Our respiratory rate (RR) depends on our age, phase of the menstrual cycle, health state, and heart rate. Having a normal respiratory rate will partially indicate healthy respiratory function but will not be sufficient to identify one’s respiratory capacity.
In this article, you can find out the benefits and limitations of controlling your RR.
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Respiration Rate 1.01
How do you check respiration rate?
Respiratory rate is measured at rest. In order for the measurement to be accurate, it is useful to sit in a chair still for a few minutes. One breath will compromise one inhalation, a possible pause, and one exhalation, possibly followed by a second pause.
What is a normal respiratory rate?
Respiratory rate is the number of breaths we take per minute. It’s one of the body’s vital signs, alongside blood pressure, heart rate, and body temperature. Normal respiratory rate will vary with age.
| Age | Breaths per Minute |
|---|---|
| Until 1 | 30-60 |
| 1-3 | 24-40 |
| 3-6 | 22-34 |
| 6-12 | 18-30 |
| 12-18 | 12-16 |
| over 18 | 12-20 |
While 12-20 breaths per minute (bpm) are often used as the normal reference range (ref), it is not necessarily optimal. Optimal breathing is determined by minute ventilation, ie. the total volume of air we inhale per minute. For adults, normal minute ventilation is 6-8.4 L/min. With a tidal volume of 500 to 600mL, if you take 12 bpm your minute ventilation is 6-7.2L/min (500mL x 12 bpm), which is the volume of our lungs. If instead of 12bpm you take 20bpm (at 500mL tidal volume), your minute ventilation is: 10L/min. With that in mind:
Optimal respiratory rate range: 8-14bpm
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What does respiratory rate indicate?
Respiratory Rate (RR) is one of the body’s vital signs, and as such changes in RR indicate improvement or deterioration in health. The other 5 vital signs are pulse rate, systolic blood pressure, level of consciousness, oxygen saturation, and body temperature.
What increases respiratory rate?
The respiratory rate will increase due to an increase in metabolic demands but also during anxiety, acidosis (referred to as Kussmaul’s respiration), asthma, COPD, dehydration, fever, heart conditions, lung conditions (including lung cancer), an overdose of aspirin or amphetamines. During pregnancy and the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle, RR also increases.
What decreases respiratory rate?
The respiratory rate will decrease when we are relaxed but also from alcohol consumption, brain conditions (including strokes and head injuries), consumption of narcotics (ie. marijuana), and sleeping apnea.
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Respiration Rate and Breathwork
When you should focus on your respiratory rate?
Performing breathing exercises based on the respiratory rate offers some benefits, especially for beginners. Respiratory rate can:
• be measured independent of the body position
• be monitored by the practitioner as well as an observer
• be easily manipulated
So if you are starting out now with breathwork or have no experience with breath control:
Try to reduce your respiratory rate; it is likely to bring a profound sense of relaxation.
A lot of pranayama exercises, cadence breathing, as well as asana practices, focus on the number of breaths per minute. An exercise I developed to improve your concentration based on the manipulation of the RR is the following:
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Why focusing only on respiratory rate is a bad idea?
During most physical exercises (including yoga) you would benefit by reducing the volume of your breath so that it matches your metabolic needs. This is due to the role of CO2 in breathing. In this case, the focus should be on how much you breathe and not how often.
This is also the cornerstone of Buteyko breathing, which advocates reduced breathing aiming to avoid hyperventilation and improve breathing biochemistry. If you are not yet convinced think of the following 4 breathing disorders:
• Bradypnea: breathing abnormally slow.
• Tachypnea: an elevated respiratory rate. Fast breaths that are usually shallow.
• Dyspnea: shortness of breath, that can occur with a high, normal, or low respiratory rate.
• Hyperpnea: breathing deeply and labored.
Only 2 out of 4 problems can be addressed by focusing on the respiratory rate.
Even Cadence breathing can lead to Hyperventilation (ref).
Conclusion
While reducing the number of breaths per minute can be a great starting point, once confident start reducing the volume of air you breathe in order to become a better breather.
The Breathe Right course is developed to help you breathe better when you are not conscious of your breath.