The Hot Yoga Doctor – Free Bikram and Hot Yoga Resources › Hot Yoga Doctor Forum › General Hot Yoga Discussion › Hot Yoga *faq* › Breathing v panting?
The Hot Yoga Doctor – Free Bikram and Hot Yoga Resources › Hot Yoga Doctor Forum › General Hot Yoga Discussion › Hot Yoga *faq* › Breathing v panting?
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Good morning!
I have a newbie question about breathing please:
I try to regulate my (very!) increased heart rate during the warm-up and standing series by breathing (very!) deeply and loudly through my nose as we were taught to do in other yoga classes. Should I be doing something differently with my breath in Bikram?
In other words how does a teacher know when a student is having breath problems: Is it when they breathe too fast? Or too loudly? Maybe both of these? Or maybe something else?
Not sure whether this is relevant, but I think that my lung capacity is OK because after a lot of practice, I can easily breathe in for a long count of 10 and out for a long count of 10 (in fact deep loud breathing is mostly what gets me through hard exercise). But maybe I’m wrong and my lung capacity/fitness is not great and in fact this is the area I need much more work on? Or maybe in Bikram I need to learn to breathe in ways not used in my other fitness classes? I’d be grateful to hear any thoughts.
Many thanks
Max
Hello Max
With what you say it does seem that you have a pretty good breathing capacity!
Would you be able to tell me from where the sounds emanates when you breathe? You mention you breathe through your nose. Is that also where the sound is coming from?
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Hi Gabrielle,
Thank you. Yes, the sound is coming from my nose. I thought long and hard about it during Bikram yesterday and think I may have an answer:
When I started Ashtanga and I found an asana like Warrior tough, I was told to “breathe into it” which to my mind meant breathe deeper, louder, harder through my nose. I now realise that in any yoga (Bikram or Ashtanga), I’ve started doing this heavy breathing(!) habitually whether I “need” to or not i.e. whether I’m finding an asana difficult to hold or not.
So yesterday I did a Bikram class and for a change tried just breathing lightly and fairly shallowly all the way through just to see what would happen. And guess what: for the first time in the 3 weeks I’ve been doing Bikram, the class was much easier, I came out not nearly as hot as usual nor feeling dizzy or anything.
I *felt* like I had been cheating, not trying hard enough – so I asked the teacher whether it looked like I’d be slacking a bit compared to before. She said no and that my postures looked pretty much the same as previously e.g. my back bends were just as high etc. The only difference is that I wasn’t breathing as loudly and deeply as before and I didn’t end the class exhausted.
So it seems to me – please correct me if I’m wrong – that I’m able (so far) to achieve the same level of postures but with much less breathing effort. I think I was maybe trying too hard and killing myself?
Namaste
Max
Your description said you were using shallower breaths, but maybe you were actually using 80/20 (recommended) breathing? Are you familiar with that approach?
Thank you. I have heard the term used but I’ve never really understood it.
Hello Max and bunni
At the risk of being contentious (as per Bikram lore) there is no such thing as 80/20 breathing. There is no numerical quantification that one should give to one’s breathing. There is only breathing. There is only the awareness of breath as per the quality and the depth of the breath, the ability to breathe related to the position of the body. So, for example, one might find it easier to have a deeper fall body breath in Standing Bow (which is a back bend). But with the Backbend (in Half Moon) one might find it very hard to breathe deeply. In Standing Bow one is more likely to find that the diaphragm can extend into the abdominal space and the belly feels free to move outward. In contrast to that, in a Half Moon Backbend, one finds that the elongation and extension of the spine stretches the abdomen in such a way that there is a real physical limitation to distension. In that way one feels that they cannot have a full body breath and naturally the breath is shallower. I invite comments.
Max, if the sound is coming from your nose, I believe that the focus may need to shift from there. What I have understood from your descriptions is that the effort of breathing through your nose (and audibly so) has exhausted you somewhat.
The focus and attention needs to be to feel and hear the sound from the throat. Don’t use your vocal chords. There is never a singing sound or a note. Just a rushing sound. It should sound like a nice white sound, like wind or the sea.
If I can try to give you an idea of how to make that sound and create that deeper, more easy breath (that is really rather fulfilling and satisfying) it would be to try to make a ‘ha’ sound like a hairdryer but with the mouth closed. Some like to say it’s a ‘Darth Vader’ sound. If that doesn’t make sense to you, I will try to put other words to it!
Have fun experimenting. If you have had a habit of breathing in a certain way, it may take a few classes to create your new habit. Or, it could happen straight away in an ‘aha’ kind of moment. Let me know 😉
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Hi Gabrielle
Many thanks, that’s really helpful (though not necessarily easy! :). I think the main learning point for me is that in order to make the ha sound with the mouth closed that comes more from the throat than the nose means that my throat needs to be really relaxed/wide open. I can practice this, but in some ways it seems like different advice from your Pranayama video where you speak about deliberately constricting the airways to slow down the movement of air? Surely it’s more difficult to make a ha sound with constricted passages?
Thanks again.
Namaste
Max
Hi Max
What you saw on the video is the technique that I recommend to you. If your throat is completely open then the principles of flow are not as effectively instituted as when there is that slight constriction. If you make that ‘ha’ sound like a hairdryer then it really needs to be felt at the throat in such a way as the air accelerates, whether the mouth is open or closed and whether the breath is moving in or out. Does that make sense? I do think I understand what you’re saying, that when you close your mouth that the constriction there may seem to change a little (to feel more open with that ‘ha’ exercise). Is that what you’re feeling? For us it could be terminology and we could be saying the same thing. If not, then that’s fine too. 😉 I know we’ll get there.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Hi Gabrielle
Thank you. I think I understand – it sounds complicated, but like most things Bikram it’s probably not! What I have learned is that:
1. Constricting when I breathe in to slow things down seems to help a bit especially in the initial pranayama
2. Relaxing helps my balances (which is at odds with someone telling me every muscle should be tense!). Yet when I am tense, I am nervous and falling over is more likely.
We’re getting there 🙂
Namaste
Hi Max
Slowing down the breath is really such a benefit for you. The more you can generalise it out to your whole practice the better. Mind you, that’s a lofty task so don’t be concerned that it will take time to a) use it for all of pranayama and b) use it for even part of the rest of your class.
Ideally one should aim for conscious breathing (like this) for the whole class. That’s nigh impossible because of our flighty natures and what we have space for to stay mindful of!
One step at a time. Being present to breathe, to notice the breathing and being present with everything you’re doing is something you’ll work on every single class from now on. Some days you’ll just suck at that. Other days it will be easier.
Can you tell me what you’re being told to do in regards to everything being tense? I know for sure that at the moment in the public classes I am attending (that are recital led) that there is often instruction that is misleading. “Contract every muscle” for poses where that’s not possible to orchestrate. Sometimes those instructions are just figurative and not literal. Use your awareness to pick and choose what will work!
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Hi Gabrielle,
Thanks. The Bikram script does talk about every muscle being tense in the Balancing Stick, but that’s not my problem pose anyway; my main difficulty is Standing Bow and Standing Head to Knee. One issue is that my arms don’t seem as long as everyone elses! 🙂 (But I find the back exercises relatively easy funnily enough). I suspect standing series will never be great because I have hyperflexible hips and major pronation (not helped by being a bit overweight).
The breath work is actually getting better, but there is no way I can breathe only through my mouth after attempting Standing Bow because it is such a struggle (what with falling out and trying to get back in).
Anyway I find your views really helpful so any advice is so welcome.
Warm wishes
Namaste
Max
Hi Max
It’s a classic problem really! Any pose is a balance of muscles that need to be active and others that need to be released. Sounds obvious. But what I think is happening is in these 2 particular poses you’re using muscles that are not supposed to be used. There’s likely an element of that overuse of muscles in other poses too. But of course let’s start at those 2.
So, please let me ask you a question or 3. 😉
1> In what particular sense do you think your arms aren’t “as long as everyone else’s”? At what part of the poses is this evident and why? Get specific as you can for me please.
2> In Standing Head to Knee, are “all 10 fingers interlocked including the thumbs”?
3> In Standing Bow are you “charging your body forward toward the mirror, bringing your body down parallel to the floor”?They are 3 good questions to answer first. I have many more but they’ll do for starters.
Good news about your breathing! Yay (Did you actually mean that breathing through your nose is difficult after Standing Bow?)
I suspect that will improve after we work out what you’re doing in the aforementioned poses. Believe it or not, there are a couple of things you’re doing or could be made aware of that will make your breathing easy, and make the poses challenging and satisfying without the struggle! Bet you can’t wait.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Morning Gabrielle,
Many thanks. Now those are interesting questions because I don’t think I’m that conscious about my muscle use yet (long way to go!).
1> In what particular sense do you think your arms aren’t “as long as everyone else’s”? At what part of the poses is this evident and why? Get specific as you can for me please.
The first time I notice it is during standing head to knee in that my hands aren’t long enough to reach under my foot no matter how far I lean forward. But thinking about it, it’s also a problem in half-moon hands to feet since there’s no way I can get my hands under my heels (I always think that’s cause my tummy is too big).
2> In Standing Head to Knee, are “all 10 fingers interlocked including the thumbs”?
Sadly I’m not even close to getting my fingers under my foot (they’re interlocked way above my foot)
3> In Standing Bow are you “charging your body forward toward the mirror, bringing your body down parallel to the floor”?
Yes, that’s exactly what I try to do just before I fall over :). I find balancing on one foot really hard (except for Tree funnily enough)
And to be honest, no, I can’t wait to get all of this right since I’m loving my Bikram! I manage to go 5 times a week usually so I have a lot of motivation to improve and appreciate your input 🙂
Namaste
Max
Hi Max
Please give me a couple of days. There is a lot of stuff I need to type to get you moving in the right direction. You have given me many clues! 😉
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂Hi Max
I am pretty sure you have my book. Can you confirm that for me? Because if you do, I can direct you to specific pages and photos to help enhance what I respond here.
Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂 -
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