Diaphragmatic breathing
This is also known as belly breathing:
- Relax your shoulders and sit back or lie down.
- Place one hand on your belly and one on your chest.
- Inhale through your nose for 2 seconds, feeling the air move into your abdomen and feeling your stomach move out. Your stomach should move more than your chest does.
- Breathe out for 2 seconds through pursed lips while pressing on your abdomen.
- Repeat.
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It's the total amount of air that your lungs can hold.
Over time, our lung capacity and lung function typically decrease slowly as we age after our mid-20s. Also, some medical conditions contribute to the reduction of our lung functioning. These lead to difficulty in breathing and shortness of breath.
It slows down your breathing, making it easier for the lungs to function and improves the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide:
- Inhale slowly through your nostrils.
- Purse your lips, as if pouting or about to blow on something.
- Breathe out as slowly as possible through pursed lips. This should take at least twice as long as it did to breathe in.
- Repeat.
Prevention is the best medicine:
- Stop smoking, and avoid secondhand smoke.
- Eat foods rich in antioxidants.
- Get vaccinations like the flu vaccine and the pneumonia vaccine.
- Exercise frequently.
- Improve indoor air quality. Use tools like indoor air filters and reduce pollutants like artificial fragrances, mold, and dust.
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A health condition that affects an individual’s ability to breathe well, often associated with other conditions such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Symptoms include: wheezing, chest tightness, shortness of breath, and large amounts of mucus that collect in the lungs.
Symptoms can worsen with time, but practicing breathing exercises can help you to manage them.
- Stand up straight and bend forward at the waist. Bend knees slightly, letting your arms hang limply, close to the floor.
- Inhale slowly and deeply, and return to a standing position by slowly rolling your body up, lifting your head last.
- Exhale slowly as you return to your original position.
- Stretch your muscles a little, and repeat.
Try this breathing technique first thing in the morning. It can help minimize muscle tension throughout the entire day.
Breathing is living. It is a vital function of life. In yoga, we refer to this as pranayama.
Prana is a Sanskrit word that means life force and ayama means extending or stretching.
Thus, the word “pranayama” translates to the control of life force. It is also known as the extension of breath. Every cell in our bodies needs oxygen to function properly.