more lung strengtheners

more breathing for the lockdown

and beyond

poses to help with breathing

very good for asthmatics

build up your lungs which helps with endurance and immunity

Many thanks to Dr Swami Gitananda Giri who taught these in New Zealand (Aotearoa) in the early 1970s. I have been forever grateful to have learnt some profound yoga from him. 

These are for "forcing" breath into areas of the lungs. What happens is that the breath quite naturally goes to the relevant area of the lungs. It really helps if you feel as though you are breathing deep into your whole lungs, from bottom to top, and then exhaling deeply pulling in your abdominals to assist. Relax your abdomen to inhale.

   

cat pose

The main posture for doing this complete breath is the cat pose. Start on hands and knees, palms flat on the floor under your shoulders. You can open even wider if it assists breathing in the pose. It consists of two movements for:

• inhale as you tilt your tailbone up, abs go down, lungs wide and sort of "lifting up", head up
• exhale as tailbone tucks under (keep buttocks soft), lift your abs to the ceiling squeezing them, tuck your head under chin towards collarbone

The whole lung area is used. In the hundreds of yoga classes that I have taught over decades, and for myself, this is the main pose that I nearly always tried to include. Not only does it:

• warm up the spine
• it positively affects all of the nervous systems to do with the spine. A strong nervous sytem is essential for mental and emotional well-being. When we are happier, our health is better, we have more resistance to whatever ills are going around. We might still get them, but at a lesser level
• this pose uses our whole lungs. Front, sides, back, lower, mid, upper. So, as simple as it is, it is very powerful
• do this three to six times. Three times on a daily basis is fine
• in the morning when prana (life force) is higher, it gives us a reduction in inflammation, from the deep breathing and this helps with digestion, as well as breathing 
• in the evening, it encourages deep breathing whilst we sleep, and in this way we have deeper sleep

If you can only do one of these poses, I recommend the cat pose.

beginners camel pose

Kneel up high with knees and feet shoulder width apart. We are going to do the beginner version. 

Lift up your chest, push your hips forwards, shoulder blades down, drop head back. Drop your arms, or clasp your hands together behind your back. Breathe deeply in and out, three to six times

To make it stronger, breathe in deeply, and do three to six mukha bhastrikas on the exhale. Do one to three breaths this way

Relax in child pose after. This will calm your nervous system and adrenal glands. When we are stressed, both of these need calming for optimum mental and emotional health. 

This is a very important backward bend. For those who are more adept, start sitting on your lower legs, and rise up on the inhale into the pose, lower down on the exhale.

Camel pose forces air into the lower area of the lungs, where a lot of the important work of the lungs is done.

simple fish pose

Sit with your legs together or even hip distance apart, in front of you. Lean back onto your right elbow/forearm, then your left. Thrust your chest upwards, drop the head back. Breathe deeply in and out three to six times. To come out, push hard onto your right up as you lift your torso. Lie on floor, and take a few relaxed breaths, or just sit and do this.

• fish pose forces air into the mid lungs
• it affects the thymus gland very favourably, and this is our immunity gland. The camel pose does this too 
• both fish and camel are strong on the thyroid gland
• the nerves of the solar plexus are positively affected with the stretching, with camel and fish. The solar plexus is intimately connected to our emotional well-being  
• there are nerves connecting the lungs and spine, and these too come into play
• on an esoteric level, the lungs and heart are connected. As a healer, I can definitely tell you that strengthening the nerve connections of the lungs, helps make us emotionally stronger    

flower bower pose

Nowadays known as anahata (heart chakra) pose.  From all fours, place your arms forwards of your shoulders, on the floor. The arms are bent and relaxed (unlike the above photo), elbows a bit out to the sides. Chest is on the floor. Turn your head to one side,  be relaxed (this is not about stretching as in the above photo!) and breathe deeply three to six times. Now turn your head to the other side, and repeat.

This pose releases tension from the upper lungs, so I repeat "relaxed arms, elbows bent sideways".  When we have an asthma attack, we are unable to breathe out due to the tension in our uppermost parts of our lungs. Learning how to do this pose will definitely help keep that area moving with the breath.

Rest after in child. Arms alongside the body or under your head if you can't lower your buttocks to your heels. 

Please note: These poses can be quite strong for someone who has been sick, or has asthma, so if this is you, only do them once per day, three breaths each, to start with. They will bring up mucus. Any problems? Ask me about them in the comments section and I shall reply (in that section)

Disclaimer: as simple as the techniques from today and last week, are, they are not intended to replace inhalers, medication and such. For bronchial, pneumonia and similar, please do not do these until you have recovered.