mikemo6string

Thanks for your reply, Gabrielle! I should have made it clear that I am a Bikram yoga teacher, and try as I might, I can’t get other teachers to bend on this one. Sucking the stomach in on the inhale has never made sense to me, and I’m looking for specific references I might point out to my fellow teachers. Even when I cite the anatomical connection between diaphragm and ribs, (specifically that a sucked in stomach forces the abdominal organs in, and the diaphragm up, pulling the ribs back down), I get responses like: “Holding the belly in essentially forces the lungs to expand in the ribcage, thus opening the ribcage. Lung capacity is ultimately limited by the expanding capacity of the ribs. The more expanding capacity in the ribs, the more expanding capacity in the lungs…” That sounds like chest breathing to me. The lower lobes of the lungs are limited by the position of the diaphragm.

Anyway, this “stomach in” thing during the inhale of pranayama is used by every teacher I know, including senior teachers in the Bikram world. And I can’t seem to just “let it go.” Don’t get me wrong: I love the yoga, and love teaching it even more. It just seems to be a significant flaw in teaching students to breathe deeply and effectively, and it bothered me even before I went to the teacher training.

I did watch the video again before composing this post, and you don’t particularly address why sucking the stomach in IS NOT correct. In your response you mention that “it doesn’t make sense for a number of reasons.” Could you help me understand what those are, specifically?

Thanks again. Cheers. Perhaps I’ll see you in Costa Rica!