Yoga & Pilates' focus on breathing

Inhaling through the nose is important to warm and filter the air before it gets to the lungs, writes Kiran Sawhney.

Yoga and Pilates focus a lot on breathing. In Pilates, I have this famous cue for my clients — 'while exhaling, pull your navel in to spine'.

I've broken breathing techniques into five parts; inhaling through the nose, inhaling while expanding the stomach, exhaling through "pursed" lips, attempting to breath as slow as possible and consciously trying to empty as much air as possible out of the lungs with every exhalation.

Inhaling through the nose is important to warm and filter the air before it gets to the lungs. It will also help to keep your sinuses clear.

"Pursed" or "puckered" lip exhaling naturally slows down exhalation but it's also helpful to learn to inhale as slow as is comfortable to you. This helps make your respiration system more efficient.

Inhaling by expanding the stomach is not easy. All our lives, we have been inhaling by expanding our chest. I'd suggest learning how to inhale by expanding the stomach by lying on your back and putting a small book on your stomach. Now try to raise the book as you inhale. When you can easily raise the book by inhaling while lying on your back, teach yourself how to extend your stomach while standing up straight by putting your hand on your stomach. When you can easily move your hand forward when standing still when you inhale, it will not be too hard to learn to breathe from the stomach while you are exercising. Lots of practice will make this important technique automatic.

The last breathing technique that I feel is important when exercising is to consciously try to empty your stomach of all air with exhalation. This is difficult. However, it is very beneficial because those of us with emphysema suffer from too much trapped air. Therefore, if we can empty our lungs to the maximum amount that we are capable of, it will increase our ability to get oxygen to our muscles and remove carbon dioxide from our blood.

As a thumb rule I always tell my clients — exhale on exertion or exhale when going against gravity. E.g. in bicep curl, when you curl the bicep up, you go against the gravity, hence you exhale and when curling down towards floor, you inhale.

Also remember, these rules reverse in aqua aerobics because here the buoyancy of water takes over.

Focus on inhalations that fill the lungs entirely & exhalations that empty the lungs to the very bottom, cleansing the bloodstream and purifying the body of toxins. Correct breathing oxygenates the blood and increases the circulation. Structured breathing technique is an effective tool that is meant to enhance and ease your movements. Never under any circumstances, should you stop breathing. As exercises increase in difficulty, I find so many of my clients holding their breaths by pursing their lips. I have to then remind them, ' breathe'.

In yoga we have cleansing breathing exercise called 'Kapalbhati'. In Sanskrit, 'kapala' means skull; 'bhati' means shining. Kapalbhati is considered to be so cleansing to the entire system that, when practiced on regular basis, the skull (and the face) shine with good health and inner radiance. It cleanses the nasal passages, bronchial tubes, lungs, and entire respiratory system. It also helps to drain the sinuses and eliminate accumulated excess mucus. As the lungs are cleaned, excess carbon dioxide is eliminated. This permits the red- blood cells to suck in more oxygen, increasing the richness of blood. The abdominal contractions of Kapalbhati massage the liver, spleen, pancreas, stomach and heart, thus invigorating them. Thus the abdominal muscles are strengthened; digestion is improved. It creates the feeling of exhilaration and activates the pranic energy. It also increases the supply of stored- up prana in the solar plexus region. The regular practitioner of kapalabhati enjoys blooming vigour and improved health.