The best tool to slow down our heart rate? We are all equipped with it
What if I told you that you can train your heart while in the bus, driving, during a college exam or lying on the couch?
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. The knowledge I try to share was gained through literature review and should not be viewed as a medical advice. For any health issues, please consult a doctor.
Our cardiac rate is not always the same. Throughout the day, it can range from 35–40 beats per minute to a maximum of 220 minus your age.
This variation is called heart rate variability and it is the result of the actions of two antagonist systems: the parasympathetic nervous system (which slows down the heart rate) and the sympathetic nervous system (which speeds up the heart rate).
The more your heart rate varies, the better it is for your health. Why? Think of it as your leg muscles: if you never exercise them and lie down on the couch all day, the most insignificant run can become painful.
Now, what if I told you that you can train your heart while in the bus, driving, during a college exam or lying on the couch? Do not get me wrong. Nothing can beat a good jogging. But what if there is an exercise that could make your heart and your head feel better?
To begin with, this “feel better” state has a name: coherence. Cardiac coherence is marked by a synchronization between cardiac, respiratory and even brain activity. This state is said to decrease feelings of stress, while increasing mental clarity and emotional stability. Some claim that it is possible to maintain a coherence state during some time by staying in a positive emotional state. We have all heard the sentence “stay positive!” at some time in our lives. However, it is easier said than done. As we know, emotions are automatic processes. That means you have no conscious control over it, even with all the training you want. What you can do is use a formidable and easy tool we are all equipped with. In fact, we use it every day. I am talking about respiration.
By breathing at certain specific rates, it is possible to achieve cardiac coherence and physiological resonance. Now, how could respiration and heart rate ever be related? Well, if you already heard from your parents and grandparents “keep calm, breathe deeply”, it is probably because of respiratory sinus arrhythmia. This phenomenon refers to the fact that breathing impacts directly heart rate, in the way that increases in heart rate are associated with inspirations and decreases with exhalations. Quickly, this is due to the fact of the vagal nerves being inhibited during inspiratory phase and activated during expiration whereas sympathetic nerves are stimulated during inspiration and inhibited during expiration.
Although to a large extent respiration is unconscious (I am not thinking about how I am breathing as I write and neither are you as you read), it is possible to have a conscious control over it. If respiration affects heart rate, we can imagine that through breathing exercises we could indirectly control our heart rate patterns to ultimately provoke coherence.
The problem is such a state can only be attained at a specific frequency, which is the cardiovascular resonance frequency. That frequency being of approximately 0.1 Hz, we can easily understand that a good breathing rate to attain this resonance state would be around 6 breaths (read 6 inhalations-exhalations) per minute. That means each couple of inhalation-exhalation should approximately last 10 seconds. Various combinations can therefore be imagined : 5-second inhalation and 5-second exhalation, 4/6, 6/4… Longer exhalation durations seem to be the most beneficial for physical and mental health, though. Of course, it depends on the individual. Furthermore, conscious control of breathing rate can seem difficult at first. That is why you should never over-breathe (since it can cause dizziness) and try small durations at first (1-minute exercises for instance) before trying the standard duration of 5 minutes (which is said to be the best in terms of efficiency).
You may now know some products or apps that provide solutions to assist in this exercise. For instance, both the Apple watch
(https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206999) and the Xiaomi mi band 5 (https://www.mi.com/global/mi-smart-band-5/) provide the “Breathe” app. Calm (https://www.calm.com/breathe) is another well known relaxation and meditation app that provide a respiration guide (available on iOS and Android). Dodow (https://www.mydodow.com/dodow) is another product that is said to help falling asleep thanks to a light guide to which one has to match the respiration rate.
Have you tried it? Did you enjoy it? Do you know other products or apps to help you attain coherence? Please let me know in the comments!
