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       53.  Breathing as Exercise                                          June 12, 2004

“Breathing is not ordinarily considered a muscular exercise, yet that is just what it is.”  Exercising for Health 1929. Bernarr Macfadden.

The quote comes from a little book, mostly with pictures and brief descriptions of posture while sitting, standing and walking. Some of the pictures are of modified Hatha Yoga positions, where stretching of different muscle groups is desired. The pictures on sitting are wonderful and a subject that is simple to illustrate and align when we put our intention on it. Since this is a position that we are in so much, like right now, having a basic understanding of good postural sitting creates an immediate opportunity for us to apply some principles of alignment while we are absorbing all the goodies on the net. I have touched a little on the sitting position in an article within the blog system, however, this is also fully treated in our book Hathaway Alignment Sessions.

Bernarr Macfadden’s book as well as “the Art of Breathing” 1986 by Nancy Zi and “Oriental Breathing Therapy” 1981 by Takashi Nakamura, along with hundreds of pages devoted to the different methods and practices of breathing on the internet point to breathing as a basic exercise that we can do for;

1. Expanding the body open

2. Exercising all the muscles of the upper body

3. Massaging the internal organs

4. Allowing the natural flows of

A] Fluids
B] Energy (Chi)
C] Divinity (I AM)

5. Stretching or lengthening our muscles

6. Introducing and maintaining our alignment

7. Intuiting Mindfulness of breathing

8. Energizing our physical system

9. Developing good postural habits

10. Releasing prior conditioning

The benefits of working with and understanding full breathing are so numerous regarding our health, performance and well being that this subject alone could keep me busy writing of the details until the pages form a book. Since it is an experience that each of us can gain from by doing, I encourage others to ‘just do it’ for a half hour and have the insights that will naturally unfold as you are working with the breath to feel how it influences the expansion of your body and how it plays with energy. Since the practice of breathing is becoming popular and more practitioners of this basic art are increasing, working with others can help us develop comfort with the practice.

Learning to work with a basic breathing pattern doesn’t require to much explanation or reading. We merely intend to take a deep breath and repeat the pattern of, deep breath in, a little breath up and out, breathe in, a little breath up and out, for a period of time and we are on the way to understanding the outer aspect of expansion and contraction of the body with breath. This description is of breathing for alignment. There are many forms of using breath that have come down through the ages, to help accomplish states of seeing as well as for health.

Many forms of breathing can become goal oriented, where the simplicity of having the benefits of breathing fuller becomes lost in something one does only for a desired purpose, because of the dogmas associated with a particular practice. Once grounded in full breathing and understanding how our structural alignment feels with this, other forms become both interesting and useful to us since we have a barometer for working with those practices.

Exercising or physical activity in general, becomes all the more cognitive as we bring an understanding of basic full breathing to any event. In that sense, I am saying that the practice/art of breathing can be a root understanding that we can use to inspect and work with other activates.

A good example for me was provided by the time I spent practicing TUVA singing, also called Throat Singing which was popularized in the U.S. with a CD presented by the Smithsonian Institute. The movie called GENGHIS BLUES also popularized Tuva singing and it became a cult classic. The movie is a wonderful visual of Tibetan/Siberian culture in the land called Tuva, mixed with a musicians desire to visit the source of his fascination with Tuva singing.

The people of Tuva do a form of singing or making sounds that I found interesting in many ways. For one it is an opportunity to make sound and play with that energy. As a kid I enjoyed feeling sound in my body and the sensation that it created in different areas. Spontaneously, I would change the sounds and shape them to see what effect they had on the body. Exploring the vibrations created in the neck, throat and back would hold my attention as I moved sound around the body and felt the vibrations. Generally these sounds had a mantra type quality both internally and externally. Little did I know that this fascination is not unique in the world and I was playing with ideas that form the basis for many systems of Breathing and Sound, most notably Opera.

Tuva singing brings many ingredients to the table, most interesting is how we work with the diaphragm and the breath to produce the sounds of a Tuva singer. Being able to listen and imitate some Tuva singing can clue us to what is required to make these sounds. I found the word HOME works very well for a feeling of the mechanics required to make Tuva sounds. By making this sound in the throat, this is why it is also called throat singing, you get an immediate sensation or vibration that you are looking for. After some practice taking the sound deeper into the throat and body gets us moving the sound around so it can be played with as an internal message.

If we take a very deep breath that fills and lifts the upper body, then sing and sustain the word HOME for a long period of time the actions of the breathing give us a feeling of full diaphragmatic breathing. Doing this for five minutes will provide some insights about our breathing and also how much a five minute session produces in the way of exercise. Doing this form for fifteen minutes or more works the whole upper body and I am sure you will agree, once tried, qualifies as a workout.

The point of Tuva singing that most interests me is that by doing it we can learn the form of full breathing that is presented for aligning the body. This makes full breathing all the more interesting as we play with sound, exercise the muscles of the upper body and wear our good looking body with grace and dignity.

Peace

Posted by harmon at June 12, 2004

        Comments

Hi Harmon,

I have been playing with the extremes of breathing: taking the deepest breath I can possibly take, and then expelling the most air I possibly can (this I usually do in the Plow Posture from Yoga). The maximum breath I accomplish with arms out and up, chest fully expanded etc. I love your attitude of playfulness. I bring that to my experiments

Posted by: Kelley Snodgrass on June 12, 2004

Sounds good Kelley, We can talk of your findings at our next meeting.

Posted by: Harmon on June 14, 2004

  During my last session with you I began spontaneously doing something resembling the TUVA singing - what this deep resonant breath/sound also brings about is a harmonic awareness (Harmon) - speaking literally of harmonic overtones that ring as one "moves" breath within throat chamber - much like a jews harp - these sounds, harmonic intervals, are spectral like the rainbow, and have direct correlation to harmonic vibrations of the body. This is something I sense intuitively rather than deduce scientifically....

Posted by: Scott Williams on June 15, 2004

Hi Scott, glad you had that experience with sound, as you know this can be a wonderful exploration with sounds the body likes to make. There are also some Tao methods for sounding in the body that are for specific organs of the body. However the spontaneous sounds are always interesting and many times just what the body needs to do.

Posted by: Harmon on June 19, 2004

Last summer I visited the American Yoga Foundation and learned Hathaway Alignment. Lucky for me I have a good memory, as I did not start practicing the discipline of breathing as an exercise daily until just a couple of months ago. The benefits I have noticed with just two months of 21 minute per day average - some days double or triple that time are amazing.

I notice myself thinking of breathing during situations that I would not have thought of breath, and would have held my breath. Not now.

It is not easy work - at times it really hurts to breath with the principles of expansive breathwork. Perhaps what hurts is the years of "patterning" that are being directly effected by aligning the body. I have a few theories - and I am sure if I decided to focus on the subject with more energy I would have even more theories. The bottom line is I am noticing results. Results on a different level than other contemplative thought process (meditations) I choose to make a part of my lifestyle. I am very happy to have learned this wonderful discipline - and it is very nice to witness the sharing of information so effectively on the internet.

It kind of amazes me how much information is available to us - and how much information humanity (some more than others) just do not focus on.

Posted by: Paul Bunting on June 21, 2004 03:34 AM

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