Alexander Stewart

Founded Respiratory Fitness in 2009, New York City, USA.
President, Respiratory Fitness LLC, New York City, USA
Managing Director, Respiratory Fitness Institute AS, Oslo, Norway

In 2010, while I was starting my business, a business that would help people with their performance and other physiological and psychophysiological issues, having once been a world-class professional athlete and a professional actor I had unique knowledge and a vast amount of experience, a devastating accident halted this dream of mine.

I survived a life-threatening accident, endured six operations with severe and constant pain and months of morphine.  The trauma of the accident and four years of severe pain, nearly seven years of not walking, took a mental and physical toll.  Dramatic changes in my own breathing and physiology were a result.  My own ETCO2 levels dropped from 40mmHg to 30mmHg and below.  (If ETCO2 is below 35mmHg symptoms and deficits can begin to occur in your physiology.  Some of these symptoms and deficits you are not even aware of, and others you may see as being related to causes other than your breathing physiology).

My physiology, and my breathing had always been at peak levels and now my body was broken, and my breathing was dysfunctional.

Prior to focusing my full-time energies to the breathing sciences at the end of 2007, I had careers as a professional athlete, corporate consultant, performance consulting and professional acting.  During my sports and acting careers, I was able to cultivate an understanding and relationship to breathing.  Yet, despite having such a strong relationship with breathing, based on my early professions as an athlete and as an actor, I really did not understand just how profound breathing’s effects were on our own mental and physical health and ultimately on our own performance!

Behavioral work was a natural and intuitive thing for me and one that I was further drawn to by the nature of people, seeking understanding and clarification, who were regularly coming to me for help in solving problems.  My behavioral work grew out of this understanding and ability I had and out of those who sought my help.  Soon, aspects of performance became a logical fit and were brought into this work.

It was not until I was introduced to the breathing sciences in 2007 that all of my career knowledge, my background, my experiences, and my work, began to develop and grow in leaps and bounds.  I began to connect all of what I had learned and experienced in my past careers to the sciences of human physiology and psychology, discovering a natural logic in the relationships between human physiology and behavioral psychology in all that I did, and I came to realize that the little I knew about breathing was, in fact, little!

I had not known that there was such a profound relationship between breathing and the physiological sciences, the medical sciences, and the science of behavioral psychology!

This is where my business dream began, near the end of 2007, when I first learned of the breathing sciences, acquired my first instrument, and began learning the breathing sciences.

In 2013 I began a quest to further my knowledge and deepen my understanding of the breathing sciences, to learn more about respiration and physiology, breathing and physiology, behavioral psychology and physiology, as well as the relevant aspects of the medical sciences and physiology.

In 2016 I earned my Master of Science in Applied Breathing Sciences!