QUESTION: When I use the Relaxator, I breathe out through my mouth, but you say we should breathe through our nose.
ANSWER: Indeed, relaxed breathing is in and out through the nose. The mouth is for eating and talking, while the nose is for breathing.
When we do breath training with the Relaxator, however, the exhalation, obviously, goes through the mouth. We should view the Relaxator training as if we are at a training arena and aiming at creating better breathing habits both during the training itself as well as afterward.
The benefit of training with a Relaxator, which provides resistance when exhaling, is really great as it provides breathing that is rhythmic, relaxed, low, slow, and reduced in volume, with increased pressure in the lungs and sinuses and an extended exhalation. We also exercise the breathing muscles, like the diaphragm and the muscles of the neck.
These benefits outweigh the disadvantages of exhaling through the mouth. When we stop exercising with the Relaxator, we step out of the training arena and breathe in and out through the nose again.
In the best of worlds, we would have had the Relaxator in our noses so that we could breathe in and out through the nose even during resistance breathing. But whether or not we would have wanted to wear something like that in our nose is another question…?