Box breathing before a hard session

Also called tactical breathing, box breathing is a slow, even pattern.² You breathe in for four counts, hold for four, breathe out for four, and in most versions hold for four more before the next breath.

At four seconds per side, one full breath takes 16 seconds, which works out to under four breaths a minute. A 2018 review defined slow breathing as anything under 10 breaths a minute, so box breathing sits well inside that range.³

Slow breathing has a large body of research behind it. A 2022 review of 223 studies found that it raised heart rate variability, a marker of the body's calming branch.⁴ The rise showed up during practice, right after one session, and after weeks of practice.

People in the 2018 review also reported feeling more relaxed and more alert, with less anxiety and less anger, after slow breathing.³

Bottom line

Box breathing is slow breathing with holds. Slow breathing reliably shifts your body toward calm.

Box breathing works for stress, but it doesn't beat other simple methods. In a trial that tested it head to head, it did about as well as meditation.

That 2023 trial asked 108 adults to spend 5 minutes a day for a month on one of four practices.² The options were box breathing, two other breathing patterns, and mindfulness meditation. People rated their anxiety and mood before and after each session.

All four practices lowered anxiety and lifted mood on the day. In the box breathing group, anxiety fell by almost 4 points on a 20 to 80 scale after each session.² The pattern built around a long, slow exhale did best for mood over the month.

Box breathing was tested on only 21 people in that trial, so the comparison between breathing styles is thin.² Resting heart rate and heart rate variability didn't change over the month either. The effect showed up in how people felt rather than in their daily numbers.

Bottom line

Box breathing calms you down on the day, about as well as other short practices.

Calm helps when the session rewards control. That covers a technical lift, a race-pace run where you must hold back, or a first attempt at a new skill.

In the 2021 study, 30 people did a fast reaction task under time pressure and loud noise.¹ They used either box breathing or a breath with a long exhale. Box breathing lowered their arousal more, yet they performed better with the long exhale.

Its authors suggest that box breathing suits moments when you're waiting, while a long exhale suits moments when you have to act. Before a hard session you're waiting, so box breathing fits the minutes before you start, and a long exhale fits the rest between efforts.

Bottom line

Use box breathing while you wait to start. Use a long exhale between efforts.

Right before a maximal effort, the evidence points the other way. Getting fired up seems to help strength more than calming down does.

A 2003 review of research on psyching up found that it tended to improve strength and muscular endurance, with deliberate arousal working best.⁵ The authors called the findings tentative, partly because most studies used students rather than trained lifters.

One 2005 study did use trained lifters.⁶ Twenty people with at least a year of lifting pressed harder on a bench press machine after psyching themselves up. Their peak force was about 12 percent higher than after a distraction task.

We found no study of box breathing right before a maximal lift. The safest reading is that calm suits the minutes before you warm up, and arousal suits the seconds before the bar moves.

Bottom line

Calm down before the session. Wind yourself up before the heavy set.

Sit or stand somewhere quiet, and breathe through your nose if you can. Breathe in for four counts, hold for four, breathe out for four, and hold for four.

If four counts feels like a strain, drop to three. The 2023 trial told people to shorten every part of the box whenever they had to strain to reach the count.²

Repeat the box for two minutes, about eight full breaths, then start your usual warm-up. The trial used 5 minutes,² so two minutes is our shortcut rather than a tested dose.

Bottom line

Two minutes of box breathing fits between the locker room and the warm-up.

1. 01

   Box breathing slows you to under four breaths a minute, and slow breathing reliably calms the body.

2. 02

   In a month-long trial, box breathing lowered anxiety about as well as meditation and other breathing patterns.

3. 03

   It suits the minutes before a session that needs control.

4. 04

   Right before a maximal lift or sprint, getting fired up seems to help more than calming down.

5. 05

   Two minutes before your warm-up is enough to try it.