The 3 Essential Breathwork Skills That Make Any Technique Work
- Kym Burls
- 2 hours ago
- 6 min read
In Part One, we stepped back from techniques and looked at what actually drives breathwork results: the source. With so many breathwork methods available, it’s easy to get caught chasing techniques while overlooking the foundations skills that make those techniques work.
By understanding the difference between streams (the practices themselves) and sources (the skills underneath them), it becomes clear why breathwork can feel confusing or effortful when the basics aren’t in place. We explored why mechanics matter, how breathing mechanics shape nervous system signals, and why mastery comes from training the fundamentals first.
In this next part, we’ll slow things down and get practical, breaking down the what, why, and how of the three essential breathwork skills that allow most people to safely and confidently apply almost any technique they encounter.
TL;DR
The three essential breathwork skills to master are:
The breath wave; belly > ribs > chest
Three different ways to exhale; relaxed, extended & forced
Controlling breathing depth
The Breath Wave
During a functional breath, your respiratory muscles fire following a predictable, intelligent pattern. This coordinated sequence reveals three key things:
Where a breath starts
Where it expands
And how it releases
A full, efficient breath follows this order:
Inhale: belly → ribs → chest
Exhale: chest → ribs → belly
Your unconscious system is always listening, so where your breath expands sends specific signals to your nervous system:
Belly only: calm, grounded, confident
Belly + ribs: active, capable, in control
Chest involved: urgency, stress, high intensity
In the same way mouth breathing isn’t “bad”, chest breathing is context-dependent.
Is it when you’re laying down meditating? No.
Is it when you’re sprinting to catch the bus? Quite likely.
It’s all about appropriate expansion… and having the ability to expand the breath where you want it (e.g. chest breathing during a conscious connected breathwork session or belly-only during Kapalbhati pranayama).
That’s where training your breath wave comes in.
Skill 1: The breath wave
You can break this exercise into five parts, or transition from one to the next. It will depend on which area(s) you find challenging.
Find your starting point
Sit or lie down somewhere safe and comfortable
Place two fingers just below your belly button
Imagine a small marble sitting deep inside your torso
As you inhale, gently expand that marble into a softball
As you exhale, let it soften back to a marble
The expansion should feel three-dimensional
Isolate the belly
Move your hands; place one just above your belly button and the other on your chest
As you inhale, focus on only moving the belly hand
Stop inhaling just before you feel the rib cage starting to widen or your chest rise
Can you take a big breath while keeping the chest hand still?
Expand the rib cage
Move your hands, place them on your ribs, either side of your torso, thumb toward your head, pinky toward your feet, ideally with your palm touching your back ribs
As you inhale, focus on widening the rib cage in 360° - to the front, sides and back.
If you’re lying down, try to ‘breathe into the ground’ by activating more of your back rib cage
If you’re seated, focus on keeping your shoulders relaxed as you widen your ribs
Again, stop inhaling just before you feel your chest rising or your shoulders lifting
Tip: Visualise your lower ribs as the base of a triangle that widens.
Isolate the chest
Move your hands again; place one just above your belly button and the other on your chest
As you inhale, focus on only moving the chest hand, keeping the belly hand still
Avoid sucking your belly in or moving your torso
This one is tricky (and very unnatural for most people)
Tip: Visualise yourself as an upside down triangle whose base widens at the top.
Activate the full breath wave
Once you can send the breath into each individual area, it’s time to coordinate the wave as your nervous system expects; belly → ribs → chest.
Place one hand on your belly, just above your belly button and the other on your chest
Slowly take 5x big, full breaths (9/10 depth) and relaxed exhales
Focus on filling the belly, then expanding the rib cage and lastly the chest.
Now quickly take full breaths for 20 seconds
Again, maintain the breath wave
Lastly, breathe as fast and fully as you can for 20 seconds
Try to maintain the breath wave.
Tip: If your wave ‘crashes’ with speed, focus on training it slowly until it becomes second nature.
Three Different Exhales
The exhale is the part of the breath that is often misunderstood.
It’s not a sigh. It’s not a squeeze. It’s not a stretch. But it can be all three.
(Okay, that alliteration itself was a stretch)
Exhaling happens mainly through relaxation and elastic recoil — with help from the abdominal muscles if force is needed.
The diaphragm relaxes upward
The rib cage gently recoils
The abdominals respond reflexively (not forcefully)
The pelvic floor recoils in sync
“The exhale mirrors life — most often a letting go, and at times a conscious slowing or a quiet, purposeful push.”
That’s where training the different exhales that life requires comes in.
Skill 2: The three exhales
You can practice each part separately, or transition from one to the next. It will depend on which micro-skill you find challenging.
Starting Point
Sit or lie down somewhere safe and comfortable
Slowly take a medium-full inhale (7/10 depth)
Focus on filling the belly, then expanding the rib cage (you likely won’t need to expand the chest). You want to inhale so there’s enough elastic tension to recoil when you exhale
A) Relaxed Exhale
Sigh out the mouth, with sound, letting the diaphragm relax naturally and the air to escape effortlessly
Pause for 2 seconds after the sigh to keep the tempo slow
Inhale and repeat x20
Tip: Allow your body to relax completely on the exhale; from your face to your feet.
B) Extended Exhale
Very slowly exhale through pursed lips (like you’re blowing on hot soup)
Aim to exhale longer than 8 seconds, without strain
Inhale and repeat x20
Tip: Avoid over-extending the exhale as this will make it stressful
C) Forced Exhale
Exhale via your mouth, using the abdominal and intercostal muscles to force the air out quickly
Keep exhaling, squeezing your ribs, pulling your belly to your spine, and breathe out as much air as you can
Relax, allow the belly to return to neutral
Pause for 2 seconds
Inhale and repeat x20
Tip: Don’t tense other parts of the body, just your ribs and abs.
Depth Control
Breathing depth is a skill that is often overlooked in most breathwork techniques.
As we saw with the breath wave, during a functional breath, your respiratory muscles fire in a coordinated sequence; belly → ribs → chest. The deeper the inhale the more likely you are to recruit your chest and therefore send a stress signal to your nervous system.
Additionally, while a bigger (deeper) inhale will bring in more air — and more oxygen — into the lungs, that doesn’t mean more oxygen will enter the bloodstream (that depends on several factors including how much O2 is being used by your cells and how much CO2 is being exhaled).
Lastly, because the upper ribs around the sternum are tighter, expanding the chest using the breath is energy intensive.
So, breathing deeper than you need to in the moment:
Uses more energy
Doesn’t necessarily increase oxygen delivery
Is more stressful
Learning to control the depth of your breath has several benefits including:
Fixing one of the most common breathing problems seen today - over-breathing (i.e. breathing more than you need to)
Helping you learn to match your breathing volume to your energy requirements
Providing a stress stimulus to help recondition your response to changes in CO2
There are 3 breathing depths:
Over-breathing - taking bigger (deeper) breaths than you need
Balanced - the optimal amount of air in and out
Under-breathing - breathing slightly less than you need
Note: breathing rate also plays a role in over- and under-breathing, but we’re going to focus solely on the skill of depth.
Skill 3: Controlling your breathing depth
You can practice each part separately, or transition through over → balanced → under.
A) Breathe Normally
Sit or lie down somewhere safe and comfortable
Place one hand on your belly, just above your belly button and the other on your chest
Breathe gently, ideally all via your nose
Inhale for 3 seconds, relaxed exhale for 5 seconds
Check that your breath wave at this tempo only activates your belly (not your chest).
Label that depth 5/10 (neutral baseline)
Repeat x20
B) Breathe Deeply
Take deeper breaths, activating the full breath wave: belly → ribs → chest
Inhale to a 9/10 depth
Try to keep the tempo similar (3,5)
Repeat x20
C) Breathe Less
Decrease the size of the breath, only activating your belly
Inhale down to a 3/10 depth
Try to keep the tempo similar (3,5) and avoid tensing your abs
Repeat x20
Tip: This may get slightly uncomfortable. That’s normal. Avoid the urge to take a bigger breath.
Summary
Breathwork doesn’t become effective through maximum effort (!) or complexity, but by mastering the foundational skills.
Developing a strong mechanical foundation shapes the signals your nervous system receives and determines whether your breathwork practice feels supportive or stressful.
When these skills are trained patiently and consistently, techniques stop being something you chase and start becoming tools you can apply intelligently. The real question is no longer which technique to use — but whether your breathing is skilled enough to meet the moment you’re in?
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