How to measure the Control Pause correctly

A short definition of the CP is "the time that you can hold your breath until you feel the first impulse to breathe in again". On resumption of breathing you must be able to assume the pattern of breathing you had just before you started to hold your breath.

You will need a stopwatch, a watch, or a clock that has a second hand to count the seconds.

Assume the correct posture, with a straight back. After exhalilng normally, hold your nose with your fingers. Start your stopwatch or look at the second hand of your watch. Hold your breath, until you feel the first need to breathe again. The entire breath-hold must be completely effortless. The duration of this breath-hold is called the "Control Pause". As soon as you feel the first need to breathe again, release your nose and resume breathing. The depth of the first inhalation must be as it was when you started holding your breath.

The most im-portant thing to remember is that the depth of the first breath at the end of a the CP should not be deeper than it was just before you started the breath-hold.

Dr. Buteyko developed the Control Pause as a simple and reliable measure of the level of CO2 level in the lungs. When Dr Buteyko started to develop the Method, there was no need to use the CP as Buteyko had a well equipped laboratory available with instruments to measure CO2 .However, when his laboratory was destroyed, he had to find a new simple way of measuring CO2. So he developed the concept of the CP.

Possible mistakes

• You continue to hold your breath, with some effort, beyond the point where you feel the first urge to breathe. In this event your breath-hold will be longer than your true CP.
• You measure your CP immediately after doing Buteyko Breathing Exercises. This is likely to lead to your measuring a shorter breath-hold than your true CP, because right after doing exercises you experience a slight air-shortage. You should therefore wait three to five minutes after doing Buteyko Breathing Exercises before taking your CP.
• You alter your breathing in any way (including doing Buteyko Breathing Exercises) before measuring your CP. This will result in a false reading. You should measure your CP under "standard conditions. This means that you should measure your CP when you are breathing normally without paying any particular attention to how you are breathing.
• You measure your CP too soon after doing physical exercise. This is likely to produce an inaccurate low measurement. After physical exercise, it is particularly important to wait until normal breathing is restored (around 10-15 minutes) before you measure your CP.