Straw breathing can help you regain your calm and slow your heart rate. When you are stressed or panicked, you may take short, shallow breaths. This causes a lack of oxygen that restricts blood flow and leads your muscles to tense, according to University of Minnesota health experts. Getting more air into your body not only slows your heart rate, it also lowers your blood pressure. Straw breathing teaches you to gain the air you need. It can also help you with yoga and if you are a musical performer.
Basic Technique
With the basic straw breathing technique, inhale normally and then fully exhale through a plastic drinking straw. Ensure all of the air is exhaled from your lungs. Inhale normally again without the straw and exhale fully out the straw. Perform this exercise twice daily for five minutes at a time, the University of Minnesota experts recommend. A good time to practice is when you are stuck in traffic.
Yoga Breathing
Lie in a reclined position with your back against a 3-inch bolster. Ensure that the muscles in your lower back are released. Extend your legs straight out and allow them to rest about a foot apart. Use a blanket or bolster to raise your head, so your forehead is slightly higher than your chin. Place a long straw in your mouth. Breathe in through your nose and out through the straw. Ensure you breathe out gently, but exhale all of your air. Touch your tongue to the roof of your mouth as you breathe in again to prevent inhaling through your mouth, Donna Farhi instructs in her book, "Yoga Mind, Body and Spirit." Perform this exercise for three minutes. Straw breathing is meant to re-teach you to breathe from your diaphragm. You may halve your breaths per minute when using this technique, notes Farhi.
Voice Training
Blow through a straw as if you were blowing a candle out. Aim your breath steadily at a point two yards in front of you. Place a hand on your belly and feel it flatten as you breathe out. Let your breath come in via your nose and fill your belly, immediately breathing out again. Breathe out in a steady stream like you would as you sigh. Create an easy pattern. Next, add an "oo" as you exhale through the straw. Continue for 10 breaths. Finally, change the pitch on each new breath. This helps you connect sound to supported breath and strengthens support of your voice, Janet B. Rodgers notes in her book, "Complete Voice and Speech Workout."
