Breathing science

 

Yoga is one of the six orthodox readings of Indian philosophy.

The first breath and it is the most important and forceful inhalation a human will ever take.

The initial inflation of the lungs triggers enormous changes to the entire circulatory system, which has previously been geared towards receiving oxygenated blood from the placenta. The first breath causes a massive surge of blood into the lungs, the right and the left sides of the heart to separate into two pumps and the specialized vessels of fetal circulation to shut down seal off and become ligaments that support the abdominal organs.

The first inhalation must be so forceful because it needs to overcome the initial surface tension of the previously inactive lung tissue. The force required to overcome that tension in three or four times greater than that of a normal inhalation. To summarise from the moment of birth, human are confronted by breath and gravity two forces that were not present in utero. To thrive, we need to reconcile those forces as long as we draw breath on this planet.

Breathing is traditionally defined in medical texts as the process of taking air into expelling it from lungs.Breathing is the shape change of the body’s cavities.

In the simple way in human body the torso consists of two cavities, thoracic and abdominal. These cavities share some properties and they have important distinctions as well. Both contain vital organs; The thoracic cavity contains the heart and lungs and the abdominal cavity contains the stomach, liver,gall bladder spleen, pancreas, small and large intestines, kidneys, and bladder.

Both cavities open at one end to the external environment- the thoracic at the top, and the abdominal at the bottom. The cavities open to each other by means of an important shared, dividing structure, the diaphragm. Another important share property is that both cavities are bound posteriorly by the spine.

Volume and pressure are inversely related; when volume increases, pressure decreases and when volume decreases, pressure increases. Because air always flows towards areas of lower pressure, increasing the volume inside the thoracic cavity will decrease pressure and cause air to flow into it. This is an inhalation.

It is important to note that in spite of how it feels when you inhale, you do not actually pull air into the body. On the contrary air is pushed into the body by the atmospheric pressure that always surrounds you. This means that the actual force that gets air into the lungs is outside of the body The energy expended in breathing produces shape change that lowers the pressure in the chest cavity and permits the air to be pushed into the body by the weight of the planet’s atmosphere. In other words , you cr5eate the space, and the universe fills it.

During relaxed, quiet breathing such as while sleeping , an exhalation is a passive reversal of this process. The thoracic cavity and lung tissue – which have been stretched open during the inhalation- spring back to their initial volume, pushing the air out and returning them to their previous shapes. This is referred to as passive recoil . Any reduction in the elasticity of these tissues results in a reduction of the body’s ability to exhale passively, leading to a host of respiratory problems such as emphysema and pulmonary fibrosis, which greatly compromise the elasticity of the lung tissue.

In a living breathing body, thoracic shape change cannot occur without abdominal shape change.That is why the condition of the abdominal region has such an influence on the abdominal region has such an influence on the quality of our breathing and why the quality of our breathing has powerful effect on the health of our abdominal organs.

A key observation that has been made in yogic teachings is that spinal movements are an intrinsic component of the shape changing activity of the cavities. This is why such huge component of yoga practice involves coordinating the movements of the spine with the process of inhaling and exhaling.

There’s a reason why students are instructed to inhale during spinal extension and exhale during spinal flexion. Fundamentally the spinal shape change of extension is an inhale and the spinal shape change of spinal flexion is an exhale.

The diaphragm is the principal muscle that causes three -dimensional shape change in the thoracic and abdominal cavities. The muscular action of the diaphragm is most often associated with a bulging movement in the upper abdomen, which is commonly referred to as a belly breath or abdominal breath, and confusingly referred to as diaphragmatic breath. Our postural habits are synonymous with our breathing habits. ..