Most people have taken roughly 20,000 breaths today. how 3D breathing lifts oxygen delivery and breathing efficiency.

The Problem: You’re Only Using Part of Your Lungs

Watch someone breathe under stress, or just watch yourself in a mirror, and you’ll likely see the same pattern: shoulders rising, chest puffing forward, belly locked tight. This is vertical breathing, and it’s the default mode for a large proportion of adults and athletes alike. It’s not dangerous in small doses, but as a chronic pattern it means you’re recruiting the upper third of your lungs while the lower two-thirds, where the greatest concentration of oxygen-absorbing alveoli sits, barely gets involved. You’re essentially running a V8 engine on three cylinders.

For athletes, this matters even more. Upper-chest breathing activates the accessory respiratory muscles, the scalenes, sternocleidomastoid, upper trapezius, which fatigue quickly and contribute to neck tension, poor posture, and a chronically elevated breathing rate. A higher breathing rate means more CO2 is expelled than necessary, which, counterintuitively, reduces oxygen delivery to working muscles via the Bohr effect.

The Mechanism: What 3D Breathing Actually Means

Three-dimensional breathing refers to the full, three-plane expansion of the ribcage and trunk on each inhale: forward (anterior), sideways (lateral), and backwards (posterior). The diaphragm, a dome-shaped muscle sitting beneath the lungs, is the engine of this movement. When it contracts properly, it descends and flattens, creating negative pressure that draws air deep into the lungs while simultaneously expanding the lower ribcage in all directions.

This matters physiologically for several reasons. First, the lower lobes of the lungs are richly supplied with parasympathetic nerve endings; activating them with a full diaphragmatic breath sends a direct signal to the nervous system to downregulate arousal. Second, diaphragmatic movement massages the vagus nerve, which runs alongside it, further supporting heart rate variability (HRV) and recovery. Third, full 3D expansion of the thorax creates intra-abdominal pressure that stabilises the lumbar spine, a fact that has significant implications for athletes managing load.

Nasal breathing amplifies this further. The nasal passages produce nitric oxide, a vasodilator that improves blood flow and oxygen uptake in the lungs. Breathing nasally also slows the breath naturally, giving the diaphragm time to complete its full range of motion, something rapid mouth breathing cuts short.

The Atemstark Approach: Evidence Over Aesthetics

At Atemstark, we use the BOLT score (Body Oxygen Level Test) as a baseline measure of breathing efficiency, not as a number to feel good or bad about. A low BOLT score typically correlates with a higher resting breathing rate and greater CO2 sensitivity, meaning the body is triggering the urge to breathe before it genuinely needs to. Training 3D breathing mechanics is one of the most direct ways to improve BOLT score over time, because it reduces the volume of air needed per breath while improving gas exchange efficiency.

The Oxygen Advantage framework, developed by Patrick McKeown and underpinned by decades of respiratory physiology research, places diaphragmatic, nasal, 3D breathing at the foundation of all other breathing work. You cannot meaningfully train breath holds, cadence breathing, or CO2 tolerance if your basic mechanics are dysfunctional. It’s the equivalent of trying to build strength on a joint that doesn’t move correctly.

We work with both general clients and athletes using the same principle: fix the foundation first. For general clients, this often means addressing chronic upper-chest breathing patterns that have been running on autopilot for years. For athletes, it means integrating 3D breathing into warm-up, cool-down, and active recovery, and eventually into movement itself.

The Practical: One Thing You Can Do Today

Sit upright in a chair with your feet flat on the floor. Place one hand on your sternum and one on the side of your lower ribcage. Take a slow nasal inhale and consciously direct the breath so that your side hand moves outward, laterally, while your chest hand stays relatively still. Hold briefly at the top, then exhale slowly through the nose.

Do this for ten breaths. You’re not trying to force a massive breath; you’re retraining the direction of expansion. Notice whether your lower back also expands slightly on the inhale, that posterior expansion is the part most people never feel. If you can find all three planes of movement in a single breath, you’ve just done 3D breathing.

Ready to Train Your Breathing?

The 3D breath check above is a starting point. If you want to take it further, improving your BOLT score, training CO2 tolerance, or integrating functional breathing into sport and recovery, that’s exactly what Atemstark is built for. Book a free introductory call or start with the Atemstark app to find out where your breathing is today.

Related reading

• Nasal Breathing for Better Performance | Science & Practical Drill
• CO2 Tolerance – Why Air Hunger is the Key to Better Breathing
• The BOLT Test: Measuring Your Breathing Efficiency