The Anatomy of Breath: A Yogi’s Guide

Leave a Comment / Anatomy, blogging, health, Respiratory System

To sustain life, a body must produce sufficient energy through aspiration. Breathing is perhaps the only system of the body that is both autonomic and conscious depending completely on the awareness and focus of the breather.

Breathing through the nose, all the time, is part of the true yogi’s path. I can remember 6 months into practicing yoga, I attained the ability to breathe through my nose and it complete changed my yoga practice and my life. I got hooked on the feeling of yoga (call it a healthy addiction) and never looked back.

In Yoga, the energy of breath is called prana (प्राण, prāṇa) which can be described as solar wind in the atmosphere, or liquid light^[6]. Through ventilated aspiration, the yogi ingests the prana into the nervous system. In Hindu literature, Prana is described as originating from the Sun and connecting the elements through the Chakras of the human nervous system and conscious awareness.

The nervous system is completely dependent on your breathing to function: The parasympathetic system slows your breathing rate. It causes your bronchial tubes to narrow and the pulmonary blood vessels to widen. The sympathetic system increases your breathing rate. It makes your bronchial tubes widen and the pulmonary blood vessels narrow.^[4] This process of is also known as the “fight or flight” response. This happens through ventilation, or respiration as the body mobilizes itself to a threat. However, this system is over-active in our cultures because of our stress responses to non-life threatening stimuli. It is healthier for a human to regularly breathe through the nose.

The Nasal Cavity

“The function of the nasal cavity is to warm, moisturize, and filter air entering the body before it reaches the lungs.^[1]” Here are the additional benefits:

Nose breathing is beneficial primarily because it allows your nasal cavities to:^[2]

msdmanuals.com/home/lung-and-airway-disorders

reduce exposure to foreign substances.
humidify and warm inhaled air.
increase air flow to arteries, veins, and nerves.
increase oxygen uptake and circulation.
slow down heart rate.^[3]
improve lung volume.
help your diaphragm work properly.

In essence, hairs and mucus lining the nasal cavity help to trap dust, mold, pollen and other environmental contaminants before they can reach the inner portions of the body and the lung’s organic tissue. Air exiting the body through the nose returns moisture and heat to the nasal cavity before being exhaled into the environment.^[1] The mouth, also known as the oral cavity, is the secondary external opening for the respiratory tract. The mouth is mostly for filtering in eating and drinking.

Oblique muscles (accessory breathing muscles)

Focus on the Exhale

Nasal exhalations are an extremely important focus in yoga. The muscles in your chest and abdomen tighten or contract to create a slight vacuum around the lungs. This causes air to flow in. When you exhale, the muscles relax and the lungs deflate on their own, much like an elastic balloon will deflate if left open to the air. The lungs are extremely flexible sacks of tissue that have the ability to expand and contract.

References:

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The Respiratory System

Leave a Comment / Anatomy, breathing, health, muscles, Organ Systems, Respiratory System, Science

Anatomy of Lungs and Respiration

There is one thing you have done every moment of your life. Even before you can remember. This will be the last thing you do before you die. And your awareness of this thing will partially determine how you exist on planet Earth. Prana, or your breath, is the primary mover on life in your body and corresponds deeply to your mental and physical health.

Humans have two lungs and five lobes, two on the left and three on the right (the right is bigger), each of which can be from 70-100 square meters in surface area, about the same surface area as a tennis court. The lungs have 2,400 kilometers of airways and 300 to 500 million alveoli which are gas exchange points for the bloodstream. These are powerful organs of exchange with the environment, with power and functioning that should not be taken for granted.

The respiratory system is a series of organs responsible for intaking oxygen from the atmosphere and expelling carbon dioxide back into the air. This basic gas exchange between the body and the atmosphere is completely dependent upon the respiratory system and almost every vertebrate animal has one. This exchange affects every other system, as they oxygenation of blood is necessary in every organ. The nervous system also seems to draw energy from the respiratory system, and the cardiovascular system takes cues from the respiratory system (both cue off brain activity) to determine how much blood it should be pumping based on breath rate. When the sympathetic nervous system becomes active (the flight or fight mechanism), heart rate is increased, respiratory rate is increased, the sensitivity of the nervous system is heightened to allow for survival, but this comes at a cost.

Yoga focuses primarily on the respiratory system’s functioning to move the muscular-skeletal system in the opposite way. In our modern world full of non-environmental stress and high levels of adrenaline in non-life threatening situations, the sympathetic nervous system is overactive and is probably the biggest contributor to the high fatality rates from cardiovascular disease (nutrition would be the other competing contributor). The respiratory system is vital to the functioning of every mammal on the planet and is one of the most intricate and powerful tools for surviving, prospering, and thriving on planet Earth.

LadyofHats, Jmarchn – Own work using: Sobotta, Johannes (1982) *Atlas der Anatomie des Menschen / 2 Brust, Bauch, Becken, untere Extremitäten, Haut.* (18^th ed.), Munich: Urban & Schwarzenberg ISBN: 3-541-02828-9. OCLC: 260005032. Gray, Henry (1980) *Gray’s Anatomy*(36^th ed.), Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone ISBN: 0-443-01505-8. OCLC: 7775214. Yokochi, Chihiro (1991) *Atlas fotográfico de anatomía del cuerpo humano* (3^rd ed.), Mexico: Interamericana/McGraw-Hill ISBN: 968-25-1677-3. OCLC: 33318149. Also used several online diagrams like:[1] [2]

I honestly think the vast majority of people take breathing for granted. Most Americans are in such a rush that they don’t even notice their superpower of consciousness. We don’t learn about breathing in school, or in early sports, which is really a shame because breathing concentration allow for intense amounts of focus. Every athlete should learn breath control techniques from young ages; I can remember when I learned to run with proper form at 15 and I think that learning about breathing should happen even younger. This is what keeps us all alive, after all, and we really should learn how to keep our nervous systems functioning optimally through breathing exercises.

To really understand how intricately related the nervous system and respiratory systems are, we need to go back in time to when you were born. At birth, a babies lungs are full of fluid, but once the child is released from the birth canal, the central nervous system trigger a huge change in reaction to the environment, which then triggers the first breath, about 10 seconds later. From there, the lungs develop rapidly until at about 2, the alveoli are fully developed, then the lungs begin to grow normally until full adult muscular maturity is reached. The lungs are muscular and most mammals use their musculoskeletal systems to support their breathing, as humans do. This is why yoga can alleviate many hampering disabilities having to do with lung functioning, because strengthening the accessory muscles to the diaphragm strengthens the overall functionality of the respiratory system.

The muscles of the respiratory system are the following:

the diaphragm (primary)
the external intercostals
the internal intercostals (intercostals interlace on the inside and outside of the ribs).

The accessory muscles are:

External-and-Internal-Intercostals-of-the-Thoracic-Cage

sternocleidomastoid
scalene muscles
serratus anterior
major & minor pectorals
trapezius
latimus dorsi
thoracic erector spinae
iliocostalis lumborum
quadratus lumborum
serratus posterior, superior, and inferior
levatorescostarum
transversus thoracis
subclavius

As you can see, there are a tremendous amount of accessory muscles involved in breathing. I interpret this a particular way, that there is an enormous spectrum between thriving and breathing with ease and freedom contrasted to breathing for survival, or breathing only with the diaphragm and ribs, which puts extreme amounts of stress on those muscles. I think the idea of balance between the primary and accessory muscles is the right idea, and the stronger the accessory muscles, the more powerful breathing will follow. This takes time, muscles build strength in increments, and this is probably the biggest reason why yoga is so difficult for many Americans. Because we need it the most!

Questions

What kinds of breathing exercises do you practice for optimal health?
What kinds of breathing exercises would you like to learn about?
Do you find that breathing affects your mental health?
Do you find time to meditate on your breathe during the day?

References

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The Power of Breath

Leave a Comment / breathing, philosophy, yoga

The Key Benefit of Yoga

Yoga’s greatest benefit is increased awareness of your breath, or respiratory system. It is the reason why the yoga ab exercises are so difficult, why every pose eventually feels like an different kind of abdominal stretch, and why you feel so amazing at the end of the class. Your lungs fuel every other organ in your body by revitalizing the bloodstream with new oxygen in combination with the heart, fueling your nervous and muscular-skeletal systems. The lungs also have enormous effect upon the metabolism. I’ve read before that metabolisms aren’t naturally faster or slower, but rather result from lifestyle habits and diet. The lungs pass by all of the lower organs and descend down near the base of the spine, towards the lowest organs. You can contract your perineal, or pelvic floor and sex muscles by bringing awareness to your breath. This is definitely good for your digestion and your sex life! (the muscles group is called mula bandha, or pelvic floor in yoga)

The Lungs

In a way, the lungs lead the body as it moves through space and breathing has an enormous effect on brainwaves and heart rate. It is possible to enter into alpha and possibly beta brainwaves while awake and practicing yoga, even Delta and Theta waves can be found in deeper Savasanas. These represent the different stages of restorative brainwaves that occur during sleep that ultimately provide the deepest rest for the nervous system and therefore the body as a whole. So control over your breath is essentially increasing the amount of control you have over your consciousness.

So the lungs are one of the primary movers of the body; indeed, breathing is a constant in having consciousness. And perhaps we can see consciousness as requiring breath; without it we can’t be conscious for long. From the time we are born, to the time we die, it is with us. Apparently the smallest organisms that breathe are spiders, so perhaps that is where consciousness truly starts; between the fly and the spider. Even trees breathe.

Ancient yoga texts say that there is a power within the breath, but how necessary the individual poses are is up for grabs. Warrior 1 and Warrior 2 are not where the power of yoga is, although aligning your body into those two postures and breathing while focusing on them is a powerful exercise in muscular stability, concentration, balance, stretching, and strengthening. The breathing is where the power of yoga lies; you can do yoga while lifting weights (it’s difficult, but you can stay with deep breathing the whole time, try it!), while running, while shopping, driving, whatever. It just means bringing awareness to your breath, and therefore your nervous system. The two are intertwined.

Feel the POWA!

There is a reason why the idea of power continues to resurface in yoga; however, I don’t think it holds true to what yoga is really about. If awareness is power, then I am wrong, but I think that awareness and power are different. When we relinquish the idea of power or control and simply focus on awareness; awareness seems to be more related to freedom; the ability to transcend individual situations and confrontations to maintain internal peace. Nobody is going to become a world leader by doing yoga. Really, yoga does not accomplish a whole lot in the world outside of your body and it can be really selfish if that is all you do! But that is just my personal opinion. Powerful people seem to be the least free and most obliged; they are always in some crisis, or fixing some problem. That’s why they make so much money, they are good at fixing problems and getting things to work. The ability to be okay with not reacting, sitting with what is occurring rather than reacting without really being aware of what is happening in the situation is type of power that yoga can offer you. True yoga is learning to take responsibility over your own happiness. Being able to laugh while someone flips you off in the lane next to you. Transcending shitty situations. I think this is what Patanjali was talking about when he/she/they talked about releasing from the fluctuations of the mind. Being free from the anxiety, reactions, and obsessions over everyday events so that we can live in gratitude and happiness for what is on a larger scale. Family, friends, and life.

You don’t know what you have until its gone…

Gratitude is true liberation and losing your breath helps to remind you that life is temporary. Maybe this is why yoga is so powerful, it tunes you into the passing of moments. The mental effects of combining your nervous and muscular-skeletal systems first thing in the morning can change the way that you live your life; imagine. Savasana brings the freedom of nothing; knowing that death will come and not caring; being free from the confines of the illusion of death and the senses. Even our eyes lie to us on accident. Letting it go is the most important part; those exhales make life worth living. Be grateful for your breath, because its easy to take it for granted. When its gone, you won’t forget it.

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breathing