If you’re anything like me, the last week of December is an interesting one. Reflections on the past year eventually give way to what’s in store in 2026– and maybe that feels intimidating, exciting, flat out ridiculous, or… all of the above 😀
So, what’s your strategy? If it’s the same exact plan as it was this past year, what did you actually learn? Even worse, what if you’re training the wrong thing?
Many mountain athletes spend a vast majority of their time training their hardware (muscular strength and power, heart (cardio)) but very little time training their software (respiratory efficiency, nervous system, mental resilience).
Basically, they build a Ferrari engine (high VO₂ max, powerful legs) but leave the restrictor plate on the air intake.
If you head into 2026 without careful examination of your training and a fresh assessment of where you are, you aren’t “grinding”; you’re spinning your wheels.
Enter: the case for the Recal Breath Assessment.
The “Fitness Paradox”: Why Fit People Still Fail
We’ve talked about this a few times in past posts. Let’s revisit.
Endurance athletes have an obsession with data.
You know your resting heart rate, your lactate threshold, HR zones, HRV, FTP (functional threshold power), sleep score, caloric intake, VO₂ max, CTL and ATL in TrainingPeaks, FVC (forced vital capacity in a spirometry test), TLC (total lung capacity), and many more (phew).
Yet, when I ask an athlete, “What’s your CO₂ tolerance?” I get blank stares.
This is the Fitness Paradox. We have incredibly fit athletes who still gasp for air on a flight of stairs. We have sub-3 hour marathoners who can’t catch their breath at high altitude. We have climbers who “bonk” not because they ran out of sugar, but because their respiratory muscles fatigued, stealing blood flow from their legs (a phenomenon called the respiratory metaboreflex).
You can’t manage what you don’t measure — and we know how much we love our measurements.
If you don’t have a baseline for your breathing mechanics and biochemistry, you are training blind. You are adding horsepower to a car with a flat tire.
The Hidden Limiter
Your respiratory system is the gateway to performance. It dictates:
- Oxygen Delivery: Getting O₂ from the air into your blood.
- Oxygen Utilization: Getting O₂ from your blood into your muscles (The Bohr Effect).
- Nervous System State: Keeping you calm and efficient under stress.
If any of these are misaligned, your elaborate training plan is compromised. And the only way to find the misalignment is a diagnostic check-up.
Enter the Recal Breath Assessment
We built the Recal Breath Assessment because we were tired of seeing strong people stopped by poor breathing physiology.
It is a specific, data-driven protocol designed to stress-test your respiratory system and identify the weak link. It doesn’t require a lab coat, treadmill, or $500 mask. It requires about 10 minutes, a stopwatch, and a willingness to learn.
The assessment generates your Recal Breath Index (RBI)—a singular score that tells you exactly where you stand.
The Recal Breath Assessment isn’t a breathing exercise. It is a diagnostic tool. It looks at two distinct sides of the coin:
1. The Chemistry (Your CO₂ Tolerance)
Do you under-utilize oxygen? Do you over-breathe? Most people do. They have a low tolerance for Carbon Dioxide. This means their brain hits the “panic button” (the urge to breathe) earlier than they need.
- The Symptoms: You feel “out of breath” even though your oxygen saturation is still 98%. You gasp. You panic easily when holding your breath.
- The Diagnostic: We use the BOLT score and the CO₂ Tolerance Test to measure the sensitivity of your central chemoreceptors (the ones that gauge CO₂.
2. The Mechanics (Your Biomechanics)
Do you breathe efficiently? You take 25,000 breaths a day. If you are using your upper-chest, shoulders, and mouth for most of them, you are under-utilizing oxygen and, frankly, wasting energy.
- The Symptoms: Heavy mouth-breathing, shallow breaths, rapid fatigue on uphills, a weak diaphragm, and an inability to take a “full” breath.
- The Diagnostic: We use the LOM (Location of Movement) and ROM (Range of Motion) tests to measure diaphragm engagement and ribcage flexibility.
Why You Need This Data in 2026
Imagine starting your 2026 training block knowing exactly what to fix.
Instead of generic “cardio,” after getting your RBI score you can see more deeply into what needs fixed: “Okay, my breathing mechanics are great, but my CO₂ tolerance is terrible.”
And then, instead of spending all your time on generic intervals, you can focus specifically on Intermittent Hypoxic Hypercapnic Training (IHHT) to train for it. You can do breath-hold walks. Breathe Light hiking, You do nasal-only tempo runs. In 6-8 weeks, you re-test and see your results.
Suddenly, that hill that used to destroy you feels easy.
That is training smarter, not harder.
One more example: maybe your data shows the opposite: “My chemistry is fine, but only have a 45% ROM (range of motion) in my ribcage.” No problem. You can shift into diaphragm release work, intercostal stretching, and lung capacity development exercises. You unlock your diaphragm and pelvic floor. Your lung capacity effectively increases. You have a higher “gear” to shift into on the mountain.
The Recal Breath Assessment takes the guesswork out of the training equation. It turns “breathing” from a woo-woo concept into a trackable, trainable metric.
FAQ: The Recal Breath Index (RBI)
We get a lot of questions about this diagnostic. Here is what you need to know.
What is the Recal Breath Index (RBI)? The RBI is a composite score derived from your performance on the key respiratory tests in the Recal Breath Assessment. It gives you a “snapshot” of your current respiratory fitness, combining biochemical tolerance and biomechanical efficiency into one trackable number. Think of it like a “Credit Score” for your lungs.
Do I need special equipment for the Recal Breath Assessment? No. You need a stopwatch (your phone works), a tape measure (for the Range of Motion test), and a quiet place to sit. That’s it.
Is this just the BOLT score? No. The BOLT (Body Oxygen Level Test) is a crucial part of the chemistry score, but the RBI goes deeper. It includes the Maximum Breathlessness Test (MBT) to test psychological resilience and metabolic efficiency, as well as the mechanical assessments. A high BOLT score doesn’t help you if your mental resilience to CO₂ is weak. The RBI measures the whole picture.
How long does the assessment take? The full diagnostic protocol takes about 10 minutes.
What if my RBI score is low? Ok. That means you found the low-hanging fruit. A low score is the biggest opportunity you have for rapid improvement in 2026. If your score is low, it means your current “fitness” is built on a shaky breathing foundation. Fixing it will unlock performance gains that “more running” never could.
Your First Move for 2026
2026 is here.
You can do what you’ve always done. You can buy new gear, log more miles, and hope that “fitness” saves you on the mountain.
Or, you can look under the hood and analyze your breathing engine.
Take 10 minutes to do the Recal Breath Assessment. You can find your weak link. You can pinpoint exactly why you struggle on hills, why you wake up tired, or why you can’t seem to calm your heart rate down.
Don’t let a solvable physiology problem be the reason you don’t reach the summit.
Get your baseline. Take the RBI. Train the right thing this year.
Let’s get to work!