Simon Borg-Olivier – Breath Control Foundations

Breath Control Foundations

Master the fundamentals of pranayama to enhance energy, calm the mind, and improve overall health. Learn how to breathe efficiently for strength, mobility, and longevity.

What You’ll Learn In Breath Control Foundations

• Reconnect with natural breathing – the foundation of all breathwork and pranayama—so your breath becomes effortless, quiet, and deeply nourishing.
• Master five essential breath control techniques that train your body to optimize oxygen intake, improve lung function, and enhance relaxation.
• Develop a structured step-by-step approach to breathwork, gradually advancing at your own pace for long-term progress.
• Learn how to balance your nervous system through controlled inhalation, exhalation, and breath retention techniques.
• Experience how breath control can support meditation, energy levels, and mental clarity, leading to a calmer and more focused mind.

This is not just another breathwork course—it’s the missing link that prepares you for true pranayama and breath mastery.

Why This Course Works

The Common Problem:

Many people struggle with breathwork and pranayama because they lack a proper foundation. They jump into advanced techniques—only to find they can’t progress, feel lightheaded, or get stuck in patterns of shallow or inefficient breathing. Without mastering the basics of controlled inhalation, exhalation, and breath retention, advanced breathwork becomes ineffective and even counterproductive.

The Solution:

This course teaches you the essential building blocks of effective breath control. By focusing on simple yet powerful breathing exercises, you’ll train your diaphragm, improve oxygen absorption, and build CO₂ tolerance—allowing you to breathe more efficiently and unlock the true benefits of pranayama.

You’ll Learn How To:

• Re-establish natural breathing and correct dysfunctional patterns.
• Train your inhale, exhale, and breath retention to increase lung capacity.
• Improve oxygen delivery to your cells for more energy and endurance.
• Use breathwork to calm the nervous system and reduce stress & anxiety.
• Enhance digestion, circulation, and mental clarity through controlled breathing.
• Develop the ability to slow your breath to one breath per minute, a key milestone in advanced pranayama.

Why This Simple Breath Control Approach Works

Most breathwork and pranayama practices skip the most important step—building a proper foundation. Many people unknowingly breathe in ways that create tension and reduce oxygen flow, such as:

• Chest breathing instead of using the diaphragm.
• Over-breathing (hyperventilation), which overstimulates the nervous system.
• Locking the core and restricting the diaphragm, common in many modern yoga and fitness practices.

These habits may offer a temporary “high” or increase flexibility, but they often lead to lower energy, anxiety, and poor oxygen delivery to the cells.

In contrast, Simon’s method teaches you how to use your breath to generate real, sustainable energy. By focusing on diaphragmatic breathing and carbon dioxide retention, this approach allows your body to:

• Expand blood vessels (vasodilation) to bring more oxygen to the brain and heart.
• Open bronchial tubes (bronchodilation) to increase lung efficiency.
• Increase oxygen uptake into your cells, giving you up to 18x more energy.
• Calm the nervous system to reduce stress and anxiety.
• Improve digestion, circulation, and immune function.
• Naturally reduce food cravings and even help people quit smoking.

When you can slow your breathing down to one breath per minute, your body enters a deeply energized, meditative state. This course will teach you how to do that, step by step.

Who Is This Course For

This course is designed for anyone looking to build a strong foundation in breath control—whether you’re new to breathwork or struggling to progress in your pranayama practice. Instead of focusing on advanced or complex techniques, this course breaks breathing down to its essential elements, helping you retrain your breath for greater energy, calmness, and control.

It’s ideal for:

• Anyone who feels stuck in their pranayama practice and needs to refine the basics before progressing to more advanced techniques.
• People looking to improve their breath retention (holding time) in a safe, structured way.
• Yoga practitioners, fitness enhtusiasts, martial artist, dancers, and athletes who want to optimize their breathing for better performance, flexibility, and endurance.
• Anyone struggling with low energy, anxiety, poor digestion, or irregular breathing patterns who wants to restore balance through natural breath control.
• Beginners to advanced practitioners seeking a step-by-step approach to breathing, focusing on inhalation, retention, exhalation, and breath suspension.

About Simon Borg-Olivier

Simon Borg-Olivier, MScBAppSc (Physiotherapy) APAM c-IAYT, has been practising traditional forms of posture, movement, breathing, and mental control for 50 years. He has been teaching for 38 years and has been a registered physiotherapist for 23 years.

Simon also works as a research scientist and a University lecturer. He has been regularly invited to teach about lifestyle, posture, movement, breathing and meditation at conferences, festivals and intensive teacher training courses internationally since 1990.

He is also co-director of YogaSynergy, one of Australia’s oldest and most respected yoga schools, which has a style based on a deep understanding of modern medical science and traditional forms of exercise and therapy from all over the world.

Simon has studied with great traditional masters from Tibet, Japan, India and China. Along with his business partner and fellow physiotherapist, Bianca Machliss, Simon has co-authored many books and scientific articles including ‘Applied Anatomy and Physiology of Yoga’, which is the textbook for two undergraduate and postgraduate courses they teach at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia.

Currently, Simon conducts intensive training courses in India, Bali, Europe and Australia. He also teaches many online courses on the applications of posture, movement and breathing and mental control, for fitness, internal health, wellbeing and longevity.

Whether a novice, advanced practitioner or long-time teacher, you will benefit greatly from this online course.

More courses from the same author: Simon Borg-Olivier