Yoga Every Day at Home Week 3 - Breathing

Yoga Every Day at Home - a four week course for carers in association with Disability Bradford.

Week 3: Breathing

Who needs to learn more about breathing?  

We all know how to breathe, right?  We’ve been doing it since the day we were born after all. 

Whilst it is true that breathing is an automatic action that our body accomplishes without us giving it a second thought, still many of us develop bad breathing habits...

Poor general posture, repeatedly collapsing the chest and poking the chin forwards in desk work, driving or whilst sat on the sofa, holding the breath, breathing through the mouth, breathing in a shallow way...

Recognise any of those?  As stated in a previous blog post on breathing, which you can read about here, there is a large proportion of people who have fallen into a pattern of not using the diaphragm and other muscles of breathing around the ribs, chest and throat efficiently and in a balanced way. The previous post suggests a few tests you can do to see whether you’ve picked up any sub-optimal breathing habits, and offers insights into how so many of us fall into bad breathing habits.  I won’t repeat here what I already wrote, suffice to say, most of us will feel a greater sense of freedom around the throat, ribs and chest by doing the simple exercises in this post regularly.

Undoing those bad breathing habits

The following pair of exercises really get into places that other exercises don’t reach and re-balance the muscles of breathing, open the chest and throat and instil a sense of emotional balance, calm and peaceful vitality.  They don’t need to be done as part of any routine so it is really easy to fit them into your day.  Start with 5 or so rounds of each, performing the exercises slowly and carefully.  Keep your inhalations and exhalations smooth and even. With the help of some fabulous yoga friends, I’ve made some video clips to accompany the written instructions to give you greater clarity and confidence in performing them.

Dru Yoga’s Pigeon Breath

The pigeon breath is a great foundation breathing exercise.  It can help release spasming and tension from the diaphragm and strengthen and re-balance the muscles of breathing.  It is particularly beneficial for asthma sufferers.  I find that it also gives a sense of calm and well-being.

It is a simple exercise which you can fit easily into your day.  I have included written instructions, but for clarity please watch the short clip of the exercise being superbly demonstrated by fellow Dru yogini, the lovely Leanne: 

 

There are 4 parts to the movement.  All breathing is through the nose, APART from the ‘pigeon coo’ in part 2.

1 Sit in neutral spine, or stand in Tadasana (Mountain Pose). Interlock your hands under your chin.  Your head faces forward.  Breathe in through your nose and raise the elbows sideways to expand the ribs and chest. (Pigeon wings).  This works the intercostal muscles and opens the rib cage.

2 Breathe out through your mouth, slowly, steadily and evenly, as if blowing out through a straw. (Pigeon coo). At the same time, bring your elbows together in front of you as you gently push your chin up.  (Do not force your head back).   This phase controls the upward movement of the diaphragm.

3 Hold this position as you breathe in through the nose, the head slightly tilted up, feeling the chest inflate. (Pigeon chest).  The expansion of the sternum and upper chest is the focus here.  
 
4 Breathe out through the nose, returning your head and elbows to the starting position.
  

Begin with 5 repetitions and build up to around 5 minutes over time. 

Dru Yoga's Windmill breath

This is a technique to open the chest and improve control of the muscles of respiration, easing restrictions and facilitating the breathing process.  The arms go around like the sails of a windmill.  It is a great exercise if you feel tight around the chest and shoulders.   It will also gently mobilise the thoracic spine.

The written instructions make it sound complicated, but if you view the video clip by following the link below, you can view the fabulous Peter, another Dru yoga teacher, give an excellent demonstration. 

1 Begin standing in good alignment, grounded feet, soft knees, neutral pelvis, sternum lifted, shoulders retracted.  Ears lifting away from shoulders and crown of head reaching upwards, chin parallel with floor and slightly retracted.
 
2 Inhale and raise the right arm behind you, turning the trunk to the right and allowing the right arm to raise until upper arm is  level with the ear and fingertips are reaching towards ceiling, and trunk turns to face the front again.  Do this movement in a single inhalation.

3 Pause momentarily with your right arm above your head.

4 Begin to breathe out, lowering the right arm in front AND AT THE SAME TIME, the left arm rises backwards and upwards and your turn you trunk to the left this time.  Continue to lift the left arm behind you and up to the ceiling, turning the trunk back to the front.  At the same time the right arm lowers down in front to your side.  Again, complete the set of movements in this paragraph in a single exhalation.

5 After the initial raising of the single right arm to the ceiling, the arms work opposite each other, so when one is directed to the ceiling the other reaches for the floor.  When one is lowering from the ceiling to the floor in front, the other is lifting from the floor to the ceiling behind.  Whenever an arm is raising behind the body, the trunk turns back towards that arm.  

You have now opened your right lung.  To even up, you need to repeat the exercise on the left side.  Follow the instructions again, but initiate replace right with left and left with right!

It seems more complicated than it is in written form, but as you watch the clip and try for yourself the movements will become obvious.

Taking it further 

If you feel ready for more, download the following free podcast of breathing exercises.  Mary Sammon of the Sangha Yoga Center begins the recording with a superb explanation of the significance of breath in yoga.  This takes about 10 minutes (which you can of course fast-forward on subsequent uses).  She then leads the listener through 3 breathing exercises; (1-deep yogic breathing, 2-ujayii breathing (with sound) and 3-alternate nostril breathing).  Follow the link below and choose 'pranayama'.

Mary Sammon, Sangha Yoga Centre. Free breathing exercises podcast

And finally...

It is important to say that in yoga, breathing is a science called pranayama, and breath is prana, or life force.  Ancient yogis measured human life not by years, but by the number of breaths.  The wisdom is that if you learn to extend the breath, you learn to expand your life force, vitality and longevity.  

  

"When the breath wanders the mind also is unsteady.  But when the breath is calmed the mind too will be still, and the yogi achieves long life.  Therefore, one should learn to control the breath".  

Svatmarama, Hatha Yoga Pradipika

What kind of breather are you?

What’s wrong with my breathing?

A focus of last night's class was developing awareness of our breathing.  For optimal health we should breathe diaphragmatically. Breathing is a natural expansion and contraction within your body. Babies automatically breathe with their diaphragm. By breathing with your diaphragm, your lungs expand and expel waste more efficiently. Diaphragmatic breathing slows your breath, relaxes your nervous system, detoxifies your organs, aids circulation and digestion, improves your immune system, reduces high blood pressure, builds stamina and heightens your sense of well-being. 

Despite this, many of us don't do it!  I found a great website which suggests why we don't breathe diaphragmatically below.  Have a read and see if any of those reasons apply to you.  So if we're not breathing diaphragmatically, what are we doing? Have a read of the article by Barbara Benagh from Yoga Journal and assess whether your breathing fits into any of the sub optimal categories.

 

Dru Yoga’s Pigeon Breath

We will practice a variety of breathing exercises (pranayama) as we progress, but the pigeon breath that we practised in last night's class is a great foundation breathing exercise. It can help release spasming and tension from the diaphragm and strengthen and rebalance the muscles of breathing.  It is particularly beneficial for asthma sufferers.

 

• Sit in neutral spine, or stand in Tadasana (Mountain Pose). Interlock your hands under your chin.  Your head faces forward.  Breathe in and raise the elbows sideways. (Pigeon wings).  

• Breathe out through your mouth, slowly and evenly, as if blowing out through a straw. (Pigeon coo). At the same time, bring your elbows together in front of you as you gently push your chin up.  (Do not force your head back).  

• Hold this position as you breathe in, feeling the chest inflate. (Pigeon chest).  Focus on the sternum.  

• Breathe out, returning your head and arms to their original position.

 

How Healthy Is Your Breathing?

Poor breathing habits are easy to spot. These tests will help determine if you can benefit from breath exercises. 

Upper-Chest Breathing: Lie on your back, placing one hand on your upper chest and the other on your abdomen. If the hand on your chest moves as you breathe but the one on the abdomen does not, you're definitely a chest-breather. Anything more than slight movement in the chest is a sign of inefficient breathing. 

Shallow Breathing: Lie on your back and place your hands around your lower ribs. You should feel an effortless expansion of the lower ribs on the breath in and a slow recoil on the breath out. If your ribs remain motionless, your breathing is too shallow, even if your belly moves. 

Overbreathing: Lie down and take a few minutes to let your body establish its relaxed breathing rate. Then count the length of your next exhalation and compare it to the length of the following inhalation. The exhalation should be slightly longer. If not, you are an overbreather. As a second test, try to shorten your inhalation. If that causes distress you are probably an overbreather. Because it is easy to manipulate the outcome of these two tests, you may want someone else to count for you at a time when you are not paying attention to your breath. 

Breath Holding: Holding one's breath after inhaling may be the most common poor breathing habit. To determine if you do this, pay attention to the transition from inhalation to exhalation. A breath-holder usually feels a "catch" and may actually struggle to initiate the exhalation. This tendency is particularly noticeable during exercise. You can reduce the holding by consciously relaxing your abdomen just as an inhalation ends. Many years of habitual shallow breathing causes the diaphragm to spasm. It’s similar to a hand that tenses and spasms. The diaphragm for most people isn’t a smooth running muscle. Instead it’s under immense tension, and very often it flutters.  When the diaphragm flutters it causes you to involuntarily hold your breath. Most of the time you don’t even know you’re doing it.

Reverse Breathing: Reverse breathing happens when the diaphragm is pulled into the chest upon inhalation and drops into the abdomen on exhalation. Lie on your back and place your hands on your abdomen. The abdomen should slowly flatten as you exhale and rise gently as you inhale. If the opposite occurs you are a reverse breather. Since reverse breathing may only occur during exertion, this test is not completely reliable. 

Mouth Breathing: It's fairly easy to notice if you're a mouth-breather; if you're not sure, ask your friends or try to catch yourself at unguarded moments.

By Barbara Benagh from Yoga Journal

Eight reasons people don’t breathe diaphragmatically

If breathing diaphragmatically was good enough for Buddha and is a key to vitality, why doesn’t everyone do it?

1.     Monkey see, monkey do — no else does, so we don’t. Shallow breathing is a pattern that we start imitating when we are infants.

2.     Breathing is emotionally stimulating and expressive, and most people avoid emotions and expressiveness as carefully as they steer clear of pot bellies.

3.     Men and women alike are afraid to have little pot bellies like Buddha, even for a moment. Belly sucking-in may be the most popular postural habit.

4.     Life in chairs — with the hips flexed and the belly compressed from below — makes diaphragmatic breathing mechanically difficult.

5.     Rat racey stress tends to accumulate high in the body: face, jaw, neck and shoulders. Many of my clients are too busy grinding their teeth to breathe from the gut.

6.     A churning, tight belly is another common consequence of stress, and obstructs abdominal breathing even more effectively than facial tension distracts you from it.

7.     Once lost, diaphragmatic strength is difficult to regain. It is one thing to be out of the habit of breathing abdominally (at age ten, say) and quite another to have lost the diaphragmatic strength and coordination for it (by age twenty-two, for instance).

8.     It's not like you can't breathe without strong diaphragmatic contraction — it’s just more difficult. So perhaps the most insidious reason that people don't breathe with their diaphragms is because they can. Most people would rather stick with an understated respiratory style rather than work harder. They can get away with it, so they do.

from  
(http://saveyourself.ca/articles/respiration-connection.php)