What is your bolt?
Greetings Mover, what’s your BOLT?
BOLT = Blood Oxygen Level Test
• Poor breathing awareness and capacity patterning impacts general health and movement health in many ways. Breathing IS movement!
• Breathlessness or decreased lung capacity is related to coughing and wheezing during both rest and exercise and is also related to disrupted sleep, blocked or “stuffy” nose, coughing, wheezing, snoring and/or fatigue.
• When you optimize breathing, you are also priming better movement and better health. A higher BOLT score (measured in seconds) is related to higher relative breathing volume — that is, you will have greater capacity. Yes, you want that!
• The great news is that your BOLT score will change with consistent breathwork practice. Change breathing for the better, change health for the better.
Follow the guiding steps below to find your BOLT score. You have already started to impact this through increased awareness and the Start Here, Breathe Here Pathway. There is more to come. Grab a baseline measure and recheck your BOLT over time to further identify progression with breath work.
How to calculate your BOLT:
1. Take a normal breath in through your nose and allow a normal breath out through your nose.
2. At the end of a normal exhale, hold your nose with your fingers to prevent air from entering your lungs.
3. Time the number of seconds until you feel the first definite desire to breathe or the first stresses of your body urging you to breathe. These sensations may include the need to swallow or constriction of the airway. You may also feel the first involuntary contractions of your breathing muscles in your abdomen or throat as the body gives the message to resume breathing. The BOLT score is not how long you can hold your breath (willpower), but how long before your body first reacts to the lack of air.
4. Release your nose, stop the timer, and breathe normally through the nose. Your inhalation should be calm and not panicked. If your breathing is deeper or labored or different than prior to the test and following the release of the nose, you likely performed the test too long. But that’s OK; progress is still being made.
How often should I test?
Calculating your BOLT once every 1-2 weeks makes a ton of sense. Every change of 1-2 seconds on the BOLT means you are moving the needle in an awesome way. No need to worry, you will be cued along the way to check in with your BOLT score. Slower to change? Don’t fret. The increased awareness and intentionality to breathing, “closing the front door”, and aligning the ribs to the pelvis is having a positive impact. Chase the process and all kinds of gains and “feels” will follow. Get and stay savage at the basics!!
