Now that you’re exercising - Are you breathing?
Comments(7) I practice yoga as much as I can during the week, about 3 to 4 times. I would like to do it 7 days a week but I don’t have time to get it all in. The classes I attend varies in degrees of difficulty. Some class are more meditiative while others are about building strength and power. I supplement my yoga practice with Pilates as well as my cardio and strength exercises.
In most of my classes, Yoga, Pilates, strength, even my cardio classes like kickboxing, the instructors always tell us to breathe. I know when I first started out I was so focused on learning the move, whether it’s concentrating on lifting my weights properly or learning how to go into a pose in yoga or pilates. In the process I automatically hold my breath and only when I hear the breathing cue from my instructor do I inhale/exhale.
I would like to share with you a great blog on the breathing, here it’s referring to the yoga breath - but it applies to the importance of the breath when we exercise too.
One of the Five Principles of Yoga is Pranayama or Breathing Exercise which promotes proper breathing. The Yogis realized the importance of an adequate oxygen supply thousands of years ago that is why they developed and perfected various Breathing Techniques that will help to revitalize the mind and the body.
Pranayama - the science of breath control, consist a series of exercises intended to meet these needs and to keep the body in vibrant health.
Proper Breathing in a Yogic point of view is to bring more oxygen to the blood and to the brain, and to control prana or the vital life energy.
These techniques have also proved to help the prevention of major diseases and cure minor illnesses.
Breathing is important for two basic reasons.
It is the only means of supplying our bodies and its various organs with oxygen which is vital for our health.
Breathing is one of the ways to get rid of waste products and toxins from our body.
Why Oxygen is so vital?
Oxygen is the most vital nutrient in our bodies.
It is essential for the proper and efficient functioning of the brain, nerves, Glands and other internal organs.
We can survive without food for weeks and without water for days, but without oxygen we will die within a few minutes.
If the brain does not get proper supply of this essential nutrient, it will cause degradation of all the vital organs of the body.
The brain requires more oxygen than any other organ. If it doesn’t get enough, the result is mental sluggishness, negative thoughts, depression and, eventually, vision and hearing declines. Oxygen supply in our body, however, declines as we get older and if we live a poor lifestyle.
Oxygen purifies the blood stream
One of the major secrets of energy and rejuvenation is a purified blood stream. The quickest and most effective way to purify the blood stream is by taking in extra supplies of oxygen from the air we breathe. The Breathing Exercises described in this website are the most effective methods ever devised for saturating the blood with extra oxygen. So here are a few things about what oxygen do to our body:
Oxygen recharges the body’s batteries (the solar plexus).
Most of our energy requirements come, not from food, but from the air we breathe.
By purifying the blood stream, every part of the body benefits, as well as the mind.
Rejuvenation of the skin will start to occur.
Scientists have discovered that the chemical basis of energy production in the body is a chemical called Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP). If something goes wrong with the production of ATP, the result is lowered vitality, disease and premature aging.
Scientists have also discovered that oxygen is critical for the production of ATP; in fact, it is in fact its most vital component.
The work done at Baylor University in the USA has shown that you can reverse Arterial Disease in monkeys by infusing oxygen into the diseased arteries.
Yoga permits us to tap into this vital nutrient.
Importance of Healthy Breathing
We know how to breathe. It is something that occurs automatically, spontaneously, and naturally. We are breathing even when we are not aware of it. So it seems foolish to think that one can be told how to breathe. Yet, one’s breathing becomes modified and restricted in various ways, not just momentarily but habitually. We develop unhealthy habits without being aware of it. For example:
We tend to assume positions such as slouching that diminishes lung capacity to function properly, which result to shortened breaths.
We also live in social conditions that are not good for the health of our Respiratory System.
A normally sedentary person, when confronted with a perplexing problem, tends to lean forward, draw his arms together, and bend his head down. All these body postures result to reduced lung capacity. However, we also tend to have some bad habits that affect our breathing and here are a few reasons.
As our duties, responsibilities and their attendant problems become more demanding; we develop habits of forgetting to breathe.
The more we concentrate on something, the tenser the muscles become. This leads to the contraction of the muscles in your arms, neck and chest.
The muscles that move the thorax and control inhalation and muscular tenseness clamp down and restrict the exhalation.
The breaths become shorter and shorter.
After an extended period of intense focusing, the whole system seems to be frozen in a certain posture.
We become fatigued from the decreased circulation of blood and from the decreased availability of oxygen for the blood because we have almost stopped breathing.
Try an experiment suggested by Swami Vishnudevananda:
Focus attention upon the ticks of a clock placed at a distance of about twelve feet.
If you get distracted, try concentrating harder until you experience the ticking with undivided attention.
If you fail at first, you should try again and again until you succeed in keeping the ticking clearly in mind for at least a few seconds.
What happened? The majority of persons who took part in this experiment reported that they have completely suspended the breath. The others, who concentrated less, reported that they experienced very slow breathing.
This experiment shows clearly that where there is concentration of the mind, the breathing becomes very slow or even gets suspended temporarily.
What’s Wrong with the Way We Breathe?
Our breathing is too shallow and too quick.
We are not taking in sufficient oxygen and we are not eliminating sufficient carbon dioxide. As a result, our bodies are oxygen starved, and a toxic build-up occurs. Every cell in the body requires oxygen and our level of vitality is just a product of the health of all the cells.
Shallow breathing does not exercise the lungs enough, so they lose some of their function, causing a further reduction in vitality.
Animals which breathe slowly live the longest; the elephant is a good example. We need to breathe more slowly and deeply.
Quick shallow breathing results in oxygen starvation which leads to reduced vitality, premature ageing, poor immune system and a myriad of other factors.
