Some yoga teachers describe breathing as filling a bucket of water, asking students to breathe from the bottom up, as if they were breathing into their bellies.  This would make sense if air were a liquid; it’s not. 

Air is a gas, and the lungs act more like balloons than buckets, inflating from the top down and creating specific effects on the spine. In Viniyoga, we breathe in a way that magnifies those effects. This breath is called anatomical breathing. How you breathe in asana may seem insignificant, but the results are powerful. Anatomical breathing provides the core stability required to do asana safely and effectively.

The Natural Breath

The natural inhale is a process of muscle contraction. 

• The intercostal muscles (the muscles between the ribs) contract, causing the ribs to lift and the rib cage to widen.
• The diaphragm (a dome-shaped muscle at the bottom of the rib cage) contracts and flattens, pressing the internal organs into the belly. This causes the belly to expand.
• The collar bones and rib cage elevate, the spine extends, and the thoracic curve flattens.
• Space inside the chest increases, creating a vacuum.  Air flows into the lungs.

The natural exhale, on the other hand, is a process of relaxation.

• The intercostal muscles relax, allowing the chest to lower and narrow.
• The diaphragm relaxes to its original dome-shaped position.
• The lower back curve naturally flattens.
• Space inside the chest decreases. Pressure inside the chest becomes higher than the pressure outside it. Air is pushed out of the lungs. 

So what does this have to do with asana?  

In asana, we utilize the natural breath and magnify its effects on the spine. Our goal on inhale is to increase the spaces between the vertebrae. On exhale we contract the abdominal muscles, thereby flattening the lumbar curve and stabilizing the low back and pelvis.

Using Anatomical Breathing in Asana:

On inhale: 

• Imagine a downward flow of breath starting at your collar bones and moving down to your belly.
• Consciously extend your entire spine as you feel your rib cage expand.
• In the last 1/3 of your breath, allow your belly to soften.

On exhale: 

• Maintain length in the spine.
• Progressively contract the abdominal muscles, first from the pubic bone to the navel, then from the navel to the bottom ribs.
• Keep the belly pulled in during the first half of the following inhale.

By breathing this way, we magnify the benefits of breath while minimizing the risks of movement.  Over time, our spines get longer; our bellies grow stronger; our backs and pelvises become more stable. 

Give it a shot. You might be surprised how sore your belly is the next day.  And the next time your yoga teacher tells you to pull in your belly as you exhale, you’ll know why!

Namaste

Tracy Weber

Come visit Whole Life Yoga in Seattle!

Students often ask me if yoga is sufficient to develop overall fitness. Put more directly, if I practice yoga, can I cancel my gym membership?  I always cringe a little before answering. As a yoga studio owner, the answer that would benefit me most is an enthusiastic, unqualified yes.

Unfortunately, the true answer is probably not. Yoga is a valuable tool. It builds muscular strength, flexibility, and emotional wellness. It also develops an important component of fitness often overlooked in the West: respiratory fitness.

That seems like a lot, and it is. All of the above are necessary. But they are not the complete fitness picture. Western forms of exercise provide an important and missing piece: cardiovascular–also known as aerobic–fitness, which is an essential component of heart health.

Cardiovascular Fitness versus Respiratory Fitness

The cardiovascular and respiratory systems are separate yet closely related.

Respiratory Fitness (Pranayama, Asana, Respiratory Therapy)

• Increases the respiratory system’s ability to oxygenate cells
• Improves respiration rate, profusion rate and oxygen utilization at a cellular level

Asana and pranayama are excellent tools for impacting this–much better than Western aerobic exercises.

Cardiovascular Fitness (Jogging, Cycling, Zumba)

• Raises the pulse rate
• Strengthens the heart muscle and increases circulation

Yoga tools, including asana and pranayama, are not as well suited for this type of fitness as Western aerobic exercises.

Students often seem disappointed to learn this.  After all, the ancient yogis used yoga (almost exclusively) to develop health and mental wellbeing.  But those yogis lived in a different time, with completely different lifestyles.  They lived very physical lives, practiced yoga, pranayama, and chant daily, and ate whole foods that were much less likely to cause heart disease than the overly-processed foods we consume now.

The typical American yogi, on the other hand is likely to work eight or more hours at her desk job, park as close as possible to yoga class, then go home to binge on potato chips while watching someone else chant on American Idol.  Heart disease is epidemic in our culture. Frankly, we’d be delusional to compare our lifestyles to those of yogis thousands of years ago.

All that said, yoga is an important part of mental and physical wellness.  I’d be the last one to minimize its benefits.  Just ask my grandmother who died of emphysema, my friends with asthma, or my clients with anxiety and depression.  Breathing is as important as life itself. In fact, breath is the essence of life,

Nonetheless, I still ride an exercise bike three times a week, and I wouldn’t consider giving it up, in spite of my yoga practice.  I’ve never claimed that yoga is a panacea able to cure all ills—but it can do a lot.  Not just for the body, but also for the mind. I hope you’ll make it part of your wellness routine.

Namaste

Tracy Weber

Come visit Whole Life Yoga in Seattle!