How Your Body Learns to Breathe Power Into Performance
Things You Didn’t Know Your Body Was Capable Of - Episode 7
There’s a quiet kind of fatigue that’s become normal. You wake up on time, eat well enough, get your eight hours, but yet, somehow, halfway through the day, your energy dips and everything feels just a bit heavier than it should. You chalk it up to stress, age, or maybe poor sleep. But there’s a deeper story unfolding inside your body.
Did you know? Every thought you process, every move you make, every ounce of energy you summon depends on how efficiently your body can deliver oxygen to your cells. It’s the invisible currency of performance, fuelling not only your muscles, but your brain, your focus, your recovery, your mood.
Did you also know? You do not need to rely on caffeine, supplements, or sheer willpower! Enter, EPO: your body’s intelligent adaptation that increases your oxygen-carrying capacity when challenged.
What Happens When You Build This Capability
When your body becomes better at using oxygen, everything changes!
You have more energy — naturally.
You think sharper, longer.
You recover faster from stress, whether physical or emotional.
You build resilience you can feel.
How the EPO Boost Works
To understand the EPO boost, you have to start with a simple truth: your body is obsessed with balance. It’s always scanning for shifts (in temperature, energy, oxygen), and adapting to keep you alive and efficient.
When oxygen levels, for instance, drop, something remarkable happens. Deep in your kidneys, specialised cells act as biological sensors. They detect the reduced oxygen and send out a signal in the form of a hormone called erythropoietin, or EPO (for short).
EPO travels through your bloodstream to the bone marrow, where it gives a clear instruction:
“We need more oxygen carriers.”
Your bone marrow responds by producing more red blood cells, each one, a microscopic delivery truck packed with haemoglobin, the protein that binds oxygen and carries it to your muscles, brain, and organs.
With more red blood cells circulating, your blood becomes richer in oxygen. Every heartbeat now delivers more fuel. Over time, this adaptation increases your VO₂ max (the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use during exercise): a key marker of endurance, vitality, and recovery efficiency.
But that’s just the beginning. The EPO response triggers a cascade of supporting adaptations:
Your capillaries multiply, improving oxygen delivery to tissues.
Your mitochondria (the energy factories inside your cells) become more efficient, producing more energy from each molecule of oxygen.
Your heart and lungs work more economically, delivering the same effort at a lower heart rate.
In essence, your body becomes a better oxygen economy, generating more power with less strain.
How to Train Your Oxygen Engine
Athletes typically supercharge this capability by training at high altitudes, giving them a huge performance boost when they get into competition. You don’t need to live at altitude or train like an Olympian to activate your body’s natural EPO response. What you need is smart, consistent conditioning, the kind that teaches your system to handle lower oxygen levels safely and adaptively.
The goal is simple: create controlled demand, allow recovery, and let your body do what it’s designed to do — adapt.
Aerobic Conditioning: Build the Foundation
Your oxygen system thrives on rhythm and repetition. Consistent, moderate-intensity aerobic work like running, swimming, cycling, brisk walking, forms the base layer for EPO adaptation.
This kind of steady training:
Expands capillary networks, improving oxygen delivery to muscles.
Strengthens the heart, making each beat more efficient.
Improves VO₂ max gradually, without overwhelming your system.
Start simple: 30–45 minutes of sustained activity, three to four times per week, at a pace where you can still speak comfortably.
Intermittent Intensity: Trigger the Adaptation
Once the base is built, you need stress signals: short bouts that tell your body to “upgrade”.
Interval training does exactly that.
Alternate between 60–90 seconds of high effort and 2–3 minutes of active recovery.
Repeat 4–6 times.
As you adapt, shorten recovery or slightly lengthen work intervals.
Each surge temporarily lowers oxygen availability, prompting your kidneys to release EPO. Done consistently, your body learns to recover faster and deliver oxygen more efficiently with each session.
Breathwork: Train the Signal
You can also train your oxygen system without running at all. Breath control exercises such as nasal breathing, breath-hold intervals, or slow exhalations, mimic the mild oxygen deprivation that triggers EPO.
Try this simple protocol:
Breathe in through your nose for 4 seconds.
Hold for 4 seconds.
Exhale slowly through your nose for 6–8 seconds.
Rest and repeat for 2–3 minutes.
Practising breath control helps your body get better at using oxygen and staying calm under pressure. It teaches you to handle higher levels of carbon dioxide (CO₂), which means your body learns to make the most of each breath. It also strengthens your diaphragm, the main muscle that powers your breathing.
Even something as simple as breathing through your nose while walking, stretching, or doing chores adds up over time.
Nutrition & Recovery
EPO-driven adaptation depends on raw materials. To build more red blood cells, your body needs:
Iron (leafy greens, red meat, lentils)
Vitamin B12 and folate (eggs, fish, beans)
Hydration to maintain plasma volume
Sleep, when EPO production peaks naturally
Recovery is where the change sticks. Stress triggers the signal, but rest is when your body integrates the lesson and upgrades its capacity for the next challenge.
The Challenge: Train Your Oxygen Engine
For the next 7 days, take on a simple challenge:
Move daily (15–20 minutes): Choose any low-to-moderate activity you enjoy: a brisk walk, jog, swim, cycle, or even stairs. The goal isn’t intensity; it’s consistency. Move at a pace where you can still breathe through your nose and hold a conversation. This builds the foundation of oxygen efficiency.
Breathe consciously: Once a day, practise slow nasal breathing. Inhale through your nose for 4 seconds. Hold for 4 seconds. Exhale slowly through your nose for 6–8 seconds. Repeat for 3–5 minutes.
Recover completely: End each day by slowing down your breath again before bed. This helps your body switch into recovery mode, where all the adaptation and the magic happens.
At the end of the week, take note of how you feel. Do you recover faster after activity? Do you feel steadier through the day? Has your sleep or focus improved? Then share it with us. Tell the community how your body responded, what you learned, and what surprised you.
You’ll not only inspire someone else, you’ll also prove something powerful to yourself!
Next In The Series
In the next episode, we’re going to explore one of those biological mechanisms that you can feel almost immediately. When you’re done, you can actually experience the difference in performance, focus, or stamina. This immediate feedback makes it one of the most empowering “experiments” you’ll try for yourself, turning science into experience.
Catch you on the next one.
Notifications On-The-Go
We’ve made it even easier to stay connected. For quick reads, performance tips, and updates from the Optimised Humans community while you’re on the move, join our WhatsApp Channel. You’ll get bite-sized insights, reminders, and early access to new articles — all delivered straight to your phone. Follow the link below and stay in the loop, wherever you are.
Remember to turn on notifications for the channel.