Diaphragmatic Breathing
Diaphragmatic breathing offers several benefits to your body including:
Helping you relax.
Improving muscle function during exercises and preventing strain.
Increasing how much oxygen is in your blood.
Making it easier for your body to release gas waste from your lungs.
Reducing blood pressure.
Reducing heart rate.
How to breathe from your diaphragm in Bikram yoga:
We use the diaphragm to move air and expand into the back of the ribcage. This requires a pull in, coupled with a contraction of abdominal muscles. The expansion of the back side of the chest when breathing is a pick up out of the lower back as well as a support for the shoulders. The reality is shoulders hang from the top of the ribcage without abdominal muscle support of torso.
Diaphragmatic breathing offers several benefits to your body including:
One of the easiest ways to move lymphatic fluid through your system, which in turn helps to eliminate toxins. Unlike the circulatory system, the lymphatic system has no active pump to move the lymphatic fluid back into the bloodstream. Therefore, effective lymph flow depends on muscle and joint activity, especially if the lymphatic system is compromised.
The largest lymphatic vessel is nestled by the diaphragm:
Diaphragmatic breathing stimulates deep lymphatic flow.
The largest lymphatic vessel in the human body is the thoracic duct. This vessel drains the lower extremities, pelvis, abdomen, left side of the thorax, left upper extremity, and left side of the head and neck. That’s about 75% of the lymph from the entire body. The right lymphatic duct drains the rest of the body which includes the right upper limb, right breast, right lung and right side of the head and neck.
Lymph movement in the thoracic duct is mainly caused by breathing aided by the duct’s smooth muscle and by internal valves which prevent the lymph from flowing back. Please note video demonstration below of how to apply in Half Moon Posture.
The mediastinum houses most circulatory structures.
Sternum reset, lung pump, spinal movement with ribcage sensory training makes a huge impact throughout our bodies ecosystem.
Taking your practice into your life off your mat is an art form. Celebrating your most balanced self.
And a bonus: it stimulates the hell out of the vagus nerve. A nitro shot to the parasympathetic system.
Everything gets easier when you can move in the mediastinum
