What if I told you that, in order to relieve stress through something as simple as your breathing, all you have to do is make yourself look pregnant? Yeah, you heard me: I'm not talking about literal pregnancy, though, so don't freak out just yet.

For something so basic, we sure do get it wrong sometimes. "Breathing is the most important thing we do, but the thing we pay the least amount of attention to," says Belisa Vranich, a clinical psychologist and the author of Breathe.

As founder of The Breathing Class™, Dr. Belisa has taught and lectured nationwide on topics related to dysfunctional breathing patterns and stress. Unique in its straightforward approach, The Breathing Class™ addresses both physical and psychological problems related to oxygenation that is out of balance, and teaching people to breathe in an anatomically congruous way that maximizes balanced inhales and exhales.

Are you doing anything right now? Of course you’re not—you’re reading wellness articles on the Internet. Why don’t you take a moment out of your rigorous afternoon of self-improvement and indulge in a long, deep breath? Inhale for six whole seconds, expel that air, and record, very specifically, what your body is doing while this is happening.

Now we do it up to 20 times a minute, around 30,000 a day... so you would assume that we would be experts at it by now... but think again - according to Dr Belisa Vranich, breathing is something we could all improve on. The correct breathing by an athlete can give the 0.1% increase in performance; the possible difference between gold and silver.

Mike Parry and Ray Parlour debate the top sporting issues, including Manchester United's difficulties under Jose Mourinho, shocking penalty misses, Gordon Taylor's huge wage packet and much, much more. 

Take a deep breath, because we’re about to introduce you to an early contender for 2018’s most out-there fitness trend: The Breathing Class. Currently sweeping across the US, classes in how to breathe right are inevitably on their way to the UK soon.

Breathing better isn't just for yoga any more, with top gyms across the US adding classes all about your breathe to their rosters. Slowing down and controlling breathing has long been accepted as one of the best ways to lower the heart rate and keep us calm.