This guide shows you step by step how to add your own breathing exercises to Breath Ball.
Basics
A breathing exercise consists of one or more breathing rhythms. Each rhythm is divided into four phases:
- Inhale
- Hold your breath
- Exhale
- Hold your breath
The duration of each phase is given in seconds – for example, in the form 4-7-8-0 or 4:7:8:0. This means:
- Inhale for 4 seconds
- Hold your breath for 7 seconds
- Exhale for 8 seconds
- Hold again for 0 seconds
Breathing exercises can also include smooth transitions between different rhythms as well as pauses. You’ll find more about this in step 4. Add a breath below.
Creating Your Own Breathing Exercise
In this guide, we’ll create the popular 4711 breathing exercise together. Here’s how it works:
1. Open the Exercise Editor
Launch Breath Ball and navigate to the Exercise Editor via the menu. There you can create new breathing exercises or edit existing ones.
2. Create a New Exercise
Tap “Add Exercise” below the list of existing breathing exercises to create a new one.
Tip: You can rearrange the order of exercises via drag and drop.
3. Set a Name for Your Exercise
Give your exercise a name, for example “4-7-11”.
Then tap the plus icon to add a breathing cycle to the exercise.
4. Add a Breath
After tapping the plus icon, a pop-up appears with the following options:
- Add breath:
Creates a simple breathing cycle with four phases: inhale, hold, exhale, hold again. - Add changing Breath:
Enables smooth transitions between two breathing rhythms over multiple cycles. - Add pause:
Inserts a pause – either:
– Ended manually
– Ended automatically after a set duration
For the 4-7-11 exercise, choose “Add breath.”
5. Set the Breathing Rhythm
Now you can configure the breathing cycle.
A breathing cycle consists of four phases, which you can select via the buttons at the top of the pop-up:
- Inhale
- Hold after inhale
- Exhale
- Hold after exhale
Note: If the Pro setting “Breathing starts with exhaling” is enabled, the order of these buttons changes.
For the 4-7-11 breathing exercise, set the following durations:
- Inhale: 4 seconds
- Hold: 0 seconds
- Exhale: 7 seconds
- Hold: 0 seconds
Select each phase and adjust the duration using the scroll wheel.
When everything looks good, tap “Apply.”
6. Set the Duration of the Exercise
By default, the breathing cycle runs only once – which would be just 11 seconds.
To make the exercise last 11 minutes, do the following:
- Tap “How often: 1”.
- In the pop-up, enter 60 repetitions
(60 × 11 seconds = 660 seconds = 11 minutes) - Confirm with “OK”.
7. Exit the Exercise Editor
Done! Tap the back arrow in the upper-left corner to exit the exercise editor.
Note: You can reorder breaths and pauses by dragging and dropping them.
8. Use the New Breathing Exercise
To use your newly created 4711 breathing exercise, open the “Training” screen and select it from the dropdown menu.
