Yoga Health Secrets

Yoga for asthma, bronchitis, and hay fever

In a chapter devoted to complaints of the respiratory tract one would expect that most of the exercises would be breathing ones and so they are. Here is one which is called THE BELLOWS BREATH, or BHASTRIKA.

However deeply we inhale and however thoroughly we exhale, there always remains in the lungs a residue of stale air. It is vital to clear this out to ensure a complete renovation of air and Yoga’s unique method of doing this is this exercise.

1. Sit down on a hard chair with your feet flat on the floor, your hands on your knees palms down and your spine erect. Do not let your tummy muscles sag. While sitting up straight, slowly and deeply inhale.

2. When you have completed your inhalation suddenly bend forward from the waist until your head touches your knees or as near to them as you can get and at the same time exhale with as much force as you can. This is one of the few times in Yoga that you should use force.

The bending forward movement will squeeze every bit of stale air from your lungs.

3. As you slowly straighten up begin inhaling again and complete your inhalation while sitting up straight. Then exhale with force once more and at the same time bend your body forward until your head touches your knees.

Perform the BELLOWS BREATH only twice at first but gradually increase the number of breaths you take until you are doing it twelve times a day. Add one extra breath per week. After every fourth inhalation retain the breath for up to six seconds and then exhale immediately while bending forward once more. Do not perform the Bellows Breath to excess. Twelve times is enough even for the advanced student.

The benefits of this exercise, apart from cleansing the lungs and bronchial passages, are the toning up of the whole lung action with highly stimulating effects on the entire body. The bending forward and straightening movements help to relieve constipation, and as you know by now, anything that is an enemy of constipation is a friend of the body. So this exercise is as useful as it is simple to perform.