How to Breathe Better

I am a retired physician who learned how to breathe properly some 40 years ago. I have no doubt that it has contributed greatly to my overall health, and to my ability to play numerous sports over the years.?

I am saddened that everyone who has a good idea about health wants to sell it.?

I want to give this technique away, and I want it to go viral. So please try it, and when you benefit, send this to all your friends.

This technique of breathing coordination was developed by Carl Stough (Dr Breath!), a respiratory therapist and a choir director, who helped people with breathing issues over the years, and gradually developed his technique. I was fortunate to have been treated by Carl, and one could say trained by him. At the time, he felt that only he could perform this technique, and that was probably true for some cases.?

However, his brilliant technique for strengthening the diaphragm, the major muscle in breathing, can be practiced by most everyone. After a person practices this technique for a bit, as much as 80% of breathing will be accomplished by the diaphragm, and only 20% by the expansion of the rib cage.

I could describe this technique in my own words, but since the non-profit Stough Institute describes it very well, and since I will refer anyone who needs further assistance to their website, I prefer to quote them directly. Since the diaphragm is under autonomic control, it cannot be exercised directly like abdominal muscles. But this is how it CAN be developed to make greater excursions, and thus larger and more fulfilling breaths.

What You Can Do to Help Yourself

In practicing Breathing Coordination, it is advisable to lie on your back with a pillow under your knees and a pillow under your head. In this position the diaphragm is not working against gravity and you are not bringing any voluntary muscle into play just to balance and support the body. The hardest thing you have to do is to think that you are not going to work. You are not going to work on the inhale or the exhale.

The goal is to extend the exhale to its natural conclusion. You make sure the jaw is loose and you open your mouth on the inhale. This doesn't mean you have to do all mouth breathing; but at this point, it helps to keep your throat open. After the inhale comes, you start with the only thing that can be called an exercise, making audible sound. This is the developing process. It is like a weight lifter lifting weights. So, you should start to count very simply. Sometimes it is better to start with two at a time.

That means that you count quietly until the inhale comes as a reflex. When the inhale comes, you count "1-2" out loud; then you count quietly (almost a whisper) again to relax the rest of that exhale as far as it will go until the next breath comes. Then you count "1-2-3-4" and continue in this manner. If that is very, very easy for you, you may increase the count by 5's instead of by 2's. For example: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10; then start over from 1.

The other important thing to remember is that ultimately you want to be heard. That doesn't mean that you are making an effort to be loud; but at the same time, you have to think of projecting the sound, otherwise the throat won't stay open when you're making sound.

If this goes easily, every so often prop your knees up and let your knees swing from side-to-side to loosen the lower back. You may also put your hands together in front of you and let them swing from side-to-side to loosen your shoulders. All of this should be done while you are lying down. Also, be sure that while you are making the swing and moving the body, you are doing that on an exhale; and counting quietly helps to keep that exhale going.

The point is to be able to extend the exhale as long as possible with sound, but not by making a great deal of effort. You never want to force when either inhaling or exhaling. Just the fact of priming the diaphragm to make the sound is enough. You may be able to get to a length of count of 40 or 50 without rushing, but keeping it moving, by doing it in a sort of sing-song manner. If you do a count that is too precise, the diaphragm may not be moving smoothly. Whereas, if you make a sort of sing-song sound, you are making one single effort.

While you are counting, you can make sure that the diaphragm is rising. If the diaphragm tenses, you can feel the pressure in your lower abdomen, between your hip bones. The lower abdomen is not contracting, but it drops inward when the diaphragm rises. When the diaphragm rises, everything above it and below it releases, so that you can feel the chest and the lower abdomen both dropping toward your spine.

If the count goes too far and the diaphragm begins to tense, you feel the pressure in the lower abdomen. Don't push past that. When this becomes easy, you may see whether you can accomplish the same thing sitting or standing. The sensation should be similar.

In addition to the quiet counting, you may also do "la-la-la" sounds, in which the tongue moves from behind the top teeth to behind the bottom teeth. It does not involve the jaw. This can be done without any sound and with the mouth hardly open, so that you can use it any time, any place, just for relaxation and to prime the exhale.

The best time to practice is the first thing in the morning and the last thing at night. You should prime your breathing before you start making physical demands. If you do it the last thing before bed, it should be very relaxing, you get better sleep, and your breathing doesn't become too shallow.

Of course, at any time in your schedule that is convenient, you may practice for about 10 minutes. The more you do it, the faster you can develop, as long as it is done in a relaxed manner. The length of the practice should depend on your success. If it is going very well and you have the time, you should continue much longer. If it is not going well, let it go and come back to it at a later time.

There is one other technique that I want to tell you about. It is a technique used by Dr Breath for athletes at the end of an exertion or a race. In 1968 at Lake Tahoe, California, he taught this to Olympic athletes, and they won more medals than ever before at 5000 feet of elevation at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City!

He showed them how to BREATHE OUT at the end of a race, not IN. When they did this, the athletes would automatically take a breath in which was much larger than usual, because they got to use “dead space” that was not usually brought into play. As a result, they ran faster, because they were less afraid of the oxygen deprivation that normally occurs at the end of a race!

This article is dedicated to everyone in the world who wishes for better health!

Try it, you’ll like it!