The Fallacy of "Deep Breathing."

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

I attended a yoga class tonight that was filled with admonitions to “take a deep breath.” Besides being completely against traditional yoga, in which yogis sought to CONTROL their breath (and hence could manipulate heart rate and blood flow and even achieve a kind of hibernation), deep breathing is an absolutely unscientific concept that essentially encourages people to hyperventilate. I completely understand the concept of deep breathing in pranayama, in which large amounts of air are inhaled and then held and the respiration reduced to around 4 breaths per minute, but this is NOT what is being encouraged and taught in your average yoga class.

The purpose of deep breathing seems clear; increase the amount of oxygen delivered to muscles and all vital organs during the practice of yoga. Unfortunately, the body is not completely intuitive, and taking a voluntary deep breath in does NOT increase oxygenation to ANY tissues in your body; in fact, it does exactly the opposite. In a normal body (without exercising) the respiration will be sufficient to keep a pulse oximeter reading at about 97-99%, meaning that 97-99% of hemoglobin molecules are bound to oxygen. During strenuous exercise, muscles release CO2 and the pH of the tissues decreases, both of which stimulate respiration, and enable O2 to be offloaded into the tissues. Your muscles are signaling a need for oxygen, and these same signals tell your body to breathe faster and deeper. This increased respiration has the effect of keeping spO2 levels at approximately pre-workout levels, because of the excess oxygen consumption of the tissues. The muscles directly in use are consuming the excess oxygen in the blood from the increased respiration BECAUSE DECREASED PH AND INCREASED CO2 CAUSES OFFLOADING OF O2 INTO TISSUES. This is the called the Bohr Effect, and is absolutely essential in understanding respiration and oxygen consumption. The other amazing function of CO2 is that is a potent vasodilator, thereby increasing the amount of blood (and subsequently oxygen) that is delivered to tissues.

So that is the example of normal respiration that is found during strenuous exercise; the muscles release more CO2 due to their increased activity, respiration increases due to the increased CO2 and lowered pH of the blood (respiration is stimulated by CO2, not a lack of O2) and more O2 is offloaded into the muscles that need it because of the Bohr Effect.

So what happens when you are NOT strenuously exercising and you increase your rate and/or depth of breathing? Well, your oxygen saturation is already at 97-99%. When you inhale a certain amount of O2 (or air), the same amount of CO2 is also exhaled. So in deepening your breathing, you cannot physically increase the oxygenation of your blood or tissues further, but you can DECREASE the amount of CO2 in your blood through exhalation.

Everyone understands this concept at a young age. It’s the concept of hyperventilation. You pass out. You have to breathe into a bag. Why do you pass out? Because just as increased CO2 causes vasodilation a LACK of CO2 causes vasoconstriction. Also, the O2 that IS in your blood is not efficiently offloaded into your tissues, because CO2 and a decreased pH are required for that to happen. So you are decreasing perfusion to your muscles and all major organs including your brain, and the blood that does make it to these muscles and organs has a hard time offloading its oxygen into your cells because it is tightly bound to hemoglobin.

Does this sound like a good idea? No. I listened to multiple students practicing this “deep breathing” and could almost hear their organs crying out for blood and oxygen as they were deprived because of a stupid catch phrase that people misunderstand and misapply. Although I agree that yoga can be strenuous, at no time should you be breathing deeper than you would be running on a treadmill (unless you are extremely deficient in cardiovascular fitness.) Instead, students should be encouraged to control their breath during practice, and try to reduce its depth and frequency. It will be much harder for people, and yield much better results.

No more deep breathing in yoga. Controlled, diaphragmatic nasal breathing, with the goal to decrease respiration as the practice progresses. This is what traditional yoga was founded on. Everybody stop hyperventilating, please.

#2

Very informative. Thanks :slight_smile:

#3

I don’t understand though how this does not apply to Pranayama deep breathing? What is different between Pranayama breathing and normal deep breathing?

Instead, students should be encouraged to control their breath during practice, and try to reduce its depth and frequency. It will be much harder for people, and yield much better results.

What do you mean by reducing its depth and its frequency? Do you mean the number of breaths and how shallow or deep it is? This sounds odd to me, because if I take only 4 shallow breaths per minute, I will be running out of breath very quickly and won’t be able to maintain that frequency. If I took deeper breaths per breath, then I can achieve a lower frequency.

#4

Pranayama is the science of breath which leads to regulating prana (vital energy) that operates the mind/body, it surely seems beneficial to have better understanding and manipulation of the primary Pranas; Prana, Apanan, Udana, Samana and Vyana although it can prove difficult to find a expert guide for this limb of yoga.

#5

[QUOTE=Surya Deva;70448]I don’t understand though how this does not apply to Pranayama deep breathing? What is different between Pranayama breathing and normal deep breathing?

What do you mean by reducing its depth and its frequency? Do you mean the number of breaths and how shallow or deep it is? This sounds odd to me, because if I take only 4 shallow breaths per minute, I will be running out of breath very quickly and won’t be able to maintain that frequency. If I took deeper breaths per breath, then I can achieve a lower frequency.[/QUOTE]

Yes, the terms are a little confusing. “Deep” sounds much better than “shallow”, but it depends on what you mean by each. Very healthy people at rest breathe so lightly (completely with their diaphragm) that they can’t even feel themselves breathing. They breathe less than 12 times per minute, and the tidal volume (amount of air they consume with each breath) is actually very small 400-600mL, depending on your source. Shallow breathing to me means chest breathing; using your accessory muscles of respiration to pull air into your upper lungs, which is inefficient compared to diaphragm breathing. When yoga instructors encourage “deep breathing” what most of the class is doing is pulling in much more air than is needed, blowing off more CO2 than needed, and using their chest as well as diaphragm to pull in this air. If they aren’t feeling the need to breathe that deeply, it means there has not been a build up of CO2 in the blood to naturally stimulate that and they are hyperventilating. If they were sprinting and breathing this way then their bodies would be utilizing all the O2 and releasing lots of CO2 which would be initiating (or at least appreciating) the big deep breaths.

Reducing the depth and frequency means taking small breaths in solely with your diaphragm and attempting to take fewer and fewer breaths per minute. Breathing less is the goal. When you do this, you are increasing the amount of CO2 in your blood (which is why you want to breathe, CO2 is detected by your chemoreceptors that initiate respiration) and hence causing vasodilation and greater chance O2 will be offloaded into tissues. This means you will have increased perfusion to all major organs (besides the lungs) and decreased blood pressure and heart rate. It’s a long process as I’m sure pranayama is to achieve 4 breaths per minute, and the goal is to trick your chemoreceptors into tolerating more CO2 before they initiate respiration.

Right now you would run out of breath very quickly. Right now there are people, I’m sure friends and family around you, who if they tried to match your breathing depth and frequency would feel out of breath. Everyone has their own level of CO2 that they tolerate, and your chemoreceptors adapt to each. If you decided today to INCREASE the rate and depth of your breathing, (in other words hyperventilate) you would eventually start breathing more involuntarily. This would increase your susceptibility for all kinds of diseases, including panic attacks and anxiety. Your sleep would deteriorate and eventually you’d say, why did I try this?? (Don’t try it.)

Hyperventilation is a sympathetic response to stress or fear, but conversely can also CAUSE anxiety and fear.

I believe mainstream yoga can be great for people due to the nasal breathing that it mandates, but the next step is to stop the excess breathing.

#6

As one is made to believe that asana is about athletic prowess, breathing too is considered a physical act alone. “Deep” differs from person to person and as very correctly pointed out by SRDMD, should mean “not shallow”. But when the volume of air becomes the focus and power is associated with it, the preacher of such ideas is doing harm to the student and the good cause.

Breathing is important in Yoga for three reasons:

  1. Breathing can remain autonomous or made conscious at will
  2. Emotions disturbs breathing; consequently regulated breathing can regulate emotions
  3. Air breathed can connect us with prana rejuvenation and leads to pranayama (control of prana)

More than ‘deep’, correct breathing is important that uses diaphragm; more than correct breathing rhythmic breathing is important and more than deliberate holding or suspending breath it is important to achieve direct control of prana so that air-breathing need not be used as a vehicle.

A very important thought, SRDMD.

#7

[QUOTE=Suhas Tambe;70470]Breathing is important in Yoga for three reasons:

  1. Breathing can remain autonomous or made conscious at will
    [B]2. Emotions disturbs breathing; consequently regulated breathing can regulate emotions[/B]
  2. Air breathed can connect us with prana rejuvenation and leads to pranayama (control of prana)[/QUOTE]

Very true, and true for even more reasons. Regulated, but regulated how? I guess it would depend on what we want to achieve, but in the case of calming, tranquility, fighting anxiety etc., producing longer exhalations than inhalations helps enormously. Psychological studies that tried to find if, and if so why, different forms of meditation help ameliorate anxiety symptoms found that a significant factor is longer exhalation. This happens because inhalation activates the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight response, faster heart-rate, etc.) while exhalations activate the parasympathetic system (opposite of fight or flight, emotion regulation).

Newbie alert:… Smack me down if everyone already knew that… :oops:

#8

[QUOTE=Divina;70534]Very true, and true for even more reasons. Regulated, but regulated how? I guess it would depend on what we want to achieve, but in the case of calming, tranquility, fighting anxiety etc., producing longer exhalations than inhalations helps enormously. Psychological studies that tried to find if, and if so why, different forms of meditation help ameliorate anxiety symptoms found that a significant factor is longer exhalation. This happens because inhalation activates the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight response, faster heart-rate, etc.) while exhalations activate the parasympathetic system (opposite of fight or flight, emotion regulation).

Newbie alert:… Smack me down if everyone already knew that… :oops:[/QUOTE]

I need to qualify a few of your statements, my dear Divina. So true that the goal of breathing exercises is ultimately to decrease sympathetic activity and increase parasympathetic activity. Sympathetic activity, while great for running away from a rabid dog, is not great chronically in every day life and can’t be sustained without health issues. (Stress is a killer.) Unfortunately when you hyperventilate, REGARDLESS of an appropriate stimulus like fear, you are initiating a sympathetic response. In people prone to panic attacks, they can actually produce their fear by voluntarily hyperventilating. By slowing the breath, you are slowing the heart rate and decreasing the blood pressure (through vasodilation.) This same thing is also achieved by decreasing the tidal volume of air, even if the rate increases, which proves that it is the buildup of CO2 that is slowing the heart rate. I am wary of admonitions to increase the exhalation substantially, because that could be considered a form of hyperventilation. (Breathing out more CO2 than the O2 you are inhaling, which also happens when you breathe in and out very quickly.) But in the context of exercises that you mentioned such as meditation, etc, it always includes slowing the inhalation as well. In perfect breathing, the inhale is slow and with the belly, the exhale is a passive process involving complete relaxation of all muscles, and there is a pause at the end of the exhale before the cycle begins again.

What are yoga instructors taught about this? Besides the inhales/exhales that accompany the different asanas?

#9

I certainly was not advocating hyperventilation. I was responding to the statement that regulated breathing can help regulate emotion and thought people might be interested in the physiological reasons behind this. As this is my field (psychology) I am certainly aware about sympathetic activity and the fact that stress is a killer, but thank you.

#10

Seems as though everyone is well versed on the subject of prana(yama) and its relationship to well being in the body; I’ve enjoyed reading along on the various descriptions and comments. I tell my students and practice the philosophy that breath is of primary importance; we simply build the postures around the breath.
When I’m in a yoga class and the instructor is describing/emphasizing or otherwise explaining something that proves different from my understanding I try to incorporate it into my practice. If I feel irritated with what the person is saying, for example, I simply observe the feeling. In staying conscious of my reaction I’m able to recognize my distraction and shift back to focusing on my practice. If it’s something important to discuss with the instructor of the class, then I do so in a non-confrontational way after the class is finished.

#11

It always includes slowing the inhalation as well. In perfect breathing, the inhale is slow and with the belly, the exhale is a passive process involving complete relaxation of all muscles…

#12

Very informative text indeed.

No. I listened to multiple students practicing this “deep breathing” and could almost hear their organs crying out for blood and oxygen

you should definately teach me how to do that :slight_smile:

Anyways, if I understand correctly, I’d like to mention that from my own experiences the ‘passing out’ effect (the feeling) isnt bad perse, and can be easily corrected as long as you are doing nothing (no touch, no talk, no eyecontact, aka meditation).

Also Pranayama/Deep breathing is a controversial topic, almost every book or teacher starts off with warning any interested user. Therefore bad experiences from users are predicted. In my understanding of Pranayama, it shows the user how to navigate the body between hyperoxia and hypoxia using several techniques. One can always fall back on his/her own unconscious, autonomous breathingmechanism (unless you freak out ofcoarse).

No more deep breathing in yoga

I guess you are talking about overdoing deepbreathing? Could you be so kind to read this article and state your reaction in this thread? http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3361916/

#13

SRDMD<

Absolutely right: “take a deep breath,” is terribly misinformed and meaningless in the context of yoga, but then oxygen intake and capacity is as well.

[QUOTE=SRDMD;70445]So in deepening your breathing, you cannot physically increase the oxygenation of your blood or tissues further, but you can DECREASE the amount of CO2 in your blood through exhalation.
[/QUOTE]

What you’ve written is very informative, but this is what has the most value: you increase your 02 capacity only in proportion to the C02 expelled. That’s why in teaching asana and pranayama we emphasize the exhalation, and then it’s the REGULATION of the inhalation that is of importance: capacity is not in and of itself an objective.

peace,
siva

#14

A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing imho
Cheers

#15

Blessings,

Thanks SRDMD for your knowledge. While I have not personally had negative experiences in deep breathing as is often ignorantly taught in yoga classes, I can see the wisdom in your words. On one of your replies I noticed you mention the difference between diaphragmic breathing versus chest breathing in the sense that a person is using the chest region to pull in air rather than the diaphragm. In my personal experience, chest breathing is the worst form of deep breathing out there. Not only does it put excessive strain on the lungs, it puts undo pressure on the heart, constricts rather than opens the body, and often affects blood flow to the brain ? to mention just a few issues. To add to your lesser breaths per minute, this is a good thing in that it does help circulation, increases transportation of good stuff while helping with purification, balancing gas exchange, and lessens water loss. While it might not increase oxygen levels it does help optimize the use of it, and then of course, my personal favorite, it helps us experience and work with prana.

I find it interesting that the prevailing thought of many people I come across is the belief that yogis of the past are somehow exempt from stupidity. I would like to point out that pranayamic techniques were not always considered safe even with yogis and shamans of the past. Many practices were actually intended to push ourselves to an unhealthy state in order to experience alternate states of consciousness ? and what better way to do that then to hyperventilate. I can personally attest to many cool experiences doing this as a child and even as an adult at Dead shows with nitrous balloons:eek: While today we consider it more prudent to be healthy, as a general rule, some yogis use pranayama as a way of pushing themselves to the extremes. I think this is why some of our more cherished yoga manuals stress the importance of having a teacher, taking it slow, and ultimately working our way up to the more advanced practices rather than jumping right to them.

As to deep breathing itself I thought it would be interesting to share some of the different forms I have come across in my life.
[ul]
[li]Traditional misinformed deep breathing which has us take in as deep of a breath as possible and then breath it out. As was said earlier in this thread, this is a bad idea. I would say a really, really bad idea for those who have not conditioned their lungs and body to intake that much air.
[/li][li]Diaphragmic breathing which is using the diaphragm muscle as the controller of the breathing process rather than the lungs
[/li][li]Three chambers breath: upper, middle, and lower. A particular practice I worked with for a while was to visualize and feel the air as it enters the upper, middle, and lower parts of the lungs and then exhale starting with the upper, then middle, and lower ? much as a vessel of water is filled first with the bottom and then up and emptied from top to bottom. This particular practice helped me recognize the different sensations of apana and prana.
[/li][li]Breath of Fire or Bellows Breathing uses the diaphragm to inhale and exhale quickly. This Kundalini breathing technique is helpful in energizing the body and to get things moving.
[/li][li]Many different Daoist techniques, but one I found particularly interesting is the reverse breathing techniques they do which has us reverse the process of the diaphragm with the inhale and exhale: for instance, while breathing in we pull the diaphragm up and back, and while breathing out we extend the diaphragm out and down. Strenuous and dangerous, but interesting all the same when it comes to working with the chi/prana.
[/li][li]Body breathing which I have found different from pore breathing. Body breathing deals with using the breath and of course the mind to feel the prana throughout the body. In particular, this technique helped me experience vyana.
[/li][li]Pore breathing, while I am uncertain its origin, I came across it in the Daoist magical traditions. In this deep breathing technique we are literally absorbing chi from our surroundings
[/li][li]Bone breathing and Spinal breathing ? Iron Shirt Tradition of Martial Arts ? I have never done it, though I imagine it would be interesting to say the least.
[/li][li]A slow variant of Agnisar Kriya that retains the breath, which in turn pushes the energy deeper into the intestinal region from which I am able to break up many of the blocks and crap stuck down there. Beyond the fact that this helps with nutritional absorption and better elimination, it also helps break up blocks and stagnant areas, which in turn invites more energy into our bodies and increases our capacity for holding more energy in general.
[/li][/ul]
While I know this list is not exhaustive of the many breathing techniques that are in one way or another considered deep breathing techniques, I just wanted to add my own personal experiences when it comes to this often misunderstood term. I really appreciate that the modern superficial conception of this term is being challenged ? if for no other reason ? than to give us an opportunity to grow in our understandings as a community.

Blessings Be?