Matteo Campagna
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Breathing at six breaths a minute has no unwanted effects

1 study

ForContextAgainst2016201820202022202420262017, for2017, context
Each circle is a study: its position gives the year, its row whether it is for, against or context, its size how many participants it measured. Light circles are studies on other populations or without archers.

There is nothing on archers, and the only source is a 2017 narrative review of the effects of slow breathing in healthy adults, which summarises other studies without reporting their data. The authors write that no documented adverse effect of breathing at between six and ten breaths a minute has yet appeared in the literature, and they cite several studies in which mean blood pressure falls during controlled slow breathing, without giving the values. They name the limit themselves: the data come almost entirely from short laboratory sessions and prolonged practice has been little studied. A review that finds no adverse effects described is not a study that went looking for them, so the registry treats the question as unstudied. Finding no adverse effects in sessions lasting a few minutes does not show that there are none over weeks of daily use, or in someone doing it standing up with a bow in hand.

Also phrased as: "slow breathing"; "breathing at six breaths a minute"; "resonance breathing"; "is slow breathing safe"; "dizziness from slow breathing"

In practice

In mental preparation programmes, breathing at six breaths a minute is offered as an exercise anyone can do without risk, before shooting, between ends or in the evening.

Evidence

  • 2017
    For Review Published later

    Narrative review of the physiological effects of slow breathing in healthy adults: according to the authors, no documented adverse effect of breathing at 6 to 10 breaths a minute has yet appeared in the literature. The authors warn that the data come almost entirely from short laboratory sessions and that prolonged practice has been little studied.

    The physiological effects of slow breathing in the healthy human · Marc A. Russo, Danielle M. Santarelli, Dean O'Rourke

  • 2017
    Context Review Published later

    Several studies cited by the review report a significant fall in mean blood pressure during controlled slow breathing; the values are not given.

    The physiological effects of slow breathing in the healthy human · Marc A. Russo, Danielle M. Santarelli, Dean O'Rourke

Status history

  1. 2017 Not studied A narrative review of healthy adults writes that no documented adverse effect of breathing at between six and ten breaths a minute has yet appeared in the literature, and that several studies find mean blood pressure lower during controlled slow breathing, without reporting the values. The same authors warn that the data come almost entirely from short laboratory sessions and that prolonged practice has been little studied. It is a review without the original studies and without a single archer among those measured: the question remains unstudied.

Related

Related articles

Research lines

Cite
APA

Campagna, M. (2026). Breathing at six breaths a minute has no unwanted effects (Version 2). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/health/slow-breathing-unwanted-effects

BibTeX
@misc{campagna2026_respirazionelentasicurezza,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {Breathing at six breaths a minute has no unwanted effects},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/health/slow-breathing-unwanted-effects},
  note = {Version 2; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

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