Questioning the Way Breathing is Taught in Yoga
This blog post was first sent to Jenni’s email list as an email newsletter. Sign up for the JRY email newsletter here!
by Guest Contributor Magnus Ringberg
Magnus Ringberg is a physiotherapist with a degree from the University of Lund in Sweden who is studying for his MSc in Sport Science at Linnaeus University in Sweden. He’s also a yoga teacher and personal trainer who travels around the world teaching trainings, workshops and classes.
I used to teach yoga with a specific directional cueing of the breath. Certain movements were always paired with inhales while others were paired with exhales, and I would time my breathing cues to guide the overall pace and rhythm of the asana practice.
I still use the breath as a central focus in my yoga teaching today, but I’ve changed my approach. I believe it’s important that we think critically about why, how, and when we instruct people to manipulate their respiratory systems and take voluntary control over their breathing patterns. In this blog post I’ll share some thoughts informed by my background in physiology and physiotherapy around the topic of consciously synchronising breath and movement during asana practice.
I’d first like to point out that my concerns about breathing exercises in yoga pertain to how they affect the body in the active section of a yoga program, and my analysis in this blog post is not the same regarding breathing exercises during stillness.
I’ve witnessed that there’s a commonly-held idea in yoga that we should apply the same style of respiration that naturally occurs in stillness to our respiration during activity and movement. Two events, such as tranquil yoga practice, and a more physically demanding practice, have different needs such as breathing rate and oxygen demand. If we as teachers, due to our firm beliefs about adopting rhythmic breathing to both of these events, insist on using breathing techniques for a calming breath while performing vigorous exercise, it's critical to apply good reasoning as to WHY that should be done and if it in fact has the desired effect.
Although specific methods vary, the active section of a typical yoga program contains:
dynamic movement
static positions (isometric holds)
or a combination of the two
Some methods link all dynamic movements with a pre-set place for each inhalation and exhalation, such as sun salutations and short segments of vinyasa combinations such as up dog to down dog. Isometric holds often have an entrance and exit breath for the chosen asana. The specific technique of breathing pattern and movement can therefore be integrated in different ways and demands, but it is generally taught that one movement is followed by a certain breath or that a specific breath will be followed by a movement. Some styles constantly teach breath and synchronized movement but others will let it ebb and flow during a session, allowing the students to have a more individual approach.
I think what makes yoga unique compared with other forms of exercise is that yoga has a large selection of content and often includes the teaching of movement with technical aspects, specific intentions regarding breathing pattern, as well as aspects including philosophy and mindfulness. This can be rewarding, but can also be demanding in terms of how much information yoga students are asked to focus on at once.
When I was a fresh yoga teacher, one common piece of feedback I received from students was “It was so hard to breathe” and “I mixed up the place for inhalation and exhalation.” When I began teaching I didn’t think this was a big deal as I thought it was more a reflection of myself not being an experienced teacher and the beginners’ natural reaction to yoga. But as I kept teaching classes and meeting more people, I continued to receive the same feedback. Could the confusion that students were consistently reporting about the “right” way to breathe in yoga have to do with something more than simply inexperience with the practice?
Breathing Physiology 101
Observing the breath can be a tool to gain focus in the present moment. We can focus mindfully on the breath in this way any time we’d like to - whether our heart rate is high in the midst of an intense sequence of movements, or whether we’re lying flat on the floor in a relaxed state during savasana.
Magnus Ringberg (Photo credit Vegafoto)
However, breathing itself is complex and is a result of a cascade of reactions involving the respiratory, circulatory and nervous systems. Homeostasis is a state of equilibrium that is constantly maintained via the autoregulation of various physiological processes inside of us. Carbon dioxide, oxygen, pH, and core temperature levels are all examples of elements that are automatically regulated to keep our body in homeostasis.
Respiration is finely tuned and designed to maintain optimal bodily function during different internal and external changes. For instance, during complex and demanding vinyasas with a somewhat restricted pattern of breathing, respiration influences your inhalation and exhalation. This again affects your oxygen uptake and ventilation of waste material (carbon dioxide) and ultimately interrupts the steady state of the respiratory chain of events. Homeostasis kicks in and strives to achieve a steady state of bodily functions.
Is it therefore really necessary to volitionally change aspects of the breathing such as frequency (one cycle of in and out breath) and ratio (relationship between in/out breath) when we move? How does taking voluntary control of breathing affect your body’s homeostasis during vinyasas and asanas? These questions have struck me many times and I’ve struggled to reconcile what I’ve been taught from the yoga tradition with today’s knowledge from physiology.
Here are five insights from physiology that can shed some light on these questions:
Your individual capacity
If we teach a group of 20 people, those 20 people will each have individual variations such as body characteristics, physical strength, endurance, flexibility, coordination, mental aspects, and also previous experience and exposure to yoga. Therefore we need to decide what’s going to be a good teaching strategy regarding the content of the class both collectively for the whole group while also including considerations for individual variations.
The normal respiration rate for an adult at rest is 12 to 20 breaths per minute. During physical activity this rate will increase and depending on the intensity, can rise to about 40 to 60 breaths per minute. Some yoga methods/styles are also taught in heated rooms which is another factor that will influence homeostasis and alter the respiratory rate. All these factors influencing the respiratory system should be taken into consideration and reflected upon by the teacher, before guiding the students into a directed and controlled breathing pattern.
Energy demand also varies both between different movements and between different individuals doing the same movements. Movement will require energy from the muscles and as a result, consumption of oxygen will increase and production of CO2 will rise. Two people standing next to each other and moving through sun salutations will most likely (if not twins, identical exercise history, same muscle mass) have different physical and mental responses. These can vary across muscle activity, energy and oxygen demand, heart rate and blood flow pattern, and ultimately breathing pattern and frequency of breathing.
I think knowledge about individual capacity is an important aspect to consider when thinking about teaching breathing in yoga. If everyone has an individual and unique capacity, is cueing breathing in a synchronized way to a group beneficial? Even if we know that something is valuable (such as respiration), are we able to decide the appropriate dosage?
Ideal inhale/exhale ratio
It’s human nature to want to label things as good or bad. We like to measure outcomes and compare ourselves with an ideal value. We like to know what’s best for us. There is nothing wrong with this, but when we strive for the best and optimally sound, do we actually know what the ideal is?
So far we’ve analysed respiration from a perspective of frequency, energy demand and individual capacity, and now I would like to extend the analysis to the perceived magic number. What is the perfect ratio for inhalation and exhalation? To which physiological conditions? To which mental state and mood? These questions are to me essential to the topic, and why I currently believe it’s very difficult to set a specific rate and breathing ratio while teaching a group. (And maybe also one-to-one?)
How we like to practice on our own is our own experiment, but as teachers I believe we have a responsibility when we impose a method on other people. Should we make assumptions about bodily requirements and impose the perfect breathing pattern on someone else? An imposed breathing pattern may be too fast, too slow, provide inadequate inhalation or suboptimal exhalation.
Could it be that a perfect pattern for your individual requirements is ultimately defined by yourself?
The role of homeostasis
As mentioned earlier, homeostasis refers to the body’s innate ability to regulate physiological processes to maintain a steady state of equilibrium. This is important for us to think about in our yoga teaching.
Whether it’s a slow hatha yoga practice in a cold garage, a powerful vinyasa sequence in a warm heated studio, or an early morning Iyengar practice before breakfast and on little sleep, our body will automatically adapt to these varying practice situations to maintain homeostasis, and this will include natural changes to our breathing pattern.
Even within the span of a single yoga practice, the body typically moves through a change in energy demand from the beginning of the class (which might consist of sitting and centering) to the middle of the class (which tends to be more active) to the end of class (generally cool-down postures and savasana). Despite these variations in energy demand throughout a class, there is a tendency for yoga teachers to instruct the same deep, slow-paced breathing style throughout all of these phases of the practice.
Does consciously applying the same type of slow breath rhythm that we normally find in relaxed, seated states to the more active, movement-filled sections of a yoga class fit with what our body naturally does to maintain homeostasis?
And in a larger sense, if our physiological processes such as respiration are automatically regulated to maintain equilibrium depending on our yoga practice style, setting and environment, what do we add to this process by consciously manipulating breath pace and synchronization? Is there a chance we could possibly be detracting from it?
Beliefs, behaviour, and breath-holding
What we say and how we communicate can empower our students. We can build resilience and minimize fear of movement by teaching in informed ways. But our words can also have the opposite effect if used in discouraging ways. In yoga, this can happen when teachers imply through their words that their students are breathing incorrectly.
For example, one common belief I hear from yoga teachers is that it's important to “remind” the students to breathe. There’s an assumption that holding the breath will tense the body and you won’t get sufficient oxygen.
On the other hand, we regularly and naturally hold our breath multiple times a day, 24/7, for several reasons. Is it always bad to do this?
Oxygen is used to produce energy for our cells and force for our muscles. The delivery of oxygen is closely regulated by the respiratory and cardiovascular systems, which are balanced in homeostasis. Disruption of this system is possible, and tolerance is highly individual, depending on body temperature, weight, health or disease, mental state etc.
When holding our breath, our body has oxygen reserves to sustain a given asana with a hold, or isometric muscle contraction. Nonetheless, holding the breath causes some degree of oxygen debt. Our respiratory system needs to somehow compensate.
We are equipped with a so-called aerobic system that spends energy with constant delivery of oxygen and an anaerobic system which spends energy without oxygen. Our finely tuned metabolism, seeking homeostasis, has the inherent capability to decide when to make use of the two systems. For a short period of time, oxygen debt is not detrimental for a healthy individual. In fact, physical activity such as endurance and resistance training causes positive adaptation.
Magnus Ringberg (Photo credit Vegafoto)
Holding the breath can actually be a tool to create global muscle activation, intra-abdominal pressure, and a rigid torso, and we want that for certain tasks. Holding the breath can also help with concentration if we’re learning a new or novel task. Could it be useful, in some instances, to hold the breath in order to generate extra muscular activity, and/or to help with focus to solve a new task? Is telling yoga students that it’s wrong, bad or dangerous really true?
There is also a learning curve within movement. New and novel tasks are associated with poor neuromuscular control, but with time and regular practice and experience, we become more efficient. Instead of worrying about perfect execution of both movement and breath, can we trust the process of continuous practice by supporting our student’s habits to maintain consistency?
Beliefs about matching breath to movement
Another way that yoga teachers can influence beliefs is in the idea that specific movements “go with” a specific breath. For example, it’s commonly taught that when we extend our spine (backbend), we should always inhale, and when we flex our spine (round it forward), we should always exhale. A perfect example of this is cat/cow pose, in which teachers commonly cue to “inhale into cow” and “exhale into cat.”
What sort of beliefs and ideas can we create when we insist on a specific pattern of breathing and synchronized movement as being the one correct way? Can this lead to beliefs around movement behaviours such as “when I flex my spine I must always exhale?”
Now I could see that in an instance in which someone is in pain, coordinating specific movements with specific breaths like this may be a helpful strategy to connect them to their body and to calm their nervous system down - particularly in the early phases of treatment for pain.
But as a general rule for movement, does pairing specific movement directions with specific breath phases potentially limit our movement options? In reality, we can move our spine in any direction, whether we breathe in or breathe out - or whether we hold the breath, for that matter. And I believe it’s beneficial to build up tolerance by creating variability of movement and breath without any restrictions.
Additionally, does teaching that there is a correct and incorrect way to pair breath with movement encourage people who do not breathe this way to think that they’re doing it wrong, and is this helpful?
Just breathe?
“First thing you should know about me is that I’m not you. A lot more will make sense after that.”
I readily admit that cueing the specific timing of breath and movement can be a useful pedagogical tool. It can be helpful for many students (and the teacher) to maintain focus and awareness, and the timing aspect can provide a sense of rhythm.
However, I also think that we can learn to teach yoga with clarity and precision, create a sense of presence, and set a rhythmic pace for the movements by using other aspects of verbal cueing. And we can continue to keep the breath a central focus of yoga teaching without needing to do so via instructing conscious manipulation and control of the breath.
Ultimately, every body has its own individual capacity and unique energy demands and physiology that are impossible for another person to comprehend. Therefore, instructing another person in the control of their breath during active yoga practices seems unadvisable. To impose a specific breathing pattern on a perfectly tuned human physiology may lead to imperfection. We can have a mindful awareness of our breathing pattern without feeling the need to control our breath, and this can still be considered yoga.
In this blog post I’ve shared my thoughts around the topic of breath and movement in yoga. I hope my questions will inspire you in some way.
CLOSING THOUGHTS FROM JENNI:
My hope in asking Magnus to write this article for us was that he would leave us with more questions than answers on this topic, and I believe that he did just that! If you’re now questioning what role the breath has for you in your yoga practice or teaching, I can relate to this quandary, and I have a few suggestions from my own personal experience.
Yoga is a breath-centered practice, and the insights from this article do not alter that fact. However, perhaps we could use to re-examine exactly how we treat the breath in yoga. Could we consider approaching it from a place of mindful observation without needing to control and direct it?
For example, instead of instructing students to always exhale when coming into spinal flexion as though that is the only correct way to breathe in that movement direction, could we consider instead inviting students to explore various types of breath when in spinal flexion? We could cue students into, say, cat pose using any movement instructions we like, and then we could suggest that they try exhaling in that shape, inhaling in that shape, and even potentially holding the breath there - and to notice the differences between each of those types of breath. This could serve as an eye-opening self-observation process within their own body.
Another place where yoga teachers tend to cue the breath in somewhat of an autopilot manner is when leading students through sun salutations. We’re taught that reaching the arms up into urdhva hastasana always goes with the inhale, folding forward into uttanasana always pairs with the exhale, and so on. What would happen if we taught some rounds of sun salutations using the reverse breath cueing: exhaling the arms up, inhaling to fold forward, etc? What changes do students notice when they switch up their usual sun salutation breath pattern? This might serve as a step toward disassociating movements from default breath pairings.
After shaking things up with some reverse breath sun salutations, we could then consider teaching some sun salutations without any breath cueing at all. We could only direct movement and not the breath with our teaching cues, and ask students to notice how their bodies naturally breathe through a sun salutation when they aren’t taught to consciously direct what the breath does. How is it different?
These are just a few ideas for bringing some of these questions into your own practice and teaching. If you have other thoughts or ideas on this topic, please feel free to share them with us!
Magnus Ringberg (Photo credit Vegafoto)