{"id":1228,"date":"2026-09-06T09:11:42","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T09:11:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yoga-vs-qigong.com\/blog\/yoga-at-altitude\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T18:02:33","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T18:02:33","slug":"yoga-at-altitude","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yoga-vs-qigong.com\/en\/blog\/yoga-at-altitude\/","title":{"rendered":"Breathing at Altitude: My Second Article for Yoga Journal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Qigong
Qigong at sunrise on a mountain ridge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My second piece for Yoga Journal is out, and this time it\u2019s about the mountains. More precisely, it\u2019s about something anyone who has packed a mat for a hiking trip knows well. Down at home your sequence flows, your body remembers every pose, and then up high, by the third round, your breath falls apart and you can\u2019t get enough air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was also pleased that the editors chose my own photo for the piece: a sunrise practice on a mountain ridge. A real photo always beats a stock image.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main ideas<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The first thing worth correcting is the familiar line \u201cthere\u2019s less oxygen in the mountains.\u201d Its share of the air is the same as at sea level, about 21%. What drops is the pressure, and with it the force that pushes oxygen from your lungs into your blood. So the task isn\u2019t to breathe in more air, but to make sure your blood actually releases oxygen to the tissues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The natural reaction to feeling short of breath is to breathe faster and deeper. Your body does this on its own, but overdoing it flushes carbon dioxide out of the blood. Without enough CO2, hemoglobin holds on to oxygen more tightly and delivers less of it to muscles and brain. That\u2019s the Bohr effect. Hence the paradox: the harder you breathe, the more breathless you feel, and dizziness and tingling fingers join in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s some simple arithmetic here, too. Part of every inhale stays in the trachea and bronchi and never reaches the alveoli; this is the so-called dead space. That\u2019s why slow, deep breathing moves more air through gas exchange than fast, shallow breathing, even when the total volume per minute is the same. Yogis settled on this pattern long before physiologists could do the math.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What helps at altitude: a long exhale, roughly twice as long as the inhale, at about six breaths per minute. Nadi shodhana, because it slows the breath and keeps it in the nose, which warms and humidifies the cold, dry air. Ujjayi is fine at rest, but while moving or climbing it adds unnecessary resistance. Kapalabhati, bhastrika, and long holds after the exhale are best saved for when you\u2019re back down, at least during the first days of acclimatization: they amplify exactly what your body is already struggling with. In your asana practice, slow the pace and cut back on vinyasas, skip inversions if you have a headache, and drink more than you feel like drinking. Ten minutes of calm breathing with a long exhale before bed also helps on those nights when your breath keeps stopping and speeding up in your sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there\u2019s a line I draw firmly in the article. Pranayama doesn\u2019t replace acclimatization and doesn\u2019t treat altitude sickness. If a headache keeps getting worse, or you notice nausea, unsteadiness, or confusion, go down right away. No debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a physicist, one thing here delights me. Neither the yogis in the Himalayan foothills nor the Taoists on Mount Wudang knew about the Bohr effect or dead space, yet they found exactly the breathing pattern that works best in the mountains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the full article (in Russian): Yoga at Altitude: Why What Works on the Mat Stops Working in the Mountains<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The basic breathing techniques, with video, are covered on the Pranayama<\/a> page. If you\u2019re curious who I am and where this approach to practice comes from, see the About the Author<\/a> page. And for a detailed look at breathing principles and techniques, there\u2019s my book \u201cYoga vs Qigong: Basic Techniques\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My second piece for Yoga Journal is out, and this time it\u2019s about the mountains. More precisely, it\u2019s about something anyone who has packed a mat for a hiking trip knows well. Down at home your sequence flows, your body remembers every pose, and then up high, by the third round, your breath falls apart […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-notes"],"yoast_head":"\nBreathing at Altitude: Pranayama in the Mountains<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"My second Yoga Journal article: why breathing falls apart at altitude, which pranayama helps in the mountains, what to skip, and what practice can\u2019t replace.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" 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