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App: Breathing Timer — RMSSD HRV from chest strap, BOLT, Buteyko, Box & 4-7-8 (free, 79 watches)

Albert

Note: This app is for breathwork training only. Breath-hold drills (BOLT, Max Exhale, Buteyko) must be practiced on dry land, never in or near water. Not a medical or safety device.

Turn your Garmin into a complete breathwork coach and not just a timer.

Breathing Timer combines guided paced breathing with real beat-to-beat HRV (RMSSD) from a chest strap, CO2-tolerance testing, and FIT activity recording, so every session is tracked the same way as a real workout in Garmin Connect.

Seven breathing programs

  • Resonant 5.5: coherent breathing for HRV training
  • 5-5 Zen: cardiac coherence
  • 4-6 Calm: parasympathetic activation
  • 6-2-6 Balance: focus and anti-anxiety
  • Triangular 4-4-4: equal inhale, hold, exhale
  • Box 4-4-4-4: stress control (Navy SEAL technique)
  • 4-7-8 Sleep: Dr. Weil's natural sleep technique
  • Plus full custom mode (0–30 s for inhale / hold / exhale / hold)

Five exercises

  • Guided Breathing: animated circle, hold phases in amber, live HR + HRV
  • BOLT Test: Body Oxygen Level Test, score saved with HR + SpO2
  • Max Exhale Training: multi-round, optional hands-free auto-advance
  • Buteyko Mini Pauses: Exercise 6 from Buteyko Clinic International, 5–30 rounds
  • Free Session: live dashboard of HR, HRV, SpO2, stress, respiration

Real biometrics

  • True beat-to-beat RMSSD via R-R intervals with a paired ANT+ / BLE chest strap
  • RSA fallback (peak-to-peak HR per breath) for watch-only users, the right metric for paced breathing on optical
  • 10-second sensor calibration before each session so baselines latch on stable readings
  • "About HRV" help screen with strap-pairing guidance

Progress tracking

  • Last 30 sessions saved on-device, no cloud, no account
  • BOLT, Max Exhale, Buteyko scores tracked separately
  • Trend charts: BOLT + Exhale on one page, HRV + stress on another
  • Glance view on the watch carousel

FIT activity recording

  • Sport: SPORT_MEDITATION / SUB_SPORT_BREATHING
  • Activity title carries the program name (e.g. "Box 4-4-4-4")
  • Custom session fields: Drill type · Buteyko rounds · Best exhale · Resonant breaths · HRV start/end · HR change
  • Custom lap fields: Round exhale · Buteyko round index

79 supported watches — fenix 6/7/8 family, epix 2/Pro, Forerunner 165/255/265/955/965/970, Venu 2/3/4/X1/Sq 2, vívoactive 4/5/6, Enduro 1/3, Instinct 2/3/E/Crossover, MARQ Gen 1 & 2, D2 Air/Mach, Descent Mk2/Mk3/G2, Approach S70. minSdkVersion = 3.2.0. Every device build-verified per release.

Free, no ads, no tracking, no account. English and Spanish.

Store: https://apps.garmin.com/apps/59828c15-7638-4e14-b871-47f0ce0c66f0

Feedback, bug reports, and feature requests welcome.

  • Quick update, since it's been about a month and the app's grown more than I planned when I first posted.

    Biggest thing: there's a Progress screen now. It charts your history per drill, so you can swipe through your BOLT scores, HRV, stress, Wim Hof holds, Buteyko rounds, and the walking drills, each as its own graph over time. That was the #1 thing people emailed me about.

    There are a couple of new drills too. Wim Hof (timer-paced breaths, then you tap when you're ready to end the hold), and a "walking hypoxic" pair for altitude-style training where you hold your breath while walking and it watches your SpO2 live. Those save as walks in Garmin Connect with pace and distance.

    Smaller stuff: every session ends with a per-round breakdown now, there's an optional buzz if your SpO2 drops below a threshold you set, and hitting back mid-session gives you the native Resume / Save / Discard menu instead of just killing the session.

    Also runs on ~100 watches now, not the 79 in the title. Still free, no account needed.

    If you're using it, I'd love to know what's annoying or missing. Much easier to fix stuff I actually hear about.

    https://apps.garmin.com/apps/59828c15-7638-4e14-b871-47f0ce0c66f0

  • New minor version :) 

    - Backlight toggle: master switch to stop the per-phase backlight flash

    - Vibration setting now applies to every drill, not just the main timer

    - Get-ready 3-2-1 countdown before each walking-drill breath-hold