxes and dilates, helping to improve circulation — including blood flow to the brain.

This is where light breathing exercises come in.

When you practise breathing less air (sometimes called light breathing), CO₂ rises slightly in the lungs and bloodstream. You’ll usually notice a mild sensation of air hunger as this happens.

Even a small increase in CO₂ — around 2–3 mmHg — can improve blood flow to the brain by approximately 6–9%.

Interestingly, the opposite can also happen.

Deep breathing, fast breathing, or breathing with large volumes of air can reduce CO₂ levels, which may reduce blood flow to the brain.

Another way to intermittently increase blood flow to the brain is through breath holding.

During a breath hold, carbon dioxide rises and oxygen drops slightly. This combination creates a short, controlled stress that stimulates circulation and oxygen delivery.

This is one of the reasons breath holds during movement are a core practice in the Oxygen Advantage® method.

We recently launched our 4-Week Breath Hold Challenge, where participants practise five breath holds per day while walking or moving.

Already thousands of people have joined.

If you'd like to learn how to practise it safely:

Comment START and we’ll send you the details.

19/03/2026

Your brain receives 20–25% of the blood pumped from the heart and uses about 20% of the oxygen in the body.

So improving blood flow and oxygen delivery to the brain is essential for focus, cognitive performance, and long-term brain health.

But here’s the interesting part…

There is one gas in the body that plays a key role in increasing blood flow to the brain.

And certain breathing practices can help influence it.

👇 What do you think it is?

Drop your answer in the comments.

Breathing may be one of the most overlooked factors in running performance.In our latest podcast, Patrick McKeown speaks...
18/03/2026

Breathing may be one of the most overlooked factors in running performance.

In our latest podcast, Patrick McKeown speaks with Master Oxygen Advantage Instructor David “Jacko” Jackson about how breathing influences endurance, perceived effort and recovery.

These are 5 key insights from the conversation.

Small changes to your breathing can make a big difference to how running feels.

🎧 Watch or listen to the full podcast on YouTube, Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

17/03/2026

☘️ 24 Years of Teaching Breathing

Patrick McKeown reflects on 24 years of teaching breathing.

On 17 March 2002 (St Patrick’s Day) Patrick opened a small clinic in Galway, Ireland. That day began a journey helping people improve their breathing, sleep, mental resilience and physical performance.

In the early years the work focused on the Buteyko Method, helping people with asthma, anxiety, sleep problems and breathing pattern disorders.

Later this work evolved into Oxygen Advantage®, bringing breathing techniques to athletes and everyday life — including nasal breathing, breath hold training and improving tolerance to carbon dioxide.

Today breathing training is helping people around the world:

• sleep better
• improve concentration
• reduce stress and anxiety
• improve sports performance
• develop greater calm and resilience

Thank you to everyone who has been part of the journey.

☘️ Happy St Patrick’s Day

🎥 Watch the full video on YouTube
https://youtu.be/RmYy-THSTrM

17/03/2026

Patrick McKeown reflects on 24 years of teaching breathing.

On 17 March 2002 (St Patrick’s Day) Patrick opened a small clinic in Galway, Ireland. That day began a journey helping people improve their breathing, sleep, mental resilience and physical performance.

In the early years the work focused on the Buteyko Method, helping people with asthma, anxiety, sleep problems and breathing pattern disorders.

Later this work evolved into Oxygen Advantage®, bringing breathing techniques to athletes and everyday life — including nasal breathing, breath hold training and improving tolerance to carbon dioxide.

Today, breathing training is helping people around the world:
• sleep better
• improve concentration
• reduce stress and anxiety
• improve sports performance
• develop greater calm and resilience

Thank you to everyone who has been part of the journey.

☘️ Happy St Patrick’s Day.

🎥 Watch the full video on YouTube
https://youtu.be/RmYy-THSTrM

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