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Train yourself to become a nasal breather

By raphael.fit team · Oct 7, 2026 · 4 min read

Your nose isn't just an air hole. It filters, warms and humidifies what you breathe. Shifting more of your breathing to the nose is reasonable for most people at rest and during easy training. Taping your mouth shut at night is a different story.

What your nose does

Cleveland Clinic pulmonologist Dr. Jason Turowski explains that breathing through your nose is the most beneficial way to breathe. The nose filters and humidifies air, controls its temperature and releases nitric oxide. Long-term mouth breathing is linked to dry mouth and bad breath, and it's often a sign of something else, like congestion, allergies or a deviated septum.

The nitric oxide part is real. The paranasal sinuses produce it, and a review describes its role in the sinuses and airway. In a small exercise study, exhaled nitric oxide was significantly higher when people breathed through the nose, with at least half coming from the nasal airways. The same study found no difference in cardiorespiratory measures during light-to-moderate cycling, though.

Nasal breathing during exercise

Exercise scientists George Dallam and Bethany Kies at Colorado State University Pueblo reviewed 30 published studies. They concluded that nose-only breathing is feasible for most people at moderate aerobic intensity without special adaptation. They also found better ventilatory efficiency and less exercise-induced bronchoconstriction, which matters for people with asthma. For heavy or maximal efforts, they say adapting may take more than six months.

In a small study, 10 recreational runners who had already trained nose-only for a long time showed no loss of VO2max or time to exhaustion when breathing nasally, and they moved less air for the same oxygen. That's only ten people, all self-selected nasal breathers. It shows what's possible, not what everyone will get.

What the evidence doesn't say

• It doesn't make you faster right away. Without adaptation, nose-only breathing limits peak effort. Use it for easy work first.
• Mouth taping isn't proven, and it can be risky. A 2025 systematic review in PLOS One by otolaryngologists in Ontario looked at 10 studies with 213 patients. It found a potentially serious risk of harm when people tape their mouths without guidance, including asphyxiation if the nose is blocked. Only two studies showed improvement. Cleveland Clinic also says there's little scientific evidence that mouth taping works for snoring.
• Snoring or gasping at night isn't a breathing-technique problem. It can be sleep apnea, which needs a proper diagnosis.
• Some people can't breathe well through the nose. That's a medical issue to fix, not a willpower test.

How to practice

1. Check your baseline. Close your mouth for a few minutes at rest. If you can't breathe comfortably, see a doctor or ENT before training it.
2. Start at rest. During work, driving or walking, notice when your mouth is open and close it gently.
3. Use easy cardio. Walk, cycle or jog at a pace you can hold with your mouth closed. Slow down when you need to open it. That's your current ceiling.
4. Progress slowly. Over weeks, the pace you can hold through your nose usually goes up. Hard intervals can still be mouth breathing.
5. Skip the tape. Work on nasal breathing during the day, and bring night symptoms to a professional.

Why this matters for training

Ventilatory efficiency means moving less air for the same amount of oxygen. That's the most consistent finding in the nasal-breathing studies. Nasal breathing also naturally slows your breathing and caps your pace on easy days, which helps keep easy runs, rides and swims easy. Many endurance coaches already use a closed-mouth pace as a rough guide for low-intensity work, and the research suggests that's a reasonable starting point.

For people with exercise-induced asthma, the Dallam and Kies review found that nasal breathing reduced bronchoconstriction during exercise. If you have asthma, keep using your prescribed plan and talk to your doctor before changing how you train.

Common questions

Should I breathe through my nose when lifting?

Heavy lifting often involves bracing and brief breath holds, which is a different skill. Use nasal breathing between sets and during warm-ups, and follow your coach's bracing cues for heavy reps.

My nose always feels blocked. What now?

Cleveland Clinic lists congestion, allergies, enlarged adenoids and a deviated septum as common reasons people breathe through the mouth. These are treatable, so see a doctor rather than forcing it.

The bottom line

Breathing through your nose at rest and during easy training is sensible, low-risk and backed by physiology. Peak performance benefits take long adaptation and aren't proven for everyone. Mouth taping at night is a social media trend with real safety concerns, so leave it out.

This article is for general information and isn't medical advice. Talk to a qualified health professional about your own situation.

Sources

1. Cleveland Clinic: Nose breathing vs. mouth breathing
2. Cleveland Clinic: Mouth breathing
3. Cleveland Clinic: Mouth taping, is it safe?
4. Rhee et al. 2025, PLOS One: mouth taping systematic review
5. Dallam & Kies 2020, J Sports Research: nasal vs oral breathing during exercise (review)
6. Dallam et al., IJKSS: nasal vs oral breathing in adapted runners
7. Yasuda et al. 1997, Jpn J Physiol: exhaled nitric oxide during nasal vs oral breathing
8. Lundberg 2008, Anat Rec: nitric oxide and the paranasal sinuses