How To Breathe Like A Yogi - Dylan Werner | Modern Wisdom Podcast 282

Dylan Werner is a yoga teacher and an author. Breathing is one of the few ways we can directly interact with how our physiology is operating, and yet no one ever taught us how to do it. Dylan Werner is one of the world's best known yoga teachers and today he gives us a breakdown of not only how the breath can impact our mood and performance but also explains the biology of how our breathing works, how you can implement breathwork into your daily routine, plus he guides us through an entire breathwork sequence at the end of the episode. Sponsors: Get 83% discount & 3 months free from Surfshark VPN at https://surfshark.deals/MODERNWISDOM (use code MODERNWISDOM) Extra Stuff: Buy The Illuminated Breath - https://amzn.to/2N9aNu2 Follow Dylan on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/dylanwerneryoga Check out Dylan's Website - https://www.dylanwerneryoga.com Get my free Ultimate Life Hacks List to 10x your daily productivity → https://chriswillx.com/lifehacks/ To support me on Patreon (thank you): https://www.patreon.com/modernwisdom - Listen to all episodes online. Search "Modern Wisdom" on any Podcast App or click here: iTunes: https://apple.co/2MNqIgw Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2LSimPn Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/modern-wisdom - Get in touch in the comments below or head to... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx Email: modernwisdompodcast@gmail.com

Dylan WernerguestChris Williamsonhost

Feb 12, 20211h 31mWatch on YouTube ↗

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

Yogi Breathing Mastery: Using Breath To Transform Body, Mind, Performance

Dylan Werner and Chris Williamson explore yoga as a complete life philosophy rather than just physical postures, emphasizing its role in discovering personal truth and presence. Dylan explains how breath (pranayama) links physiology, emotion, and energy, arguing that conscious breathing can influence performance, mood, and nervous-system balance. They dive into the science of CO₂, oxygen, and the Bohr effect, showing why most people over-breathe and how nasal, slower, and less frequent breathing improves health and athletic capacity. The conversation concludes with practical breath drills, a reframing of stress and the sympathetic nervous system as useful tools, and Dylan’s aim in his book “The Illuminated Breath” to demystify ancient yogic ideas with modern science.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Treat yoga as a way of living, not just stretching.

Werner frames yoga as a comprehensive philosophy—how you think, relate, and breathe—aimed at returning to the truth that you are already whole, rather than just a fitness class of poses.

Breathe less and through your nose to improve health and performance.

Nasal breathing filters, humidifies, and naturally restricts airflow, raising CO₂ tolerance, improving oxygen offloading to tissues, and reducing chronic sympathetic overactivation compared to mouth-breathing.

Understand CO₂ as your ally, not just a waste gas.

Most people assume breathing more equals more oxygen; Dylan explains that hyperventilation mostly blows off CO₂, alters blood pH, tightens the oxygen–hemoglobin bond, and can actually reduce oxygen delivery to muscles and brain.

Use breath intentionally to steer your nervous system for the task at hand.

Fast, forceful breathing (e.g., Bhastrika, Wim Hof–style) can energize and engage the sympathetic system, while slower, lighter patterns or box breathing can balance or calm you; the breath itself doesn’t “fix” life but is a powerful situational tool.

Train respiratory strength and CO₂ tolerance like any other fitness quality.

Targeted practices—breath holds, nasal-only training, and drills like Kapalabhati, Bhastrika, and Agni Sara—build diaphragm strength, lung capacity, red-blood-cell production, and the ability to stay composed under “air hunger,” boosting athletic output.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

How you do one thing is how you do everything. Well, how do you breathe?

— Dylan Werner

Yoga’s not about trying to be happy or be fit... it’s returning back to the truth. And the truth is that we are whole.

— Dylan Werner

Essentially, you can control almost every aspect of your life by learning how to control the breath.

— Dylan Werner

The breath is a tool. It’s not a cure-all.

— Dylan Werner

We’re guaranteed only two breaths in this life, our first and our last. We can waste every breath merely existing, or we can use every breath to create meaning.

— Dylan Werner (reading from his book "The Illuminated Breath")

Yoga as a philosophy of life beyond physical postures (asana)Presence, mindfulness, and the search for personal “fundamental truth”Physiology of breathing: CO₂ tolerance, oxygen delivery, Bohr effectNasal breathing, over-breathing, and athletic performanceBreath as a tool for nervous-system regulation (sympathetic/parasympathetic, polyvagal theory)Yogic energy models (gunas, nadis, vayus, bandhas) and their Western parallelsPractical breathwork protocols for performance, calm, and daily life

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