Phase 1 · Find the Diaphragm

Part of the 8 Week Yoga Program for Breathing With Asthma

20 Minute Yoga Sequence for Breathing With Asthma

The first three weeks. Long, quiet exhalations and enough movement in the ribs that the breath has somewhere to go.

Most people with asthma breathe higher and shallower than they need to, and it is a hard habit to notice from the inside. This sequence works on the opposite pattern: the belly moving before the chest, and the out breath taking longer than the in breath. That second part is not a stylistic preference. In the trial that separated the breathing techniques out one by one, the ones built around a long controlled exhalation were the ones that changed the symptom counts.

20 min · Level 1

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Wann hilfreich

For the first three weeks of the program, and any time you want to practise the pattern rather than react to something. Twenty minutes. A blanket to lie on, a cushion for sitting, and your reliever inhaler where you can reach it. This is an addition to your asthma treatment, never a replacement for it. If the breath tightens during any of this, stop and use your reliever inhaler.

Breath

Diaphragmatic breathing first, then a gradually longer out breath. Every pose here has a breath instruction attached to it rather than a shape to achieve.

Physical effect

The front of the chest, the space between the ribs and the upper back. The mechanics of breathing improve when the ribcage can actually move.

Attention

Knowing what your breathing is doing before it becomes a symptom is a skill, and it is the one this phase trains.

Find the diaphragm

Four minutes doing almost nothing, and it is the most important part of the session.

Sukhasana

4 min

Schneidersitz

Sit up on a cushion. One hand on the belly, one on the chest. Breathe so the lower hand moves first and the upper hand barely moves at all. Then let the out breath get slowly longer than the in breath.

A long, controlled exhalation is the mechanism the research keeps pointing at. Everything else in this session supports it.

Mehr über Sukhasana erfahren

Dandasana

1 min

Stockpose

Legs long, spine tall, hands beside the hips. Keep the same breathing pattern going.

The same breath in a position that asks the spine to hold itself. A slumped ribcage cannot expand.

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Move the ribs

Four positions that make room. In each one, notice where you feel the breath rather than how far you got.

Balasana

2 min

Stellung des Kindes

Knees wide, forehead down. Breathe into the back of the ribs, which is where you can actually feel them move in this shape.

Most people never feel the back of the ribcage move. It does, and noticing it is worth two minutes.

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Marjaryasana

1 min

Katzenpose

On hands and knees, round the back and breathe all the way out. Slowly.

Rounding empties the lungs further than a normal breath does. That is the point of pairing it with the exhale.

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Bitilasana

1 min

Kuh Haltung

Let the chest drop forward and the breath come in. Move between this and the last one, six or eight times, at the speed of the breath.

Cat and Cow are the cheapest way to link movement to breathing, and the pairing is what makes them useful here.

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Open the front

Three back bends, each held for about thirty seconds, each with the breath moving the whole time. Never hold your breath in any of them.

Bhujangasana

30 sec, twice

Hohe Kobra

Lie face down, hands under the shoulders, lift only as far as you can keep breathing evenly. Low is fine.

The front of the chest shortens with years of shallow breathing. This is the direct opposite of that shape.

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Setu Bandha Sarvangasana

30 sec, twice

Schulterbrücke

On your back, feet down, lift the hips. Breathe into the front of the chest, which is now the widest it gets.

Bridge opens the chest with the floor supporting you, which makes it the easiest of the three to breathe well in.

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Matsyasana

45 sec

Fisch

A supported version. Put a folded blanket lengthways under the spine so the chest opens over it and the head is supported.

Supported rather than lifted. The point is a wide chest and an easy breath, not the full pose.

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Let it settle

The end is long on purpose. It is where the breathing pattern gets learned.

Viparita Karani

3 min

Das Siegel der Umkehr

Legs up the wall, arms out. Go back to the long out breath and count it if that helps.

A calm position with a long exhale, held long enough that the pattern becomes the default rather than an exercise.

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Savasana

4 min

Totenstellung

Flat on your back. Stop counting and just watch the breath do it on its own.

The protocol this program follows finished every session with a long rest. It is not padding.

Mehr über Savasana erfahren

Phase 1 · Weeks 1 to 3

This practice is part of a program

It belongs to Find the Diaphragm, the first phase of the 8 Week Yoga Program for Breathing With Asthma. The program says how often to practise it, what comes before and after, and when to move on.

See the whole program →

Integration

Three or four times a week through the first three weeks, with the ten minute sequence on the other days. Hold each pose for up to thirty seconds and never hold your breath in any of them. That rule comes straight from the protocol this program follows.

Der Mensch hinter dieser Sequenz

Gründer & Autor

Manish Rana

Gründer von Asanaverse.de. Manish schreibt über Yoga, Ayurveda und Meditation und verdankt seine tiefe Verbindung zum Yoga seinen indischen Wurzeln. Mit über 1000 Stunden Yoga Alliance Teacher Training gibt er sein Wissen an die Community weiter.

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