Breathing Exercises: What Published Guidance Supports

Key takeaways

• Pursed-lip breathing: helps in COPD by keeping airways open on exhalation
• Slow breathing pace: about 6 breaths a minute for stress
• Most useful single change: Learn pursed-lip breathing if you have COPD.
• Commonest mistake: Using breathing exercises instead of a reliever inhaler in an attack.
• See a doctor if any of the signs under "When to speak to a doctor" below apply to you.

What it is

Techniques that reduce the work of breathing or the sensation of breathlessness. It sits within Respiratory Health. The table below gives the figures guidance actually works from.

The numbers, in one place

What helps

These are the changes with the clearest evidence behind them. Start wherever it is easiest to start.

• Learn pursed-lip breathing if you have COPD
• Practise slow breathing when calm so it is familiar under stress
• Ask about respiratory physiotherapy for a breathing pattern disorder
• Use positioning, such as leaning forward on your arms, when breathless

What to avoid

What to steer clear of, and why it catches people out.

• Using breathing exercises instead of a reliever inhaler in an attack
• Deep forceful breathing, which can worsen symptoms
• Assuming all breathlessness is anxiety

Where to go next

• Breathing Exercises: Common Questions Answered
• Breathing Exercises: The Quick Reference
• Breathing Exercises — the reference entry
• Hay Fever: What Published Guidance Supports
• Lung Cancer Awareness: What the Evidence Actually Says

When to speak to a doctor

Never use breathing exercises in place of your reliever inhaler or emergency treatment. Call 999 for severe breathlessness, inability to speak in full sentences, blue lips or chest pain. See a GP to establish the cause before assuming breathlessness is anxiety-related.

Where this comes from

• Asthma + Lung UK — breathing exercises
• NHS — Breathing exercises for stress

How this page was put together

Every figure, recommendation and warning above is taken from the guidance named in Where this comes from. Nothing on this page is inferred, summarised or generalised beyond what those bodies publish: where they give a number, it is their number, and where they are silent, so are we. Pages are rebuilt whenever the underlying record changes. Sign-off by a named clinician, where it has happened, is shown at the top of the page along with the date.

Medical disclaimer

This article is general information, not medical advice. It cannot account for your own history, medication or circumstances. Always speak to a GP, pharmacist or another qualified health professional before making changes that affect your treatment, and never delay seeking medical advice because of something you have read here. In an emergency, call 999.