Phase 1 · Two Techniques, Learned Properly

Part of the 12 Week Breathing and Yoga Program for COPD

20 Minute Yoga Sequence for Breathing With COPD

The first three weeks. Two breathing techniques, learned properly, and four gentle positions that give the ribs room.

The most surprising result in this whole field came from a trial where people did nothing but sit and breathe. No poses at all, minimal instruction, and in practice about twelve minutes a day rather than the thirty they were asked for. After twelve weeks the difference in walking distance between them and the control group was 65 metres, which is well beyond what counts as clinically meaningful. That is what this session is built on. The breathing comes first and gets the most time, and the poses are here to give it somewhere to happen.

20 min · Level 1

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When it helps

For the first three weeks, and any time you want to practise the technique rather than use it. Twenty minutes. A chair if sitting on the floor is not comfortable, a cushion, and a blanket. This sits alongside your medical care and any pulmonary rehabilitation, not instead of either. Stop and rest if you get short of breath at rest, dizzy or tight in the chest.

Breath

Diaphragmatic breathing and pursed lip breathing. Two techniques, both aimed at emptying the lungs more completely and with less effort.

Physical effect

Side ribs, the front of the chest and gentle rotation. Nothing that presses the belly into the diaphragm.

Control

Being able to change your own breathing deliberately is the thing that carries over into a flight of stairs.

The two techniques

Six minutes of breathing before anything else. This is the part carrying the effect, so it goes first while you are fresh.

Sukhasana

6 min

Easy Pose

Sit up on a cushion or in a chair. Three minutes of belly breathing: one hand low, one on the chest, the lower hand moving first. Then three minutes of pursed lip breathing: in through the nose for two, out through gently pursed lips for four.

Pursed lip breathing keeps a little pressure in the airways on the way out, which helps the lungs empty more completely. Belly breathing gives the diaphragm the job back.

Learn more about Sukhasana

Dandasana

1 min

Staff Pose

Legs long, sitting tall, hands beside the hips. Keep the pursed lip pattern going.

An upright spine gives the ribs somewhere to expand. A slumped one takes it away.

Learn more about Dandasana

Give the ribs room

Three gentle positions. Move at the speed of the breath and stop before it gets short.

Parsva Sukhasana

1 min each side

Seated Side Bend

Sitting, one hand down, the other arm reaching over. Breathe into the long side.

The side ribs are the direction a short breath never uses, and the easiest place to feel expansion.

Learn more about Parsva Sukhasana

Parivrtta Sukhasana

1 min each side

Revolved Easy Pose

A gentle seated turn, from the ribs, not the shoulders. Keep breathing the whole way.

Rotation moves the ribs against each other, which keeps the chest wall from stiffening.

Learn more about Parivrtta Sukhasana

Setu Bandha Sarvangasana

45 sec, twice

Bridge Pose

On your back, feet down, lift the hips only a little. If lying flat makes breathing harder, put pillows under the head and shoulders and do a smaller version.

The chest at its widest with the floor taking your weight, which makes it the easiest place in the session for a full breath.

Learn more about Setu Bandha Sarvangasana

Matsyasana

1 min

Fish Pose

Supported only. A folded blanket lengthways under the spine, head resting. Never the lifted version.

A wide chest for a minute at no cost. If it makes breathing harder rather than easier, leave it out.

Learn more about Matsyasana

Savasana

5 min

Corpse Pose

On your back or propped up on pillows, whichever lets you breathe most easily. Back to the pursed lip pattern for the first minute, then let it go.

Five minutes is a large share of a twenty minute session on purpose. It is where the pattern gets learned.

Learn more about Savasana

Phase 1 · Weeks 1 to 3

This practice is part of a program

It belongs to Two Techniques, Learned Properly, the first phase of the 12 Week Breathing and Yoga Program for COPD. The program says how often to practise it, what comes before and after, and when to move on.

See the whole program →

Integration

Three times a week through the first three weeks, with the ten minute session on the other days. Never hold your breath in any of this. If you use a pulse oximeter, stop and rest when the reading drops below the level you have agreed with your clinician, and let symptoms decide as much as the number.

The teacher behind this sequence

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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Go deeper into the poses

Every asana in this practice has a page of its own. You will find alignment cues, what the shape actually works on, and the energetics behind it.

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Make it yours

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