You will see this exercise in the breathing for calm and focus section of the course. A 5:20:10 (inhale:hold:exhale) restricts your breathing to around 2 breath cycles per minute. See the questions below and comment with your answers. I will be posting a follow up to this post. 1. Could this exercise be used as a calming breathing practice? 2. What do you think will happen in terms of arterial oxygenation saturation? Oxygen saturation (SpO2) is a measurement of how much oxygen your blood is carrying as a percentage of the maximum it could carry. It is a reading out of 100%. Normal Sp02 is between 95-98% and can be recorded on a simple pulse oximeter. 3. If one day you find this exercise easy (no stress or air huger) and another day you find it more difficult, what is that a reflection of? 4. This is an exercise I would regularly use at the start of a recovery session with athletes we train (see pic below). Why would I start with this? what am I trying to learn about the state of the athlete with this exercise? FYI - Generally 2 things result in a low Sp02 readings below 95% - An inability of the lungs to inhale and send oxygen to all cells and tissues - An inability of the bloodstream to circulate to the lungs, collect oxygen, and transport it around the body Try performing a 5:20:10 for 2 minutes and see how you feel. Use the breathing pacer. Rip in with some answers or questions