60s CP in one month

[overkees]

That's starting to look pretty good dime. Now you've come to the hard part. Breaking through 30. It took me a lot of dedication to break the 30 barrier. I think it had to do with my smoking.

I measured my MCP this morning and it was 42 seconds. Didn't do a lot of reduced breathing cuz I wanted to see how bad smoking effects your CP.
When I just quit, my CP lowered, then it slowly went up again. And now it seems to be stable at 40. I didn't suspect 10 seconds so quick. But they say it takes a week for all the carbonmonooxide to be gone. Wow, so now I began training it again and am sure and very dedicated to reach 60 s before the end of the year.

To quit smoking I allowed myself to be a bit easier on myself concerning diet. If I have quit for 2 weeks I'm going to get back to my rule: Only eat when no wai food is available in a social situation.

My muscles are beginning to develop and my top 2 muscles of the six pack are again pretty visible. If I start next year, I will be in top condition. The next will be a lot of memory and visualisation skills. And yoga afterwards.

In order of appearance:
Posture - Excercise - Diet - Breathing/sleeping - Visualisation - Structure and organisation - Yoga

Good luck to you!

[overkees]

Wanted to share a few updates here.

I had a terrible accident 2 weeks ago. Something got stuck between the front wheel of my bike. I was driving 30+ km/h and I was catapulted and smashed to the ground. I suffered from a bruised rib (breathing and sleeping was terrible the first week and sneezing was hell) a very large cut in my chin (had to be stitched) and a broken metacarpus (vertically thank god). It's going a lot better now. My chin is healing very quickly, I put coconut oil and honey on it daily. Pressing juices was a pain, so in the first week I fell back to alot of munch foods. But I'm very close to 100% again. Only had cassave crackers as a snack yesterday.

But what really matters is how it caused a big decrease in CP! I was around 42 with MCP, which was staying stable and after my accident it decreased to a CP of 17. Not to speak of my MCP. I was shocked, how can this have such a big effect? Probably due to the big hit on my longues but still, it should recover quickly then.
After I got dismissed at the hospital I immediately trained reduced breathing again. But it was almost impossible to go above 20 in the first 3 days. I have been training alot and now I'm around 30 again with MCP of 26. Now it seems like an almost impossible job to reach 60 before the end of the year.
I still can't do swimming exercises so 40 is my new goal before 2012.

My sleeping is getting better and better though. I have been sleeping 7-9 hours for 5 days in a row. Hope I can continue this way.

Oh, and fell back to smoking a bit. Since the accident I had 3.5 packs of cigarettes (2 weeks!). Will smoke another half pack which I have left and will stop after that.

[panacea]

If you have any kind of bleeding, especially internal bleeding ,you don't want a high CP
breathing faster (less carbon dioxide) constricts blood vessels and prevents excess bleeding and allows wounds to heal faster

@dime

your real CP is the first measurements (if done correctly), if you do it too often you're doing a bit of breathing retraining (like with the breathing device) and manually increasing your co2 tolerability - which doesn't reflect your 24/7, daily, weekly, monthly, etc breathing pattern. Of course, this is a good temporary effect, but doesn't reflect your actual normal CP.

[sunmaiden]

@overkees - so sorry to hear of your accident - hope you're recovering nicely!

@everyone - can anyone help summarize some of the techniques to improve CP and clear breathing in general? I've read through parts of the normal breathing site, but am wondering how to measure changes, and how to increase time between breaths - is it just consciousness, or is it practice?

Also, based on sleeping positions, would you think it best to put a young baby to sleep on its tummy? My children were attachment parented (spent lots of sleeping time up in my arms, against chest (btw heart to heart contact between parents and infants has been scientifically shown to regulate the babies heart, as the two hearts communicate with each other!)) but when I put them to sleep next to me for the night, or a nap, it was often on their backs. Night nursing however, lying down, positions the baby on its side... very interesting to consider for those who are parents.

[dime]

I'm out of the challenge as I realized it will be impossible to do both CP increase and weightlifting, they just don't go well together. So I decided to postpone the 60s CP goal and focus on increasing strength for the next few months.

Nevertheless, I'm trying to walk up to 5-6km per day, and I'm sure there's some effect from weightlifting. Seems like this is enough to fix my allergy (haven't had it in the last two weeks). No allergy is just enough, this alone dramatically increases quality of life for me.

[dime]

@everyone - can anyone help summarize some of the techniques to improve CP and clear breathing in general? I've read through parts of the normal breathing site, but am wondering how to measure changes, and how to increase time between breaths - is it just consciousness, or is it practice?

You measure changes by logging morning/day/evening CP. Increasing time between breaths, it takes a lot of practice, and I guess it helps if you somehow remind yourself often to check your breathing and slow it down if it's too fast.
For summarizing the techniques, maybe check the beginning of this thread, as well as search the forum for 'buteyko'.

[sunmaiden]

Thank you dimes! So, I guess its a combination of being aware of breath, and practice... I will put a little more mental effort into reminding myself
Good luck w/your weight training!

[overkees]

Hey guys,
Thought I'd share my progress again. I would love to hear what your CP's are, panacea, dime (even when not training it anymore) and Kasper.

A few notes on lifestyle:
I started swimming about a week ago, was totally out of shape but after 3 days of swimming things were looking better again. I was on holidays in the sun, ate very healthy and have my smoking habit under control.
Many people say that once you're a smoker you will always be a smoker. I can now smoke a few cigarettes and quit for a few days again. I have been doing it for the last couple of weeks. You've got to be careful though, if I smoke for 2 or 3 days in a row. I will grab cigarettes without making the choice consciously.. so falling back to habitual smoking is dangerous. But once I start doing that I will quit for another few days. I realized I can't totally quit smoking for now. Everybody around me is a smoker. I live in a house with 15 people, of which are 11 smokers. All my friends, except 3 of them, are smokers. So after trying to stop for 5 times and failing. I decided to be strong and not constantly fighting my addiction like I have a problem. I enjoy smoking. And the reason I want to quit is for my health and my money. So not getting above 1 pack a week is enough for my wishes to be fulfilled (remember I once was on 10 packs a week). I will stop smoking when I live in another home. And will let it rest for now.
100 % Wai is also something for in the future. After my graduation at least. I have too many social occasions and I'm around 98 % wai most of the time. When severely stressed I fall back to maybe 90 for max a week but that's it. That's good enough for me. I think this is almost as healthy as 100%. I still have the addiction and cravings though, but I can live with that. I have become really good at moderation. And that's more important to me at the moment.

Buteyko:
I don't have any pain from the accident anymore the last few days. I have been doing alot of buteyko excercises on my holidays. I began around 25 MCP and 30 CP. It took me 3 days of 45 minutes buteyko everyday to break through the 30 MCP barrier. Some strange things were happening after that though. I had CP measurement of 32 CP, 34 CP, 29 CP. And sometimes 39 CP, 42 CP, 40 C. I never had any CP between 34 and 38 for some obscure reasons. I was very happy that I always had above 30s MCP again.
I went back to the Netherlands and in the plane I did some measurements. It started at 35 when we were still on the ground. It decreased to 25 when we were at full height. And it got to 17 s at one point, when we were 4 hours in air. I was shocked what a big effect that has on CP. The annoying part is that I'm now back to 25 - 30 MCP again after the trip. The most peculiar part comes now: When I do reduced breathing I get around 35 CP sometimes. But most of the times it increases to 40+. And it's only supposed to increase 5 seconds.

So why is it impossible to get between 35 and 40? Really, really strange. But I have the feeling that within 2 weeks I will break the 40 s CP barrier for good. And try to get 35 MCP.

Also panacea, thank you very much for sharing buteyko, it's been a lot of help in my sleeping problems and overall well being. Combined with the sleeping on the ground I'm now able to live with 7 - 8 hours of sleep for days after days and never feeling tired. This hasn't happened to me since maybe 8 or 9 years.

[sunmaiden]

It was very interesting to read your post, overkees! I've been paying more constant attention to breathing, since reading this whole thread - thanks everyone! I started in the low 20s some weeks back, and today hit 30 for the first time. I've been out in the sun more and did some sun gazing the past few days, which I think actually made the difference in increasing CPs. I also notice a difference when I'm consuming animal products. I've been vegan a long time, and vegetarian my whole life, so just having eggs in my diet was a big change. I tried cod liver oil a few weeks back too, and though I know its not wai approved, I was curious about the omega 3s and have not brought myself to try fish itself yet. I also noticed an increase in CPs.

I think the CPs are a good indication of health. I don't think it can be forced, it just seems a natural evolution of the body being healthy. I've noticed I am stronger all around on wai: I can do more intense strength exercise and my spine is straighter/ I have better posture. I studied a little alexander technique and took some lessons way back, and didn't notice any posture improvement, but now, with better diet, my posture is better.

I think swimming is a great way to improve CP. I see my boys do it naturally when they play in the water. They try to stay under for as long as possible while swimming. I think there was a japanese inventor who did some of his best work while submerged underwater, but I can not remember where I read it, or which one:)

[panacea]

the only thing sun will actually help is with vitamin d, which is a tremendous health effect for most people because most people are deficient in vitamin d. vitamin d was so vital to us that it's the reason there are pale skinned/light skinned people, the further they got from the equator the paler their skin had to be to get vitamin d and survive. you most likely are deficient if you live far from the equator and are sedentary, or if you are sedentary right on the equator even. you don't get the sun vitamin d benefit from driving in your car or sitting in home in a sunny window because the glass blocks almost all of the good uv rays and most of the bad uv rays. other than that, sunshine means being outdoors and higher quality air which is another huge factor. i've been researching and experimenting on myself lately and it seems that based on what I've learned and experienced so far, exercise, diet, vitamin d synthesis, and air quality are the biggest factors in general health. since I spend a lot of my time indoors, in a carpeted room because I'm a renter, I've layed down plastic drop cloths over all the carpet and plastic storm window seals over the 10 something windows in this small apartment (because the blinds are nasty and no 21 year old will clean them 1 by 1). I've also purchased a top of the line (725$) HEPA/carbon/UV air purifier that's still being shipped. there are only a few good air purifiers out there most of them are worthless and some actually make the air quality worse, especially when you don't replace the filters on time (and some need faster replacing than what the seller says because they are bad quality). Anyway, I'm basically warning people not to go out and buy an air purifier unless you really want one and will pay high dollar for a good one.

Some basic indoor air quality tips that should really help with CP:
Vacuuming is a bad idea unless you have the ability to open windows during and after for a while or you have a patriot/air storm vacuum (the ones used by NASA and the military for their expensive areas, but they are super costly (1100$) and I reccommend just replacing carpet with a different flooring or covering it with plastic). Vacuuming, even with ones with hepa filters or ones that say they don't leak will leak particles like crazy from the dirty carpet to the air. This is why when people vacuum carpets they tend to get sick. Even really respectable brands like tri star or dyson leak particles like crazy. Even though they have particle filters the casing isn't air tight.

Humidity also plays a role in lowering our immune defenses, when the humidity is too low indoors your nose will dry out, your throat becomes irritated and your eyes irritated even if you can't really notice it (below 30% is unhealthy for sure, 40-50% ideal). The easiest way to tell is to get a humidistat, if your Relative Humidity is like 25%, go into the bathroom turn the shower on hot and let it steam with the door closed until humidity gets to 30-40% and you will notice that you feel better. Mothers sometimes do this to keep their infants from crying. Unfortunately, humidifiers are a nightmare. I don't think there are any good ones, honestly. What is needed then is actually an 'air washer'. Basically it's like an air purifier+humidifier but you only want it for the humidifier part mostly, for the air purification you would want something else. If you don't believe me about the humidifiers go look on amazon, I did for 2 days straight and every single one is nightmarish. The only ones without bad reviews are the ultrasonic and one other type of humidifier which are the worst at spreading microbes into the air and making air quality worse even though they humidify it. This is why there is such a dilemma here.

For the vitamin d, if you can't get it because you live too far from the equator and don't have the time, or are dark skinned and live far from equator which makes it even worse, your best bet is to stay 100% wai and then get a narrowband UVB lamp which will blast you for about 5 minutes per day while you wear protective eye goggles. If you don't stay 100% wai and you are prone to tanning then you can get sunburn and negative health affects from these lamps. Even eating a single potato chip can cause you to get a sunburn from these (or going to the beach). As long as you eat perfectly for atleast a month though, you can test it and go to the beach and try to get a sunburn and it won't happen. I'm sure RRM can confirm this and tell us he hasn't had a sunburn since being Wai unless he cheated. Again, all of this is only for hardcore people looking to raise their CP fast or to superhigh levels, and you definitely don't need to do it all.


in my opinion, the most important thing is that if you live in an area where it's too cold or otherwise impossible to open your windows for at least 2 hours per day/night (preferably all night long have windows open), and have a lot of carpet or carpet in your bed room, then you need to either cover the carpet with plastic, remove it, or purify the air constantly in order to have a healthy breathing atmosphere. if you don't do this, I don't see how your CP can increase past 40 for a sustained period of time without extreme hassle. there is also outdoor air exchangers which keep the air quality pretty good and some houses have these.

[panacea]

negative ionizers with fans also can help keep air quality decent, but these are usually ineffective and can cause throat irritation
ozone air purifiers are dangerous although they work great, it's simply too difficult to monitor safe levels and can cause severe health effects

[dime]

Some really good points panacea!

Egg yolks seem to provide pretty good amounts of vitamin D btw, 6-7 yolks contain 100% of the RDA (200 IU) for me. As far as I know (but maybe I'm wrong), the skin burning on the sun is some sort of protective mechanism against producing too much vitamin D in the body and intoxicating yourself.

[panacea]

raw fish and egg yolks both are great sources of vitamin d which could be another big factor of why the wai diet is so great
but for the egg yolks you would need to eat 15 large ones a day to meet the RDA for male ages 19-50. which is no problem I guess for wai dieters.

as far as I heard the body can prevent vitamin D from further being synthesized by the sun even without tanning or sunburning, and (this is just what I've read), if you are on a 100% raw healthy diet, without preservatives or additives etc, then you shouldn't get sunburned even if you are outside the whole day on a beach with no sunscreen, or if you do it should be very mild. In my opinion our skin colors are perfectly suited to withstand a full day of sun, just in different areas for different skin. The closer to the equator, the darker your skin should be for all day exposure and the further from the equator the paler your skin should be for all day exposure.

in my opinion sunburns are linked to rancid oils, trans-fatty acids, and to an extent a lack of wai-diet like foods which contain antioxidants and other suppressors of what I view to be a 'heat/radiation from sun + rancid oils + transfatty acids - antioxidants and other healthy stuff from healthy raw foods = sunburn' equation.

if anyone is in the mood to try it, go completely wai for 3 weeks, bask in the sun for 10 hours one day or until you get a sunburn, wait until the next day then pig out on potato chips and bask in the sun at the same time and tell us what happens (if my theory is correct then your face should get sunburned first as that is where the potato chip oil will first make contact)

some interesting sunburn stuff:

Sunburns differ significantly from thermal burns, which result from infrared radiation. Although infrared radiation gives sunlight its warmth, it is not the heat of the sun that burns skin. A sunburn�manifested by cutaneous redness, swelling and pain�is an acute toxic reaction caused by exposure to the sun's ultraviolet radiation. Although the precise mechanism by which a sunburn occurs has not been clearly identified, complex chemical reactions and pathways take place that most likely result in the clinical symptoms.

Again my theory is that somehow the radiation cooks/alters the free radicals and other nasty junk in junk food/transfatty acid/rancid oil type stuff causing a reaction by your body to the influx of all these toxins happening and that results in the sunburn effect. but there is no proof

interestingly suncreens often have these rancid oils/transfatty acids in their ingredients, and while they do block some of the radiation which causes the effect, they amplify the sunburning affect of the UV which does get through, in my opinion this is a scheme to cause consumers to buy higher and higher SPF sunscreen. If you get a super high SPF I guess you could go without sunburn for quite a while but you better keep using it because once it soaks into your skin and stop blocking the UV you're in trouble so better buy more and keep coating it on.. $$$

[sunmaiden]

Great information Panacea, I hope your next place has better flooring! So many modern household materials create breathing problems from carpeting to synthetics and particle board/composite wood. The worst is recirculating air in office buildings/schools/airports. A friend of mine got so sick working in such a building that she had to leave her job. I was lucky enough to have wood heat when I lived up north, and we kept a huge pot of water on top all winter to humidify. Heating is pretty unbearable otherwise.

I've found the same thing re: sunburns and a clean/raw diet. A few weeks into raw, I could ditch the sunblock completely, and I had pale/burnable skin prior. Last April I tried a very few cooked meals, in a bad decision to try lower carb for acne relief. Among other problems, I did burn in the sun again, and have been 100 percent raw ever since. I have read that non-wai eaters are less likely to burn if they are not wearing sun glasses. Also the skin reacts better if more of it is exposed to the sun at once, as in you're less likely to burn fast in a swimsuit than in a shirt that leaves only your neck and hands bare. Probably because we are more receptive to the sun's intensity and react faster to a feeling of discomfort. I think I can still burn if I'm out past the time I feel I should seek shade or protection, but that time is now hours, not minutes!

[panacea]

then perhaps you use makeup, or beauty cream, body conditioner, or some other kind of rancid oily type product on your skin causing the sunburn, without this stuff I think you can go indefinitely.

remember, the suns heat has nothing to do with getting a sunburn, the only reason a sunburn burns is because the area is inflammed/has higher blood flow