The extent of postural disturbance depended on the breathing mode and how it was quantified (i.e., CoP coupled with breathing movement or overall CoP measures). Voluntary hyperventilation and inspiratory resistive loading increased postural sway. For voluntary hyperventilation, this could be explained by CoP motion being directly coupled to chest wall movements whereas metabolic-induced hyperventilation did not increase CoP motion or CoP coupling with breathing. Breath-holding decreased postural sway. Patients with low back pain show greater postural sways than pain-free individuals during quiet breathing, although they exhibit similar postural adaptations to respiratory-related challenges as controls.