Archive for the ‘Pranayama (Breath-control)’ Category

This video was shot in the Bahamas in October 2009 at William Truebridge’s Freediving Masterclass where I had the honour of being invited to teach these amazing elite athletes yogic techniques of how to be relaxed in stressful situations. The video shows me using breath-control techniques (pranayama) to slow my heart beat from 88 to 32 beats per minute in 45 seconds.

The ability to do this comes from years of yoga training certainly but that it can happens at all is related to the ‘diving reflex’. The mammalian diving reflex optimises respiration which allows mammals to stay underwater for a long time. It is seen most in aquatic mammals, but exists in a weaker version in other mammals, including humans. The slowing of heart beat (bradycardia) is the first response from the diving reflex. Immediately upon facial contact with cold water, the human heart rate slows down ten to twenty-five percent. Some sea animals such as seals can go from about 125 beats per minute to as low as 10 when they are diving. Making the heart rate slow down lessens the need for bloodstream oxygen, and leaves more to be used by the brain and the heart.The reflex is triggered specifically by cold water contacting the face, which in this video demonstration I am obviously not doing. The diving reflex is also triggered by sudden increases in carbon dioxide levels. So in this video I spent about 3 minutes doing natural minimal diaphragmatic breathing very similar to what essentially approaches kevala kumbhaka (spontaneous cessation of breath, in this case still with about 2 litres of air in my lungs, yet without any conscious effort). Then I simply and suddenly exhale fully and held my breath out and did a gentle (not forced) uddiyana bandha (a thoracic Mueller manoeuvre). The most important thing was I did not do any deep fast breathing first as this would have significantly dropped the carbon dioxide levels. The sudden change from normal levels of carbon dioxide to increased levels of carbon dioxide seems to trigger the diving reflex even though there was no cold water applied to my face. I was also holding jalandhara bandha (having my head moved forward and my neck moved backwards) and a type of jiva bandha (tip of my tongue gently pressed against the back of my upper teeth and the roof of the mouth. I believe these two things also had a role in the slowing of the heart. The best thing of course is the feeling after. The exercise causes an increase in blood flow to the brain so I was left with a sense of immense peace and clarity, and focused alert energy.

Another benefit of this type of reduced breathing practice is that it reduces your appetite. I used the technique daily about 18 months ago to undergo a 55 day juice fast while travelling internationally and teaching with no problems at all.

Another interesting phenomenon was that just before I completed the exercise the relative values of systolic and diastolic blood pressure switched. So instead of blood pressure being about 140 over 70 (about normal) just before I inhaled at the end the blood pressure went to about 90 over 120. This is very strange but on the day we actually reproduced this result in 3 people including William Truebridge (who was remarkable in his attempt). We presume this shift of blood pressure (an apparent reversal) is due to peripheral circulation being reduced due to the the diving reflex.

Thanks to Freediving world record holder William Truebridge for teaching the technique (he can do it better than I can), and thanks to static apneoa national record holder Glenn Venghaus for use of his heart monitoring equipment and his learned advice. Also thanks to other inspirational members of Williams Masterclass all of whom can hold their breaths far longer than my ‘modest’ 4 minutes and 30 seconds. I would like to add that that even though I have been holding my breath in for underwater swimming since my father (George Borg-Olivier) taught me in 1966 and have practiced uddiyana bandha since i was taught it by Basil Brown in 1968 I can in no way compare my abilities to these freedivers who in my opinion are master hatha yogis

In this short video I am talking about pranayama and what I learnt from traditional yoga teachings and also from western medical science. If you are interested you may consider coming to my one day workshop on Sunday July 11 2010 – you can find out more at www.enlightenedevents.com.au

This is a video lecture on the essence of yoga and its related anatomy and physiology of yoga, a demonstration of some advanced yoga and a short beginner level class i gave to about 500 people at Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney at the start of 2010. Thanks to Sheona White for organising this and Ross Glendenning and Verity Gill for there assistance in demonstration.

In addition to the physical yoga demonstration and the lecture I demonstrate here strength using internal relaxation power from diaphram, a relaxed abdomen and a relaxed neck. I also demontrate breath-control that can slow the heart rate from 88 to 33 beats per minutes in about 45 seconds. Thank you  to 3 of my main teachers who taught me the essence of this work. Prof Bhim Dev, Natanaga Zhander (Shandor Remete) and Zhen Hua Yang

Please click here to see the video.

Posted on our facebook site by Simon Borg-Olivier on September 3, 2009 at 2:27pm

Hi Everyone, 
As many of you know I gave a 3 hour talk on nutrition, diet, exercise and breathing a few weeks ago. Because of the huge interest generated (the talked booked out at 120 people, and we had to turn quite a few people away) we have decided I will be giving a shortened (1 hour) free version of this talk next Friday night (4th September 2009) at our Bondi school. Again the talk will focus on the relationship between yoga, exercise and the way you breathe with how that relates to what you eat and how your body attempts to digest it inside you. The long version of this talk I gave earlier this year is now available for sale as a 3 hour DVD that you can order online from www.yogasynergy.com or from our office at +61293897399 in case you are interested. 
I will be talking about how the way you breathe can affect your ability to digest food and also your desire to eat food. The only scientifically proven diet is the calorie reduction diet. It basically says that the fewer calories you eat the longer you live. But to do this without feeling hungry is hard unless you can balance this with the right type of breathing for your diet. The way to do this while maintaining the health of your bones and body systems is to make the main component of your food as fresh as possible with an emphasis on fresh fruits and vegetables. After 40 years of pranayama (yogic breath-control in the form of learning how to actually breathe less than you normally do and not more than you usually do) I am happy to say that I eat whatever I like whenever I want to. However, I only ever feel like eating fresh healthy foods. I never feel like having processed foods or heavy foods. It is ok to restrict yourself for a week or even a few weeks but it is not healthy (physically or psychologically) to feel like you restricting yourself for long periods of time. 
I would like to share some of the many tricks that allow diet and lifestyle to harmonise with exercise and breathing. To assist me my wife Vitoria Borg-Olivier and exercise physiologist Sam Mower will be presenting some great food supplements and superfoods that can help you make the transition to a healthy lifestyle and also be of assistance in raising kids. They will also have some of these often hard to get superfoods for sale if you would like to try some. Vitoria has done amazing work in bringing up our kids eating unprocessed (not from packets and without chemicals) fresh food. Sam Mower will also be talking about the relationship between regular exercise and diet. He is also an expert on nutrient supplements and talks about the many beneficial effects of fruit and vegetable juice powders such as ‘Juice Plus’ which has had many scientific trials done on it that validate the benefits of fruit and vegetables. I live on fruit and vegetables and so have many great yogis past and present. This is a really important factor that helps you have excellent health and allows you to do better yoga and exercise. This especially helps your ability to hold the breath for pranayama (breath-control exercises), kriyas (internal cleansing exercises) and mudras (energy-control exercises). Once breath-control is established concentration, relaxation and meditation are much more achievable.

Definitions and Introduction (APCh 1, 2,4, 7 Appendix C)

· Bandha is defined as co-activation (simultaneous tensing) of antagonistic (opposing) muscle groups around a joint complex; Bandhas require multi-joint muscles and multi-joint complexes; Bandhas strengthen and stabilise joint-complexes; Bandhas help to move prana (energy) citta and (consciousness) through the nadis (subtle channels including nerves, blood vessels, lymph vessels and acupuncture meridians)

· Ha-bandhas are compressive, create heat and increase local pressure. They push energy and blood away from their region and reduce local blood flow

· Tha-bandhas are expansive, decrease temperature and local pressure. They pull energy and blood away from their region and increase local blood flow

· There are many ways to generate bandhas at each of the nine main joint complexes. The main ways are listed below with simple instructions to guide you in this posture as a follows:

· Below are listed some of the instructions you can give or things you can do in the posture Utthita Trikonasana

Kulpha (ankle) bandha (APpp 178-186, 395-396)

Use ha-kulpha bandha on both feet (This bandha pushes the blood away from the feet and should mainly be used when the foot is on the floor)

· Grip (flex) the toes (like trying to make a closed fist)

· Lift the arches of the feet – (once kati (hip) bandhas are applied then emphasise the lift of outer right foot and inner left foot)

· Lean towards the front of the feet

Janu (knee) bandha (APpp 158-163, 396-397)

Use tha-janu bandha on both knees (This bandha enhances blood flow through the knee and should mainly be used with the knee extended in a weight-bearing posture)

· Pull up the knee caps (in order to activate muscles in front of the thighs or knee extensors)

· Try to bend the knee with knee caps still pulled up and/or press into the front of the foot (in order to activate muscles in the rear of the thighs or knee flexors)

Kati (hip) bandha (APpp 134-142, 398-399)

RIGHT LEG (flexed hip)

Use ha-kati bandha (This bandha restricts blood flow through the hip and should mainly be used with the hip flexed, i.e. in poses with the thigh moving towards the front of the body, in standing or in the air)

· Try to turn the thigh outwards

· Start with the RIGHT foot slightly turned inwards (outer foot parallel to the long side of the mat) then press the heel inwards and press the front of the foot outwards (this is like trying to turn the thigh outwards, but effectively co-activates hip abductors and adductors)

LEFT LEG (extended hip)

Use tha-kati bandha (This bandha enhances blood flow through the hip and should mainly be used with hip extended, i.e. in poses with the thigh moving towards the back of the body, in standing or in the air)

· Try to turn the thigh inwards

· Start with the LEFT foot turned 45-60 degrees outwards, then press the heel outwards and press the front of the foot inwards (this is like trying to turn the thigh inwards, but effectively co-activates hip abductors and adductors)

Mula (lower trunk) bandha (APpp 207-209, 400-401)

Generally best to use tha-mula bandha (This bandha enhances blood flow through the lower trunk while stabilising and firming the lower trunk. It is best maintained with natural diaphragmatic breathing where should be feeling like you are keeping your abdomen relaxed and breathing into the abdomen not the chest but if you were to touch your abdomen it would feel firm to touch because of the way you are doing the posture and using your postural muscles)

· Lengthen the spine (especially by pushing the tail bone and sitting bones in the opposite direction from the first thoracic vertebrae and the collar bone)

· Narrow and compress the waist (using the postural abdominal muscles and not the muscles of abdominal exhalation)

· Learn how to inhale using the diaphragm (pull the diaphragm down) while not letting the abdomen puff out and this will increase intra-abdominal pressure and add to the stability of the lumbar spine

· OR Try to push the sitting bones down and forward and while trying to pull the middle back in and up, without actually shortening the spine

· OR Stretch the mat with the feet (specifically try to stretch the mat apart from the ball of the RIGHT foot to the heel of the LEFT foot)

· OR Nauli (activate the rectus abdominis by pushing the pubis towards the chestwhile generating tha-uddiyana bandha on exhalation retention)

Only use ha-mula bandha (the compressional form of mula bandha which restricts blood flow through the lower trunk and is best used and learnt during forced abdominal exhalation) when both this posture (asana) and basic breath-control (pranayama) have been mastered separately and can now be applied at the same time. N.B. most practitioners with less than 10 years or rigourous yoga are not ready for this stage and will over-tax both their physiology and anatomy by inappropriately applying this type of positive pressure core stabilisation or ha-mula bandha prematurely trying to apply it in postures.

· Narrow and compress the waist and especially the lower abdomen (using the abdominal muscles of exhalation), but generally only hold for a few moments

· Grip the perineum then exhale fully and tighten the genital, the lower abdomen and armpits

· OR contract the diaphragm with or without an inhalation

Uddiyana (chest and upper back) bandha (APpp 208, 211, 402-403)

Ha-uddiyana bandha (This bandha restricts blood flow through the upper trunk and is good to use during spinal bending postures, i.e. use when bending forward, backward, sideways or twisting in order to stabilise the spine)

· Contract the front lower rib cage and the rear lower rib cage (near the kidney region) inwards towards each

· Exhale fully from the chest (ha-uddiyana bandha is easiest to feel on a safely performed forced chest exhalation)

· Equally round out the upper back then lift the collar bones so the front and the back of the chest are equally stretched

Tha-uddiyana bandha (This bandha enhances blood flow through the upper trunk and is safest to use in neutral spine postures such as Utthita Trikonasana)

· Expand the lower rib cage

· Inhale to the chest or expand the chest as if you are inhaling (this can be done at any time of the breath cycle)

· Equally round out the upper back then lift the collar bones so the front and the back of the chest are equally expanded

Jalandhara (neck & head) bandha (APpp 209-211, 404)

Ha-jalandhara bandha (This bandha restricts blood flow through the neck)

· Move the head down and move the neck back

· If and when you rotate the head to the left then move your left ear away from your left shoulder

Amsa (shoulder) bandha (APpp 87-92, 405-406)

Generally to create amsa (shoulder) bandha, move or push the armpits in the direction they are facing and move the elbows in the opposite direction

Ha-amsa bandha (This bandha restricts blood flow through the shoulder and is best used when the shoulders are extended by the side of the body or abducted out to the side)

· Push the shoulder down towards the hips and push the elbow away from the hips

Tha-amsa bandha (This bandha enhances blood flow through the shoulder and is best used when the shoulders are flexed, i.e. arms above the head)· Push the shoulders forward towards the chest and push the elbows backwards away from the chest

Kurpara (elbow) bandha (APpp 112-113, 407)

RIGHT ARM

Tha-kurpara bandha (This bandha enhances blood flow through the elbow and is best used when the elbow is extended)

· Gently and simultaneously tighten (bulge) the biceps and triceps brachii

· Here the arm is pulling against the ankle (or the big toe or the floor) so try and bend (flex) the elbow then try to rotate the forearm inwards (elbow pronation)

LEFT ARM

Tha-kurpara bandha

· Gently and simultaneously tighten (bulge) the biceps and triceps brachii

· Here the arm is pushing to try and straighten (extend) the elbow so try to rotate the forearm outwards (elbow supination)

Mani (wrist) bandha (APpp 113-120, 408-409)

RIGHT ARM

Ha-mani bandha (This pushes the blood away from the hand and should mainly be used when the hand is weight-bearing or grabbing something)

· Grip (flex) with the fingers and pull the back of the hand towards the wrist (extend the wrist), as if trying to make a closed fist with the hand

· OR in an open handed position in case the hand is on the floor or resting by the side of the ankle in the air then try and make a tight closed fist with the hand

LEFT ARM

Tha-mani bandha (This pulls the blood towards the hands and should mainly be used especially on inhale when the hand is not weight-bearing or grabbing something)

· The wrist is guided by a closed hand position (in this case grabbing the ankle but it could also be the big toe) so stretch (extend) the fingers and slightly pull the front of the hand towards the wrist (i.e. slightly flex the wrist)