Breathwork Timer Calculator

This calculator times a pranayama (breath-work) session from your chosen Technique plus how many breath cycles you complete. Selecting Box Breathing, 4-7-8, Alternate Nostril, or Kapalabhati locks the Inhale, Hold After Inhale, Exhale, and Hold After Exhale fields to that technique's own fixed counts -- Kapalabhati collapses each breath to a rapid half-second in and half-second out, while Box Breathing holds a slower four-second count on all four phases. Only the Custom option lets your own typed durations drive the math, which is why Technique has the largest single effect on Total Practice Time here: it silently overrides whatever you entered into the four duration fields unless you're on Custom.

Once the per-breath Cycle Duration is fixed by your technique, Cycles per Round and Number of Rounds each stretch total time by roughly the same proportion as one another, since both simply multiply that fixed cycle length -- lengthening either one by a given percentage lengthens your session by about that same percentage. Breaths per Minute is just the inverse of Cycle Duration, useful for comparing pace across techniques at a glance. This tool assumes every cycle in a round takes exactly the same time; it doesn't model the natural variability of a real breath, rest between rounds, or the cardiovascular effects of retention holds, which are better learned from a qualified instructor than a timer.