Is Breathwork Dangerous?

Here’s a 3-minute youtube video I did on this topic.

Is Breathwork Dangerous?

Not more dangerous than riding a bicycle, an average of 800 people a year die riding a bicycle.

Not more dangerous than going to the gym…It is estimated that 459,978 people were injured while exercising or using exercise equipment in 2017.

There have been zero reported cases in the research or literature of any reported incidents of things like strokes, heart attacks, etc happening from Breathwork. Zero.

First let me say upfront that I am NOT a doctor, a scientist, or a guru. I’m just a former celebrity personal trainer who learned this incredible Breathwork technique that changed EVERY AREA OF MY LIFE and then felt the calling to share this with as many people as possible to help them transform their lives.

Secondly, Breathwork is an umbrella term, it’s like saying “Fitness”. There are so many different techniques out there that it gets confusing to know exactly what type of Breathwork the person is referring to.

I teach a two-part, sometimes called 3-part circular or connected breathing technique. It’s done lying down on your back. NEVER driving, NEVER in water. Why, because it’s really powerful, and it can totally create a bit of an altered state. It can make you high, naturally, but the good news is it won’t destroy your life like drugs will, in fact, it’ll make it better in so many ways. Here’s one of the things I love about breathwork…We’re not in the jungle doing ayahuasca puking into a bucket. You can get off the ride at any time, you’re totally in control of it AND you can do it in the middle of a Tuesday afternoon when you’re having a bad day. As I have for many years.

Are there contraindications to doing Breathwork? Yes, there are contraindications to doing almost anything. Some of them are High Blood Pressure, Pregnancy, etc. (I’ll put a full list at the bottom)

Most of them exist for protection from getting sued, because we live in a litigious society happy society and people are always looking for a short cut to cash in. I have everyone sign my waiver for this very reason and sometimes the waiver can spook people, but it’s no different from the waiver you sign at any gym.

The difference is no one is really that fearful of the gym, because we all know what a gym is at this point. We fear the unknown.

Let me say that again because it’s important.

We fear the unknown.

That’s it, plain and simple, because we haven’t done Breathwork, and we don’t really know what it is, and maybe you’ve heard all kinds of crazy stories from a friend. It creates fear in your mind and the mind is a very powerful thing. The minds job is to protect you, to keep you safe at all costs. It doesn’t want you to do anything new whatsoever, because it’s unknown. You have to override that to grow, you have to do new stuff to grow. Everything you want is on the other side of your comfort zone.

Let me just be straight up with you right now. In eight years of leading Breathwork taking thousands of people through it I’ve never once seen anything bad happen. Never. Not once.

I have seen people freak themselves out. Because they feel things in their body they’ve never felt, or have a huge unexpected emotional release. I haven’t however seen anything harmful happen to anyone.

When I was a personal trainer in the gym, I saw people get hurt almost daily. People get hurt in yoga class all the time. People get injured on bicycles. People get totally jacked up just running. We are not afraid of these things though because they are all known to us.

Look, you’re just lying on the floor breathing a bit more than you normally do. You’ve done way harder stuff in your life than lay on the floor and breathe. I hope.

If you want to have an incredible, transformational experience and change your life, then breathwork is the fastest and most effective thing I’ve ever used to do that. You just need to lay down and breathe. It’s not that hard.

Contraindications for Breathwork:

Breathwork can result in intense physical and emotional release. Therefore, it is not advised for persons with a history of cardiovascular disease, including angina or heart attack, high blood pressure, glaucoma, retinal detachment, osteoporosis, significant recent physical injuries or surgery.

Breathwork is not advised for persons with severe mental illness or seizure disorders or for persons using major medications. It is also unsuitable for anyone with a personal or family history of aneurysms. Pregnant women are advised against practicing Breathwork without first consulting and getting approval from their primary care physician. Persons with asthma should bring their inhaler and consult with their primary care physician.