High-ventilation breathwork

High-ventilation breathwork is an umbrella term for practices that deliberately increase breathing rate, depth, or both enough to lower blood CO₂. Typical effects are tingling, light-headedness, muscle cramping and emotional or altered states. How strong they are depends on intensity, duration, health status and facilitation.

Examples include Holotropic Breathwork, the Wim Hof Method breathing rounds and many connected-breathing formats. Most of the bodily effects come from the drop in CO₂. It is not recommended with conditions such as epilepsy, heart disease, pregnancy or certain mental-health conditions without medical advice.