Are you breathing?

Are you breathing?

I ask my students this several times during our workouts together. It is amazing to me how many people forget to breathe while training.

My point of course it to get them to release built up tension and help them to get through the class safely and effectively.  What I do notice is that many people struggle to take in a deep breath.

Often their in-breath is very shallow. I watch as they have to scrunch up their shoulders in order to fill their lungs even just a bit. 

Try this: 

Sit tall on the edge of your chair and breathe in deeply through your nose.  First your nose may be blocked so you need to try to clear that in order to breathe properly. Try to breathe in for a count of 4 and then exhale through your mouth for the same count but this time pretend you are breathing out through a straw and control the flow of the breath.

When we practice this, we can actually improve our ability to take in more oxygen and as a result we will have more energy and feel calmer.

In class, I ask students to check in with their breath as it is an indication of how we are doing physically.  If our breath is short and choppy, we may be pushing ourselves too hard. This applies to regular life as well. We may be rushing around so much trying to get so many things done, that only someone else can see that we are out of breath.

Do you want to feel calmer?

Do you want to have more energy?

Then begin each day by focusing on your breath. Do the following exercise before you get out of bed, before the mind starts to take over and you begin to worry about the day ahead.

I want you to place one hand on your heart and one hand on your abdomen. Slowly inhale, feeling your belly rise, ribs rise and chest rise and then reverse this by exhaling until there is no more air left in your lungs. I want you to do this while counting up for 4 with the in breath and down from 4 with the out breath.  Just focus on the quality of your breath.

Eventually you will be able to increase the length of your in breath. I know this to be true because when I first started doing this exercise 4 years ago, my breath was very shallow. It felt like my chest was going to burst if I tried to take in any more air. 

Clients have reported to me that simply doing this every day has helped them to lower their blood pressure and improve their quality of life.

Isn't that what we all want?

Check in with your breath several times today. You will be happy you did.

Enjoy the sun everyone!

Beth