October 02, 2025

#229 How Athletes Boost Recovery by 46% With 5.5 Breaths Per Minute | Adam Ludwin @FivePointFive

1 hour 10 minutes

Think your breathing has little impact on performance?

Adam shows how BioHarmonizing your breath with 5.5-second rhythms, CO2 tolerance, & HRV tracking can improve sleep, reduce stress, & raise endurance.

Meet our guest

Adam is a serial entrepreneur who, after selling Captify Technologies in 2021, became fascinated with the power of breath work. He studied under Patrick McKeown, the world’s #1 functional breath work expert & now lead advisor at FivePointFive, a breath work app built to enhance mental & physical fitness while tracking results in real time.

Thank you to our partners

Outliyr Biohacker’s Peak Performance Shop: get exclusive discounts on cutting-edge health, wellness, & performance gear

Ultimate Health Optimization Deals: a database of of all the current best biohacking deals on technology, supplements, systems and more

Latest Summits, Conferences, Masterclasses, and Health Optimization Events: join me at the top events around the world

FREE Outliyr Nootropics Mini-Course: gain mental clarity, energy, motivation, and focus

Key takeaways

Resonant frequency breath rates around 5.5 seconds in & out optimize nervous system balance & boost HRV

Wearables & apps track markers like HRV & VO2 max, helping you personalize & monitor progress over time

Breath work isn’t one size fits all. Optimal rates & techniques shift based on your health, training, & daily needs

HRV is more than daily changes. Look at trends over time & compare to your own baseline, not others

Specific breath work improves oxygen use & increases VO2 max by up to 8–11% within weeks—huge for athletes

Higher carbon dioxide tolerance trained with nose breathing & breath holds helps your body use oxygen more efficiently

Slower longer exhales & relaxed breathing after exercise speed up recovery by up to 46%—faster performance gains

Breathing through your nose especially in childhood shapes facial & dental structure & boosts immunity

Intentional breathing is the quickest way to shift your nervous system within seconds you reduce stress & regain focus

Functional breath work is research based & used by top athletes. Ignore old myths about breathing being just spiritual

Episode highlights

0:00 Introduction

01:09 Why 5.5 breathing matters

03:10 How to measure breath & nervous system health

13:53 How breath work boosts recovery & performance

17:42 Practical tools for safer, smarter breathing

47:11 Common breathing myths & mistakes

56:13 The FivePointFive platform & future of breath work

Links

Watch it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/8UwPvUohZec

Full episode show notes: outliyr.com/229

Connect with Nick on social media

Instagram

Twitter (X)

YouTube

Easy ways to support

Leave an Apple Podcast review

Suggest a guest

Do you have questions, thoughts, or feedback for us? Let me know in the show notes above and one of us will get back to you!

Be an Outliyr,

Nick

...more

View all episodes

By Nick Urban | Longevity, Biohacking, & Performance

1717 ratings