How are You Breathing?

Considering we must breathe to live, you would think we would be better at it. However, most people are stress-breathers, and they aren’t getting high volumes of oxygen to their brain and body. This is what can cause feelings of fatigue and sleepiness. When we are stressed, we tend to take shallow breaths from the upper part of our lungs. Breathing is usually rapid and unproductive. How are you breathing?

Yoga breathing teaches us to draw deep breaths from way down in our lunges to fill the lungs up and then exhale out all air. This requires time and slows our breathing way down, thus why yoga breathing calms us down and creates a sense of feeling centered.

When we are doing cardiovascular exercise, our heartrate goes up, and our breathing changes. Yet, our breaths shouldn’t be shallow. We should still strive for deep breaths, but they will be quicker due to the requirement made by exertion.  Breathing out of the nose should be impossible when at your exercise zone due to the high volume of oxygen you have taken in. Those who continue shallow breathing during cardio tend to get dizzy and lightheaded.

We should slow our breathing down when lifting weights in order to maintain good posture and form. Those who lift weights fast are using momentum and not their muscles. Proper breathing is inhaling on the easy part (lowering your arms for biceps) and exhaling out on the challenging part (curling up your arm). Inhaling gets oxygen where it is needed, and exhaling gives you a little push when you need it.

During the day, pay attention to how you are breathing. Take in account what you are doing and adjust your breathing accordingly. All breathing is not the same, and I hope you have learned something new today to help you breathe better.

Remember, I have a DVD called Yoga with Lorraine offering two programs, both of which will help you slow your breathing down to de-stress.