Diaphragmology

[Guest guest]

There are so many Internet articles about weakness of the diaphragm in

asthma and other diseases. Many praise the healthy effects of exercises

for restoring diaphragm function. Good diaphragm action is important

for meditation and it seems one key to kundalini yoga.

 

Recent research on sleep emphasizes the significance of diaphragmatic

breathing in parts of normal sleep, namely the stages with rapid eye

movement (REM) and dreams. The first of these stages may last ten

minutes and the last one 1 hour, according to one article. Studies state

that if there is a weak diaphragm action at these times, respiration

and hence oxygen supply will be compromised.

 

It is therefore possible to imagine training proper diaphragm action as

a sort of natural road back to health without any side effects. Whether

this is really the case or not could conceivably be tried out with the

support of a good doctor to check whether health does objectively

improve.

 

The commonest method of getting the diaphragm going for medical or

health reasons is lying on one's back with a weight on the belly and

moving the weight up and down. Significantly, this type of exercise is

not recommended in original Indian yoga. Furthermore, the importance of

a sniff or other restriction of nose breathing is omitted.

 

For singers there is less attention paid to separately training the

diaphragm. However some texts speak of taking a sharp sniff to get the

feel of the workings of the diaphragm.

 

In Chinese and Japanese breathing exercises attention is paid to how far

the diaphragm moves down on each inspiration (so-called tantien,

tanden or hara).

 

Then of course there is the fact that in some languages the diaphragm is

named the "laugh muscle". The Ancient Greeks are often reported to have

thought of it as the seat of the soul, but actual texts stating this are

hard to find.

 

Modern western medicine tends to completely and utterly misunderstand

the significance of nose resistance in breathing and more especially in

breathing exercises. The nose is only for "humidifying, warming and

cleaning the breath" is the standard pontification in textbooks. More

tragically there is a tendency for books on yoga to "explain pranayama

in scientific terms" and hence make nonsense of it. In my copy of the

"Science of Breath" (Swami Rama, Rudolph Ballentine and Alan Hymes) the

short chapter on "nose function and energy" completely ignores nasal

resistance to airflow. With this supposed enlightenment folks can say

that alternate nostril breathing and ujjayi are mere superstition.

 

A significant trouble with doing diaphragmatic exercises is managing a

sort of sniff resistance effect. Modern research (see Verin E. et al.

see Eur J Appl Physiol, (2001) 593-598, full text available via MedLine)

shows that sniff effects provide an unsuspectedly high negative

pressure, which may be used to systematically influence the diaphragm as

opposed to other muscles.

 

In order to meet the requirement for more foolproof diaphragm exercises

there is the method reported to be used in Germany for at least two

years.

 

In it a finger is placed between the lips to form a gap between it and

them. The student then vigorously and sharply breathes in so that the

cheeks are pulled in a bit. The resulting artificial "sniff" has a

powerful effect on the diaphragm. Once one has localized the diaphragm,

training it may then proceed with slower inhales through the gap so as

to exercise the diaphragm to the exclusion of other muscles in the

chest.

 

When breathing strictly diaphragmatically, doing an inhale at all

becomes is substantially or totally dependent on the choking effect of

the gap. If the gap is widened during an inhale past a certain point,

the inhale is disrupted. Breathing diaphragmatically through a 1"

flexible tube placed in the mouth will show that a finger has to be

placed partly over the outer end of the pipe and it is then

interesting to see what variations are needed during an inhale.

 

The effect of a breath taken through the gap between the lips and the

finger is in a way much more powerful than one taken through the nose.

It may be "focussed" on the chakra at the base of the back with a

stronger effect. Regards, Richard Friedel

[Guest guest]

Thanks for the reminder, Richard.

There are more nerves in the gut than in the spinal column. It makes

sense to give this area a lot of attention.

It's not just a Body, it's an Adventure.

Sat Nam,

Dharam