No one can live without breathing, but not everyone takes advantage of the health benefits of breathing consciously. Among those who do are yogis, who call the breath "prana" -- a Sanskrit word for the universal life force. They believe infusing the body with oxygen animates subtle energies that bestow health and vibrancy. Their deep-breathing practices, as well as those of anyone wishing to derive the same benefits, depend on a well-developed abdomen.
Normal Breathing Vs, Abdominal Breathing
Until you develop your abdominal muscles, your breathing tends to remain shallow and focused in the upper part of your lungs. Chest breathing is inefficient, because the lower lobes of the lungs absorb more oxygen than the upper ones, and it requires more breaths than if you use your diaphragm. The diaphragm, located in the upper abdomen, causes the abdomen to expand when it contracts, creating negative pressure in the chest that sucks air into the lungs. When you use it to breathe, you absorb more oxygen and expend less effort in the process, which is ultimately relaxing.
Abdominal Breathing
The American Medical Student Association recommends a simple technique to familiarize yourself with abdominal breathing. After placing one hand on your chest and the other on your abdomen, take in a slow, deep breath while contracting your diaphragm. Paradoxically, this is the same as expanding your abdomen, so if it helps, visualize your abdomen expanding instead of your diaphragm contracting. If you do it correctly, the hand on your abdomen should rise higher than the one on your chest. Hold the breath for seven counts, then exhale slowly, watching the hand on your abdomen move down and counting to eight as you do. Repeat five times.
Additional Techniques
Two additional breathing methods can help you strengthen your diaphragm and give you more control over it. Bellows breathing is one. Do it by closing your mouth and making a series of short inhales and exhales through your nose, contracting your diaphragm as you breathe. Make the breaths as short as possible, but stop if you begin to feel lightheaded or dizzy. In a similar exercise from Tai Chi practice, you take three inhalations, holding your breath between each one. Hold your arms out in front of you on the first inhale, stretch them to the sides on the second and hold them over your head on the third. Lower them as you exhale slowly.
Humming, Chanting and Singing
Adding sound to your breathing not only makes it easier to stay focused, it also strengthens your diaphragm by forcing you to use it to produce the sounds. Humming and chanting are meditative techniques practiced for millennia because sound has its own healing quality. Singers use variations to develop the tension in their diaphragms that they need to hit high notes. A simple exercise is to pick a note that is easy for you and hold the volume steady through five breaths, then vary it while you do five more. Finally, vary the note as you finish the exercise by taking five more breaths.
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