Heart rate control

How it works

The heart has its own pacemaker. You cannot order it directly. The autonomic nervous system sets its speed. The sympathetic branch speeds it up. The vagus nerve slows it down⁵.

Breathing is the way in. Breathing is under your control, and it is wired to the heart. The heart speeds up slightly as you breathe in and slows as you breathe out⁵. Slow, deep breathing with a long exhale increases vagus activity and brings the rate down. Fast breathing and mental effort push it up. Most people can shift their resting rate by several beats per minute within two minutes using breath alone.

Biofeedback goes further. A monitor shows your heart rate in real time. With practice, people learn to move the number in the direction they want, without being able to say how¹.

The Valsalva manoeuvre is a stronger tool. You bear down against a closed airway, as if straining. Pressure in the chest rises, and when you release, the vagus nerve fires and the heart slows. Doctors use it to stop some fast heart rhythms, with a success rate of between 16% and 46%².

Try it

1. Sit down. Find your pulse at the wrist. Count the beats for 30 seconds and double the number.
2. Breathe in through your nose for four seconds. Breathe out slowly through your mouth for six seconds. Repeat for two minutes.
3. Count your pulse again. Most people see a drop of a few beats per minute.

Do not use the Valsalva manoeuvre to treat a racing heart on your own. If your heart races for no reason, see a doctor.

History and culture

Yogis have claimed control of the heart for centuries. In 1970 Swami Rama, under monitoring at the Menninger Foundation in the United States, changed his heart rhythm on command⁴. In 2014 a study led by Matthijs Kox tested people trained in the Wim Hof method of breathing and cold exposure. The trained group raised their adrenaline at will and showed a smaller immune response to an injected toxin than untrained controls³.