Diaphragmatic Breathing: Techniques and Instructions

Note. This website uses words "diaphragmatic breathing" and

"abdominal breathing" interchangeably (as synonyms). Technically
speaking, there are separate groups of muscles that can stretch or
expand the lower parts of the lungs. However, since the purpose of
breathing retraining is to improve body O2 during automatic
breathing (not during breathing exercises only), this division on
diaphragmatic breathing and abdominal breathing is practically
insignificant. When people have low O2 content in body cells (less than
20 s for the body O2 test), they suffer from chronic chest breathing. With
a certain better result for body O2 in the morning (after sleep), Nature
ensures diaphragmatic breathing 24/7 (details are below). Many yoga
teachers, however, teach about divisions and even subdivisions of
abdominal and diaphragmatic breathing, but they do not know and do
not teach their students about the purpose of yoga. These are usually the
same yoga teachers who claim that breathing more air improves body
O2, and that CO2 is toxic waste gas.

Many modern yoga teachers can teach diaphragmatic breathing exercises

for years, yet their pupils will not have automatic diaphragmatic
breathing during sleep or at rest. The reason is very simple. Their
methods do not address the cause of chest breathing: too fast and too
large breathing causing low body and brain oxygenation. This page
explains how to get basal diaphragmatic breathing.

Diaphragmatic breathing 24/7 is necessary for ideal oxygenation of the

arterial blood (about 98-99%) and efficient lymphatic drainage of
abdominal organs (up to 60% of all lymph nodes are located just under
the diaphragm). This video provides more information about these
effects. (Dr. Artour Rakhimov teaches a live class.)

The ideal automatic breathing pattern at rest is very slow, light, and
mainly abdominal (diaphragmatic breathing). Such small diaphragmatic
breathing increases oxygenation of the human body. Yoga masters and a
few other exceptional people have only 3 small diaphragmatic breaths
per minute at rest (during unconscious breathing). This corresponds to
 about 3 minutes for the body-oxygen test and over 8 minutes for

maximum breath holding time.

When we breathe more than the medical norm at rest (that is only 12
small diaphragmatic breaths per minute with about 500 ml for one
breath), it is called hyperventilation. If deep diaphragmatic breathing
causes CO2 losses, it is called "hyperventilation". Hyperventilation or
deep diaphragmatic breathing reduces oxygen delivery to all vital organs
in the human body. Note that sick people breathe about 2-3 times more
than the medical norm and suffer from low CO2 in the lungs and reduced
O2 levels in body cells (see links below). You may have a brief moment of
even additional hyperventilation (on top of what you have now) when
surprised.

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On this page you will find diaphragmatic breathing exercises and

techniques, but let's begin with a simple test for diaphragmatic breathing
and the cause of chest breathing in modern people.

How to test your own breathing technique

How to check one's predominant automatic breathing technique? Do you
usually breathe using the belly and diaphragm or chest at rest?

Self-test or simple breathing exercise. Put one hand on your

stomach (or abdomen) and the other one on your upper chest (see the
picture on the right). Relax completely so that your breathing dynamic
has little changes. (We want to know more about your usual
unconscious breathing.) Pay attention to your breathing for about 20-
30 seconds. Take 2-3 very slow but deep breaths to feel your breathing
in more detail.

Now you know about your usual breathing technique. In order to be

certain, you can ask other people to observe how you breathe when you
do not pay attention to your breathing (e.g., during sleep, while reading,
studying, etc.).

Abdominal breathing exercises and techniques

Here are three abdominal breathing exercises to test and develop
diaphragmatic breathing.

Exercise 1. Diaphragmatic breathing exercise to check your ability

to move the diaphragm
Diaphragmatic breathing exercise 1: Check your ability to move the
diaphragm. Put your hands on your body as in the picture above. Try to
push out your lower hand (which is on the belly button or navel) with
your abdominal muscles. Can you breathe using your belly only so that
your rib cage and upper hand do not move?

Warning. It is vital for your health, abdominal breathing, good blood

oxygenation, and respiratory and GI health to have a straight spine 24/7.
Correct posture encourages abdominal breathing, while slouching
prevents belly breathing.

Exercise 2. Abdominal respiratory exercises with books

Take 2-3 medium weight books or one large phone book and lie down on
your back with the books on your tummy. Focus on your breathing and
change the way you breathe so that
1) you can lift the books up about 2-3 cm (1 inch) with each inhalation
and then relax to exhale (the books will go down when you relax to
exhale)
2) your rib cage does not expand during inhalations.

Repeat this diaphragmatic breathing exercise for about 3-5 minutes

before your main breathing exercises to reconnect your conscious brain
with the diaphragm. You can practice this exercise for some days until
you are sure that diaphragmatic breathing is the usual way to breathe
during the breathing sessions.

For some people with persistently tense diaphragms, who in addition

have problems with slouching and constipation, magnesium can be an
additional assisting factor.(A lack of magnesium leads to spasm and
tension in body muscles.)

If the diaphragm is still not the main muscle for your automatic
breathing, and/or you have doubts about your ability to keep your chest
relaxed during breathing exercises, apply this ultimate solution.

Exercise 3. Abdominal breathing technique with a belt

You can use a strong belt to restrict your rib cage and force the
diaphragm to be the main breathing muscle using the following
technique.

Put a belt around your lower ribs (in the middle of the trunk) and buckle
it tightly so that you cannot take a deep inhalation using your rib cage or
chest. Now for slow deep inhalations your body needs to use your tummy
(or abdomen). Try it. While leaving the belt in place for some minutes or
even hours, you can acquire diaphragmatic breathing and corresponding
sensations.

This breathing retraining process will be faster, if you focus your

attention on your breathing and try to practice Buteyko reduced
breathing with very light air hunger (taking small inhalations using your
diaphragm and then immediately relaxing it). The focus of attention
makes nervous links between your conscious mind and the diaphragm
reinforced so that you can regain control of this muscle.

When you pay attention to your breathing, be careful not to

hyperventilate. Breathe slowly and remain relaxed so that even if your
inhalations deepen, your CO2 will not lessen.

Do you know that there is one nutrient that helps to relax the diaphragm
and learn diaphragmatic breathing much faster? More details about this
nutrient and how to check your deficiency using a special test are
provided as your bonus content right below here.
Tweet or Share this page to reveal the bonus content.

You need to restore a light and easy automatic breathing pattern or

normalize your breathing in order to have abdominal breathing 24/7.
What are the most effective abdominal breathing techniques? Hatha
yoga and the Buteyko breathing technique help to prevent chest
breathing. There are even more effective ways listed below.

Advanced abdominal respiration exercises for unblocking the

diaphragm
The easiest way, however, to increase the CP and release or unblock the
diaphragm 24/7 is to use breathing devices, such as the Frolov breathing
device and the Amazing DIY breathing device. If one has problems with
abdominal breathing when using these devices, it is smart to use the belt
technique for breathwork. After a few days of such practice, most people
can easily involve the diaphragm for breathwork.

Why modern people do not have abdominal respiration

Modern people breathe about 2 times more air than the medical norm
(see Homepage for details). Hyperventilation causes alveolar hypocapnia
(CO2 deficiency), which reduces blood flow and oxygenation of the
diaphragm muscle, while arterial hypocapnia makes smooth and skeletal
muscles tense, the diaphragm included. If you were to take a close look at
some old movies, you would hardly see any chest breathing at all. This is
because people in the past had only 4-5 L/min for minute ventilation at
rest (modern numbers are about 12 L/min for normal subjects).
Hyperventilation makes modern people oxygen deficient (see
instructions for the body-oxygen test below) and this makes them chest
breathers. Therefore, automatic (unconscious) diaphragmatic breathing
is very rare these days. How to achieve automatic diaphragmatic
breathing? This 2-min video provides the goal (criteria) to achieve.

Abdominal Respiration vs. Chest Breathing

and Body-Oxygen Content

Body-Oxygen Automatic breathing at rest:
 Content diaphragmatic or chest?
1-10 s Virtually always chest
11-20 s Chest in over 90% of people
21-30 s Mostly chest
31-40 s Mostly belly
over 41 s Virtually always belly

As we see from this Table, diaphragmatic breathing usually becomes the

norm (24/7), when the morning body-oxygen level (CP) is over 30 s. It is
logical then that people in the past (about 100 years ago or more) had
abdominal breathing 24/7 because they had more than 40 s for the body-
oxygen test.

Since relatively healthy people have only about 20-25 s CP these days,
most people are chest breathers.

Why abdominal respiration is rare

Link to this video: Why Modern People Do Not Have Diaphragmatic
Breathing

Relevant web pages

Diaphragm function (What are the main jobs of the diaphragm in the
human body)
Why breathing should be mainly diaphragmatic at rest (There are 2
fundamental physiological reasons why chest breathing produces
devastating health effects)
Why normal breathing is shallow (or light and easy: slow and small in
tidal volume).
http://www.normalbreathing.com/learn-8-diaphragmatic-breathing.php