How to improve your climbing using breathwork

Do you ever find yourself literally out of breath while climbing? Despite knowing the rest it’s easy, do you often start feeling nervous on the climb once you’ve passed the crux? Are you tired of falling before hitting the top of your bouldering project?

Then keep on reading – this guide is for you. Avoid the following mistakes every beginner makes, and learn how to climb harder through breathwork.

What makes breathing important in sports, particularly in climbing

Breathing is easy peasy – at least this is what everybody thinks. After all, we all do it about 20,000 times a day without having to follow special instructions.

It turns out that the way we breathe directly impacts our health AND sports performance. Moreover, when we are introduced to a new sport such as climbing, breathing techniques can be key to managing emotions, fueling the muscles, and improving our climbing.

Breathing exercise and benefits on climbing performance

Physical exercise and body fitness are important for health and are key to performance in sports. But they are not everything. A very important role in climbing performance is played by breakwork exercises.

Through regular practice such as intentional breathing, yoga, and pranayama you optimise not only your physical performance but also your resilience.

1. Breathwork for better climbing endurance and bouldering explosive power

Breathwork exercises increase lung capacity thus enabling climbers to sustain effort for longer periods. Improved ​​oxygen efficiency helps delay muscle fatigue, especially during prolonged climbs or challenging routes.

2. Breathwork to improve your focus and mind control

Climbing demands precise decision-making and problem-solving. Breathing exercises promote mindfulness and calm the mind, improving focus and reducing distractions or overthinking, particularly in high-stress situations like lead climbing or tackling difficult boulder problems.

3. Breathwork to reduce anxiety and for better fear management

Stress during climbing can be triggered by many factors such as fear of falling, failing, or simple exposure to heights. Knowing you know what to do in critical moments can help feel confident and keep it together during climbs.

Breathing exercises help you regulate the nervous system in those moments by activating the parasympathetic response, lowering heart rate, and managing stress.

4. It helps move more efficiently synchronise

When you breathe consciously you reduce unnecessary muscle tension therefore you can synchronise breathing with movement on the wall.

As a result, improving your breathwork will help you have better control during dynamic or technical sequences, and it’ll improve your balance on the wall.

How to incorporate breathing into your climbing routine

As with many things in life, this one is easier said than done. When you’re a beginner it’s common to feel a surge of nerves after you’ve passed the crux, get all emotional about it, and sometimes even fall just before reaching the top of your bouldering project.

But did you know you can avoid all of the above?

Avoid these beginner’s mistakes and learn how to use your breath to manage emotions while climbing and keep fueling your muscles with oxygen.

Here are three ways to incorporate breathing into your climbing routine.

1. Intentional breathing makes climbing better

Spice up your training sessions by introducing one day a week where you practise intentional breathing. Start by climbing on easier bouldering routes so you can focus 100% on your breathing.

When you feel ready, move on to harder routes. And remember: when it gets hard, find a comfortable rest position and breathe.

Did you know you could climb harder by simply breathing better?

Check out these simple tips and tricks by Louis Parkinson:

2. Through yoga, comes breathing

Yoga is a mix of breathwork, movement, and meditation. Long story short, depending on the practice, yoga consists of holding several postures for some time and taking deep full breaths while doing so. Among others, the purpose is to learn how to stay in discomfort.

Because you can practice discomfort in the comfort of your own home, yoga can serve as a great tool to improve your climbing through breathwork.

Moreover, by incorporating yoga into your daily routine you teach your body to breathe automatically when muscles are contracted.

Not only beneficial for breathwork, the practice of yoga also comes with more flexibility, balance, and peace of mind as a bonus.

Here is a short session, great for both body and mind:

3. Integrate breathing into warm-up and pre-climb rituals

Extremely useful especially for those who don’t have the time available to do the first two. Warming up before climbing decreases the risk of injury and pre-climb rituals serve as a mood setter.

By integrating breathing while you’re at it you accomplish two goals at once: you prepare both your body and your mind for bouldering.

Here are four breathing techniques to improve your climbing:

Do you want to climb harder? Here are 3 top breathing techniques

Box breathing

The box breathing technique is a therapy tool used to improve focus, reduce stress, and increase performance.

It’s plain to see how powerful this can be when applied to climbing – a sport that often does get the best of us. 😂

This technique follows a simple rhythm: 4 seconds inhale, 4 seconds hold, 4 seconds exhale, 4 seconds hold

How to use box breathing while climbing (6 easy steps)

1. Pick a familiar route — Choose a climb you feel confident on so you can focus on your breath, not just the moves.
2. Find a rest position — Stop at a stance where you can comfortably pause and breathe.
3. Inhale deeply through your nose — Breathe from belly to chest for 4 seconds.
4. Hold your breath — Relax into the stillness for 4 seconds.
5. Exhale slowly through your mouth — Let the breath (and tension) go for 4 seconds.
6. Pause again for 4 seconds — Settle into that calm before starting your next inhale.

Repeat this cycle 5 times, or as many as you need. Use it before you start the climb, during a rest, or after a tough move to reset.

Yoga Pranayama

Pranayama helps the mind and body connect and improves proprioception. This heightened awareness allows climbers to move with precision and maintain better balance on the climbing wall.

Regular practice can influence your lung capacity for the better and thus acts as a support for endurance and performance during climbs.

Here is a Climbing Tech Tips video that combines Pranayama breathing techniques with stretching and can also serve as a climbing pre-ritual or warm-up.

Cardio

Years ago, when I started running I did not necessarily realise the positive impact cardio has on climbing.

However, one year ago, after injuring my hamstring and not being able to run for several months I slowly started to feel the lack of cardio not only in my overall fitness but also in my climbing performance.

Running not only boosts your aerobic capacity (fast recovery) and climbing endurance but also offers three key psychological benefits:

• It improves mental health
• It decreases anxiety and stress
• To some, it could be as effective as psychotherapy

To run or not to run

Now, I am not saying you should start running to improve your climbing – cause maybe you hate it, just like I did for so many years. 😂

Here are some exercises you can do as an alternative to raise your heart rate and improve your overall body fitness:

• Stationary bike for 30-35 minutes with intervals
• Incline walks on the treadmill for 30 minutes at 3mph 10-12%. Want to make it harder? Add a weight vest
• Tennis court or badminton
• Cross-country skiing and backcountry skiing
• Fast-paced Yoga such as Ashtanga
• Speed climbing
• HIIT workouts

If you do decide to include running to improve your cardio for climbing, check out this detailed video and find out how climbers should introduce running in their training.

Ultimately, how does breathwork practice improve your climbing?

Breathwork practices are like the secret weapon of bouldering – you can’t see them, but they have a massive impact on your climbing performance.

Breathwork makes it simple and effective to stay calm in the chaos, recover while climbing, power through the crux, and improve your climbing rhythm.

After all, climbing is not just about physical performance – it’s also about staying in control, managing difficult situations, and finding the flow.

Whether you’re practising through yoga, or trying techniques like box breathing in easy routes, an intentional focus on breathing can make a noticeable difference.

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