Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art

by James Nestor

below this rate but never above it: Two thousand years ago, a Chinese surgeon named Hua Tuo prescribed only moderate exercise to his patients, warning them: “The body needs exercise, only it must not be to the point of exhaustion, for exercise expels the bad air in the system, promotes free circulation of the blood, and prevents sickness.” The most efficient state of exercise where we reap the most benefits, Maffetone found, was around or below 60 percent of maximum capacity. The Cooper Institute, a research foundation that for 50 years has been studying the links between physical activity and chronic disease, has found that exercising at 50 percent leads to massive gains in aerobic fitness, improved blood pressure, prevention of various diseases, and more. Several other studies over the past several decades confirm this. Meanwhile, overexercising above 60 percent, toward that anaerobic zone, has been shown to induce a stress state, increased cortisol, adrenaline, and oxidative stress. Charles M. Tipton, “The History of ‘Exercise Is Medicine’ in Ancient Civilizations,” Advances in Physiology Education, June 2014, 109–17; Helen Thompson, “Walk, Don’t Run,” Texas Monthly, June 1995, https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/walk-dont-run; Douillard, Body, Mind, and Sport, 205; Chris E. Cooper et al., “Exercise, Free Radicals and Oxidative Stress,” Biochemical Society Transactions 30, part 2 (May 2002): 280–85.