Breathing Techniques - The Abdominal Breathing Technique and How to Do It

To get the best results from this exercise you should do it lying down. It can be done in either a standing or sitting position but for beginner's lying down is best because you can totally relax and concentrate on the abdomen.

1. Lie down flat, relax and make yourself comfortable.

2. Place one hand on your stomach and your other hand resting on your upper chest.

3. Inhale slowly and deeply and allow your stomach and abdomen to expand to allow your diaphragm to go fully down. (You should feel your abdomen expanding like a balloon.)

4. Let your abdomen fall down as you exhale slowly.

5. As you are exhaling this breath consciously try to bring your abdomen in towards your spine. (This forces your diaphragm to travel more and help to expel all your old breath.)

Tips:

1. If you find that your hand on your chest travels up more than the hand on your stomach you know that the breath you have just taken is in your upper chest rather than in your abdomen.

2. If you find it hard to get your upper chest muscles to stop working when you're breathing, place your 2 hands behind your head (as if you were relaxing on the beach.) This puts your chest muscles in a relaxed position where they can't work as well.

3. If you're still having problems and aren't sure if you're doing this exercise properly you can use a small weight 1-2 kg (like a bag of sugar, rice or something equivalent.) Place the weight on your stomach somewhere just below your belly button. Then continue the exercise as normal and see and feel the weight traveling up and down as you breathe in and out. After you think you've mastered this you can then place the weight on your upper chest and you see very little or no movement.

As you get breathing in this way you can try to do it in a sitting or standing position. To get the best results you should consider doing this exercise for about 20 minutes a day broken up into 2 - 10 minute sessions. If you want you do it for longer but you should try to do smaller amounts each day rather than for longer period's day's apart.