title: Breathing practice description: Box, belly, and Coherent 5.5 — choose a pattern, follow the orb.

Breathing practice

Breathing is the third rhythm — slow, deliberate, no chasing. The breathing view replaces the metronome's click with a pulsing orb that expands on inhale and contracts on exhale, paced by the pattern you've chosen.

There's no "BPM" in the traditional sense — the rhythm is encoded as phase durations (4 seconds in, 4 hold, 4 out, 4 hold for box breathing). The engine treats this as a guided-cue block.

The four built-in patterns

1. Box (4-4-4-4)

   4 in, 4 hold, 4 out, 4 hold. The classic Navy SEALs / first-responder pattern. Default 5 minutes. Use for: stress reset, focus, sleep onset.

2. Coherent 5.5 (5.5-5.5)

   5.5 in, 5.5 out, no holds. ~5.5 breaths per minute is the heart-rate-variability optimum for most adults (HeartMath research). Default 7 minutes. Use for: parasympathetic activation, vagal tone.

3. Belly (4-6)

   4 in, 6 out — extended exhale shifts the autonomic balance toward parasympathetic. Default 5 minutes. Use for: anxiety, downshifting before bed.

4. Physiological sigh (double inhale + long exhale)

   Two short inhales through the nose, one long exhale through the mouth. Less rhythmic; the coach calls each phase. Use for: immediate stress drop (2–3 cycles is enough).

Picking a pattern

| Goal | Pattern | Duration | | ------------------------------- | -------------------- | --------- | | Stress reset before a hard task | Box | 3–5 min | | Wind-down after exercise | Belly | 5 min | | HRV / vagal training | Coherent 5.5 | 7–10 min | | Pre-sleep | Belly or Box | 5–10 min | | Acute panic / anxiety spike | Physiological sigh | 30 s | | Performance prime (pre-set) | Box, short | 1–2 min |

The orb

The orb visualization is what makes this not feel like a chore.

• Inhale — orb expands, color brightens toward the brand orange.
• Hold — orb stays steady, slight pulse around the edge.
• Exhale — orb contracts, color cools.
• Pause — small steady ring, no movement.

There's no number countdown for each phase. The orb is the information — you breathe with it, you don't think about it.

Customizing breath length

For any of the patterns you can override the per-phase durations.

1. Library → Breathing → tap any pattern → Customize

   Or in a workout, edit the breathing block.

2. Set the four phase durations

   Inhale, hold-in, exhale, hold-out (any can be 0 to skip). Typical ranges: 3–8 seconds per phase.

3. Set the total duration

   The block runs the pattern repeatedly until the duration is up. RhythmFit picks the nearest whole number of cycles so the block ends on an exhale.

Adding breathing to a larger workout

Breathing blocks compose with everything else. A common pattern:

• 3-min Coherent 5.5 (Phase: cooldown, BPM low) — opens the session.
• 25 min of work (HIIT, strength, whatever).
• 5-min Box breathing (Phase: cooldown) — closes the session, primes recovery.

The breath block doesn't need a special phase — cool-down is the usual choice for the closer, warm-up for the opener. Any block with guided breath phases renders the orb instead of the metronome.

On the Apple Watch Watch

Breathing blocks on the watch use a different visualization — a slowly expanding ring overlaying the wrist. The phone (if connected) keeps the orb on its screen for table or floor use.

The watch's haptic engine plays a single tap at the start of each inhale. Surprisingly grounding for eyes-closed sessions.