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Breathing and yoga

This text is taken from the book ‘Enjoy Hatha Yoga’ by Khun Rein­hard.

A general introduction, first into the phys­i­o­log­ical ba­sics of res­pi­ra­tion, then into yoga-breath­ing is given.

More details regarding the phys­i­o­logy of res­pi­ra­tion are pro­vid­ed in the free pdf-version. Please find the down­load link at the bot­tom of this page.

The Breath-body co­or­di­na­tion page of this web­site in­tro­duces ex­er­cis­es to co­or­di­nate breath­ing with bodily move­ments.

This text is taken from the book ‘Enjoy Hatha Yoga’ by Khun Reinhard.

Often we breathe shallowly and in­com­plete­ly, not util­iz­ing the lung ca­pac­i­ty. As a result the supply of ox­y­gen is in­suf­fi­cient and the me­tab­o­lism is im­paired. Used air ac­cu­mu­lates in the lungs, re­sult­ing in feel­ing tired, indo­lent maybe even a lit­tle de­pressed. Proper breath­ing relaxes and has an in­vig­or­ating effect on the body and the mind, sup­port­ing inner bal­ance and peace of mind.

Yoga emphasizes the im­por­tance of prop­er breath­ing and one of the eight limbs of the yoga of phys­i­cal and men­tal con­trol is ded­i­cat­ed to the de­vel­op­ment and con­trol of breath­ing, known as Pra­na­yama. Here the prop­er and com­plete form of yoga-breath­ing will be in­tro­duced.

Physiology of respiration

The respiration process is re­spon­si­ble to take ox­y­gen from the en­vi­ron­ment into the human body, to use it for the met­a­bolic proc­esses and to return car­bon di­ox­ide back to the sur­round­ings. The focus here is on the ex­ter­nal res­pi­ra­tion or on the breath­ing process.

Breathing process – ventilation
Breathing in is an active proc­ess caused by con­trac­tion of the res­pi­ra­tory mus­cles. The di­a­phragm should do most of the con­trac­tion work (75% at rest). Due to ex­pansion of the tho­rax the pres­sure inside the lungs will fall below at­mos­pheric pres­sure, am­bi­ent air will flow via the air pas­sag­es (nose, throat, trachea, and the more than 20 levels of bron­chi and bron­chi­oles) into the al­ve­oli where the gas exchange takes place. At the end of the in­ha­la­tion the pres­sure in­side the lungs is at­mos­pheric pres­sure.

Breathing out is a passive proc­ess for peo­ple at rest, caused by re­lax­ing the res­pi­ra­tory mus­cles and the elastic re­coil­ing of the lungs and tho­rax. The volume of the tho­rac­ic cavity is de­creas­ing, the pres­sure inside the lungs exceeds the at­mos­pheric pres­sure and used air is expulsed from the lungs until the pres­sure inside the lungs equals at­mos­pheric pres­sure. The out–breath finishes at a res­pi­ra­tory rest­ing level where all res­pi­ra­tory mus­cles are re­laxed.

The lung volumes and ca­pac­ities as de­pict­ed in Diagram 1 are valid for a male adult at rest and dif­fer for ex­amp­le with body size and age of the in­di­vid­ual as well as with bodi­ly ac­tiv­i­ties. Lung ca­pac­i­ties are sum­ma­rized lung vol­umes.

 

Lungenvolumina Diagram 1: Lung volumes and ca­pac­i­ties
Legende zu Lungenvolumina
An increased tidal vol­ume could not only be achieved by deeper in­ha­la­tion but by forced ex­ha­la­tion as well. That would put the res­pi­ra­to­ry mus­cles to work dur­ing in­ha­la­tion as well as dur­ing ex­ha­la­tion. More im­por­tant: While the lung vol­ume and the di­am­eters of the bron­chi are in­creas­ing when in­hal­ing, forced ex­ha­la­tion decreases both, result­ing in higher air flow re­sis­tance. Thus forced ex­ha­la­tion requires more effort per extra vol­ume of air than in­creased in­ha­la­tion.

Therfore it is advised to realize higher tidal vol­umes by in­creas­ing the in­ha­la­tion, the avail­able in­spir­a­to­ry reserve vol­ume only, and to keep the ex­ha­la­tion pas­sive (this is de­pict­ed by the green curve in Diagram 1). People un­fa­mil­iar with dia­phrag­mat­ic breath­ing should prac­tise this form of breath­ing (see the Com­plete yoga-breath­ing se­quence in the next chapter) first and in­crease the tidal vol­ume lit­tle by lit­tle. Blow­ing one­self up like a bal­loon right from the start will cause ten­sion and is counter­pro­ductive.
Literature gives us a ‘normal’ breath­ing rate of 12–16 breaths per min­ute = 4–5 sec­onds per breath, which is in line with the ob­ser­va­tion of many peo­ples own breath­ing pat­terns. Yet breath­ing in and out at a rate of 16 breaths/­min is quite quick, is al­ready re­gard­ed as over-breath­ing or as hyper­ven­ti­la­tion by some. Hyper­ven­ti­la­tion has a range of nega­tive effects on body and mind incl. stress, anx­ie­ties, even panic, con­tract­ing blood ves­sels and a re­sult­ing lack of blood supply to the body cells and es­pe­cial­ly to the brain – a deep­er and slow­er breath­ing pat­tern would be de­sir­able.

Slower exhalation helps to empty the lungs com­plete­ly, thus pro­vid­ing more avail­able space for the fol­low­ing in­ha­la­tion, which in turn will be slower and steadier as well – the breath­ing fre­quen­cy will decrease.

Research with chant­ing and med­i­ta­ting monks by Dr Paul John­son (see Diagram 2) has shown, that the breath­ing rate under these for both body and mind calm­ing and re­lax­ing cir­cum­stances slows down to around 6 breaths/­min (see 2 min­utes win­dow in Diagram 2).

Heart Rate

This is a one hour long re­cord­ing of the heart rate of the ab­bot at Lit­tle Moun­tain Temple in Hua Hin, Thai­land. Chant­ing he breathes at 6 per minute (2 minutes win­dow) and his heart rate os­cil­lat­ed at this fre­quen­cy until he stopped chant­ing and med­i­tated for 20 min. before re­sum­ing chant­ing.

Diagram 2: Breathing fre­quen­cy and heart rate

 

It is especially important to slow down the out-breath. By slow­ing down the out-breath car­bon di­ox­ide is kept in the blood at higher levels thus urg­ing an in­creas­ed ox­y­gen trans­port from the red blood cells to the tis­sue, known as ‘Bohr-effect’, in­creas­ing the energy sup­ply of the body. It may sound par­a­dox, but the longer the ex­hale is ex­tend­ed, the more ox­ygen­ation of the body can occur.

In yoga it is suggested for ages that we should breathe slow­ly with the out-breath last­ing longer than the in-breath (see the next chap­ter) and it seems west­ern-sci­en­tif­ic meth­ods can now con­tri­bute to bet­ter under­stand this an­cient rec­om­men­dation.

Complete yoga–breathing

Whenever possible breathe in and out through the nose. Dur­ing prac­tise, you can breathe out through the mouth and pro­duce a "pff" tone with the cheeks gent­ly in­flat­ed, thus slow­ing the out–breath. This will sup­port the length­en­ing of the out-breath to­wards being approx. twice as long as the in-breath.

The time ratio for breath­ing should be
 2 : 1 : 4
with the 2 being the in-breath,
the 4 being the out-breath
and the 1 being the gap between them.

The time ratio of 2 : 1 : 4 is suit­able or begin­ners. With this ratio the breath is flow­ing smooth­ly, is not strained. One may start with in­hal­ing for 2sec., then hold­ing the breath for 1sec. fol­lowed by an out-breath that takes 4sec. There is no extra gap or break be­tween the out- and in-breath. Lit­tle by lit­tle one can then in­crease the times, maybe to 4(6)sec. - 2(3)sec. - 8(12)sec. When prac­tis­ing Pra­na­yama the ratio will be grad­ual­ly changed to­wards long­er pe­ri­ods of time for hold­ing the breath like 2 : 8 : 4. Pra­na­yama should be prac­tised only under super­vi­sion of an ex­pe­ri­enced teach­er.

When observing the breath­ing proc­ess one can notice that es­pe­cial­ly the long and slow out-breath will not stop sud­den­ly. It will fade away, almost un­notice­able, be­com­ing gentle and soft and the body ceases to move as the breath comes to an end. One may regard the end of the long and slow out- breath, where noth­ing seems hap­pen­ing, as a gap as well.

The ideal breathing is deep, slow, easy and in­au­di­ble. The out-breath should not be in­ten­si­fied or forced. The air should not be re­tained for longer pe­ri­ods of time as air hun­ger may shorten the ex­ha­la­tion in­stead of in­creas­ing it. The yogis in India  recom­mend breath­ing as if we were sup­plied with a cer­tain num­ber of breaths for our whole life and when this amount is finished we have to die.

The in-breath is active, fill­ing the lungs from the "bottom" to "top" by engag­ing the res­pi­ra­to­ry mus­cles. The out-breath is pas­sive, simply by re­lax­ing these mus­cles. At first the ab­dom­i­nal area, fol­lowed by the chest area, will sink back. The com­plete in-breath covers three parts:

  1. Abdominal or lower breath­ing (dia­phrag­mat­ic breath­ing), caused by forc­ing the di­a­phragm down­ward, thus mak­ing it flat. The belly will be vis­i­bly pushed out­ward. (approx. 60% share of the total lung ca­paci­ty).
  2. Chest or middle breath­ing (rib cage breath­ing), caused by wid­en­ing the ribs and ris­ing the rib cage (30% share of the total lung ca­paci­ty).
  3. Clavicle or upper breath­ing (lung tip breath­ing), caused by ris­ing the upper part of the tho­rax or by ro­tat­ing the shoul­ders for­ward (approx. 10% share of the lung ca­paci­ty).
To practise the complete yoga– breath­ing one can either lie on one’s back or sit on a chair. Ly­ing on the back means ab­dom­inal and back mus­cles need not to be tensed to keep the body upright. The mus­cles nec­es­sary for the breath­ing process can thus work unre­stricted.

 

Breathing exercises in a sitting posture:

  • Use a chair or stool with a hard and flat seat. Don’t lean against the back­rest; sit close to the front end.
  • The knees should be below the pel­vis. If nec­es­sary use a pil­low or blan­ket to raise the pelvis.
  • The feet should rest par­al­lel and shoul­der width apart on the floor.
  • The hands should rest relaxed on the thighs.
  • Keep the joints relaxed.
  • Sitting straight
    • Sit with your buttocks on your palms, shift and bal­ance the weight by mov­ing the upper body slight­ly back­wards, for­wards and side wards. Sense by the pres­sure on your hands when you are upright.
    • Remove the hands gently one by one, adjust the balance.
    • Straighten up from the pel­vis to the head.

 

Complete yoga–breath­ing se­quence:

Loose and comfortable cloth­ing, fresh air and a re­laxed pos­ture are es­sen­tial.
Try to visualize the way the breath trav­els dur­ing the breath­ing ex­er­cise.
People with low blood pres­sure may ex­pe­ri­ence diz­zi­ness in the begin­ning. No need to worry. Lie down and rest the legs higher than the head. The diz­zi­ness will dis­appear. The body will adjust after a couple of days.
  1. Abdominal (dia­phrag­mat­ic) breath­ing
    • During practice only: Breathe out com­plete­ly by pull­ing the ab­do­men in and hold the breath for a few sec­onds.
    • Relax the abdominal mus­cles and breathe in slowly and in­au­dibly. The ab­do­men should ex­pand slight­ly out­wards, the chest should not move.
    • Place one hand on the ab­dom­en and the other on the ribs to control the move­ment of the ab­do­men or the non– move­ment of the chest re­spec­tively.
    • The practice of "Tiger breath­ing" (see Breath-body co­or­di­na­tion) is very help­ful if the ab­do­men will not move in the be­gin­ning. You can tighten a belt around your chest to pre­vent chest breath­ing.
  2. Chest (rib cage) breath­ing
    • During practice only: Breathe out com­plete­ly by pull­ing the ab­do­men in and keep­ing the ab­dom­i­nal mus­cles tensed.
    • Place the thumbs under the arm­pits on the sides of the rib cage so the finger­tips are touch­ing on top of the ster­num.
    • Keep the ab­dom­inal mus­cles tensed and breathe in. The tho­rax widens and the finger­tips sep­a­rate (approx. 3cm if possible).
  3. Clavicle (lung tip) breath­ing
    • During practice only: Breathe out com­plete­ly by pull­ing the ab­do­men in and keep­ing the ab­dom­inal mus­cles tensed.
    • Place the right hand under the left collar­bone or left hand under the right collar­bone and breathe con­scious­ly against the weight or slight pres­sure of the hand.
    • Try to pull the collar­bones up with­out lift­ing the shoul­ders (rotate the shoul­ders for­ward).

4.  Complete breath­ing

  • During practice only: Breathe out com­plete­ly by pull­ing the ab­do­men in.
  • Place one hand on the ab­do­men and the other on the ribs to con­trol the move­ment of ab­do­men and chest.
  • Let the three kinds of breath­ing fol­low each other smooth­ly in the order given above.
  • Make sure that after the ab­dom­inal breath­ing is finished and the chest breath­ing begins, the ab­do­men does not sink back again, thus fill­ing the chest part of the lungs with air from the lower lungs in­stead of draw­ing in fresh air.
  • Once you are fa­mil­iar with the com­plete breath­ing se­quence it is no longer nec­es­sary to con­trol the move­ments of ab­do­men and chest with your hands. No more forced ex­ha­la­tion by tens­ing ab­dom­inal mus­cles.

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The complete text (9 A4 pages) can be
down­loaded as a pdf-file at:
Breathing and yoga.pdf (523 kB)

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  1. Abdominal (dia­phrag­matic) breath­ing
    • During practice only: Breathe out com­plete­ly by pull­ing the ab­do­men in and hold the breath for a few seconds.
    • Relax the abdominal mus­cles and breathe in slowl­y and in­au­dibly. The ab­do­men should expand slight­ly out­wards, the chest should not move.
    • Place one hand on the ab­dom­en and the other on the ribs to con­trol the move­ment of the ab­do­men or the non-move­ment of the chest re­spec­tively.
    • The practice of "Tiger breath­ing" (see Breath-body co­or­di­na­tion.pdf) is very help­ful if the ab­do­men will not move in the be­gin­ning. You can tighten a belt around your chest to prevent chest breath­ing.
  2. Chest (rib cage) breath­ing
    • During practice only: Breathe out com­plete­ly by pull­ing the ab­do­men in and keep­ing the ab­dom­i­nal mus­cles tensed.
    • Place the thumbs under the arm­pits on the sides of the rib cage so the finger­tips are touch­ing on top of the ster­num.
    • Keep the abdominal mus­cles tensed and breathe in. The tho­rax widens and the finger­tips sep­a­rate (approx. 3cm if pos­si­ble).
  3. Clavicle (lung tip) breath­ing
    • During practice only: Breathe out com­plete­ly by pull­ing the ab­do­men in and keeping the ab­do­minal mus­cles tensed.
    • Place the right hand under the left collar­bone or left hand under the right collar­bone and breathe con­scious­ly against the weight or slight pres­sure of the hand.
    • Try to pull the collar­bones up with­out lift­ing the shoul­ders (ro­tate the shoul­ders for­ward).

4.  Complete breath­ing

  • During practice only: Breathe out com­plete­ly by pulling the ab­do­men in.
  • Place one hand on the abdomen and the other on the ribs to con­trol the move­ment of ab­do­men and chest.
  • Let the three kinds of breath­ing follow each other smooth­ly in the order given above.
  • Make sure that after the ab­dom­inal breath­ing is finished and the chest breath­ing begins, the ab­do­men does not sink back again, thus fill­ing the chest part of the lungs with air from the lower lungs instead of draw­ing in fresh air.
  • Once you are familiar with the com­plete breath­ing se­quence it is no longer nec­es­sary to con­trol the move­ments of ab­do­men and chest with your hands. No more forced ex­ha­la­tion by tensing ab­dom­inal mus­cles.

Download

The complete text (9 A4 pages) can be down­loaded as a pdf-file at:
Breath­ing and yoga.pdf (523 kB)

Return to the Yoga top level page