By Victor Sfirlea

The ancient yogis known very few on physiology but this didn’t stop them to know very much on the effects of the breathing on body and mind and to develop different breathing techniques.

For example they say that the breath is the link between body and mind. They also stated from a long time that if we control our respiration we can control every aspect of our being. We will take a look on how this bold statement can be sustained.

The yogic breathing exercises are having two purposes: the physiological effects and also the build up and control of prana, the main form of subtle energy, most simply collected by breathing the air which is considered by yogis the principal food.

Pranayama, the yogic science of breath control is the very heart of Hatha Yoga practice. Basically, Hatha Yoga is mastering of body and breath. This control is gained gradually

Breathing is usually at the edge of our awareness but will and volition are always at disposal to choose the manner of breathe. Most of time people run automatic breath. Yoga emphasize on choice. The sages discovered the value of regulating respiration consciously of breathing even and diaphragmatically, of hyperventilating for certain purposes, and of suspending the breath at will. But in the mean time the classical literature of Hatha Yoga warns students against experimenting intemperately with breathing exercises. In Hatha Yoga Pradipika is written: “Just as lions, elephants and tigers are gradually controlled, so prana is controlled trough practice. Otherwise practitioner is destroyed”.

The muscles of respiration

The respiration, which consisting basically in inspiration and exhalation, is a result of muscular activity. Three main sets of muscles are active in the normal breathing process: the intercostals muscles, the abdominal muscles and the respiratory diaphragm.

The intercostals muscles are disposed in two layers with the fibers oriented on a right angle to each other and are used in the thoracic breathing.

The abdominal muscles are very important for what yogis named even breathing and they are also the key of many exercises.

The respiratory diaphragm is complete hidden into the torso. Simply described, diaphragm is a domed sheet of combined muscles and tendon that spans in the entire torso and separate the chest cavity from the abdominal cavity. Diaphragm is shaped like an umbrella except that is deeply indented to accommodate the vertebral spine. The surface of the dome is built by a central tendon which is the only tendon not linked to the skeleton.

Diaphragm movement Diaphragm works as a piston during the breathing process and have huge importance in many yoga techniques. Whenever the chest and spine are fixed as typically occurs during relaxed breathing in a supine position the top of the dome is pulled down during inspiration, like a piston with the chest wall acting like a cylinder. During the normal breathing process the movement of diaphragm is interrelated with the movement of the other respiratory muscles. The single positions in which we found the pure diaphragmatic breathing are the supine and the inverted positions.

Diaphragmatic breathing is also named abdominal breathing or belly breathing. We can also name this kind of respiration as abdomen-diaphragmatic breathing because the downward movement of the dome of diaphragm not only draws air into lungs but also pushes the abdominal wall in front. This way the diaphragmatic breathing makes a good massage of the internal organs stimulating their blood circulation and functionality. Diaphragmatic breathing is also known for the fast psychological effect of reinstating calm and self confidence.

Diaphragmatic breathing exercises

Posture 1 – a variation of Bhujangasana.

Lie face down and interlock arms on behind. Strongly tighten all the muscles from the hips to the toes and use the neck and deep back muscles to lift the head, neck and chest as high as possible. Inhale and exhale deeply to the nose. Notice that each inhalation rises the upper part of the body higher and that each exhalation lowers it. Because you keep the back muscle engaged continuously during both inhalation and exhalation, the lifting and lowering action is done entirely to the muscles of respiration. This is an excellent exercise for strengthening the diaphragm.

Posture 2 – the diaphragmatic rear lift.

Lie face down and place your chin against the floor, with the arms along the sides of your body and the palms near the chest. Keeping the chest firmly pressed to the floor relax all the muscles from the waist down, including the hips. Take 10 – 15 nasal breaths at the rate of one per second. You will feel at every inhalation the lift of the lower back and hips. This movement is also made by the action of diaphragm only.

Because the inhalation increases the lumbar curvature this exercise is good for anyone with back pain problems.

Respiration and the Nervous System

As ancient yogis stated that breath is the link between body and mind they included in this expression what we call today nervous system.

The nervous system influences breathing and breathing influences the nervous system with a great importance on our state of the mind and on the emotional status.

Let’s take for example what’s happen when we have a big emotion and how breath can magnify this emotion so as it become uncontrollable and how breath can reduce the emotion bringing calm. Our process of taking oxygen into the body and eliminating carbon dioxide is happening just in the millions of tinny alveoli which compound our lungs. All air in the rest of respiratory system is named dead air space because in the buco-nazo-laringian cavity, in trachea, bronchia, bronchioles, all the way down to the alveoli, no gas change happen.

So if someone breathes fast and superficial as is the tendency under a big emotion is to breathe, the amount of new oxygen is very low because almost no fresh air with new oxygen content does not entering in the lungs. The need for oxygen will increase so the stress level. This situation can lead to a vicious circle figurate in the drawing below. The result of such wrong breath pattern can lead to a panic attack.

There is a strong link between our minds, heart beat rate and respiration. For example if we are very concentrate on reading, or making a very delicate and precise operation, or meditating, the attention and calm of the mind will lower the respiration which will be very rare or even suspended for a time, automatically and as a consequence the heart rate will lower too. This is how mind influences the hart beat rate and the respiration.

If we are not highly skilled yoga masters we are not able to control our heart beats. Our emotional status is hard to be controlled. But in a very easy way we can control our breathing which will make the heart to beat more calm and regularly and will bring gradually the peace of the mind. Respiration is the key.

The connection between heart rate and breathing is known as respiratory breathing arrhythmia. It involves reflex activity from the circulatory system to the brain stem that causes the heart to beat more slowly during exhalation than it does in inhalation. We are able to produce effects that are usually regulated by autonomic nervous system by proper breathing techniques.

2:1 Breathing

One breathing technique that can produce a beneficent effect on the nervous system, especially on the autonomic nervous system is taking twice as long to exhale as to inhale. For a healthy person the ratio could be 6 seconds exhalation to 3 seconds inhalation. The practice will slow the heart down and will give a subjective experience of relaxation. Both inhalation and exhalation will be made thru the nose.

Respiration types

Thoracic breathing

Thoracic or chest respiration is sometimes banned but in fact there are two separate types of respiration, the empowered thoracic breathing and the constricted thoracic breathing.

The empowered thoracic breathing is have many positive effects on health. It expand the rib cage and increase the lung respiratory capacity, is bring a lot of oxygen in the body and also prana. It consist in breathing profoundly with maximum opening the thorax. In hatha yoga inhaling as much as you can is an excellent chest exercise any time you are doing standing backward bends, diaphragm assisted backbends, cobra postures, the upward facing dog, prone boats and bow postures, fish postures. Whenever is to take the deepest possible inhalation this can only made placing an emphasis on empowered thoracic breathing and is work in any posture in which is natural to thrust the chest out.

The constricted thoracic breathing is typically shallow, rapid and irregular. Is commonly associated with stress and tension and is inadvisable as habitually breathe. Is breathing described above as generating the vicious circle which can lead to increase of stress and “practiced” in a moment of tension leads to panic.

Paradoxical breathing

Empowered chest breathing carried to extremes is paradoxical breathing. Is happen when the abdominal wall moves rather in than out in inhalation. It naturally can appear in situations which shocks a person. The paradoxical breathing stimulates strongly the sympathetic nervous system. The one who do it 10-15 times becomes spontaneously jumpy and nervous. Paradoxical breathe gives an immediate jolt of adrenaline. It prepares for fight or for running and inhibits the digestion, sexuality and immune function. If it becomes habitual it will give a life lived in a continuous emergency.

Abdominal breathing

The antidote for chronic thoracic and paradoxical breathing is abdominal breathing or abdominal-diaphragmatic breathing. It is simple and relaxing especially in supine position. It calms, it give peace and confidence that why is used in many yogic exercises.

The role of will

Many physical, mental and environmental factors are join to influence our breathing. Our will can override most of them. You can counter the state of being sleepy and bored by practicing bellows breathing. In smelly toxic air areas from a crowded street you can hold your breath few seconds to escape in a cleaner area. If you have the habit of breathing you can learn meditative breathing and if you are upset you can change your state breathing slowly. Is important to learn to observe healthy breathing patterns while you are doing hatha yoga postures then to carry the refined habits into daily life.

References:Anatomy of Hatha Yoga: A Manual for Students, Teachers, and Practitioners: H. David Coulter, Timothy McCall

Victor Sfirlea is a certified Yoga teacher. He teaches Yoga classes in the Tuzla, Judetul Constanta, Romania area.