How to practice yoga breathing when you are a beginner?

Yoga has become a sport that many people highly recommend, because regular yoga exercises can relax your body and mind, improve your temperament, and also help with weight loss and fitness. However, when you first start practicing yoga, if you want to make the best use of it, you should first practice breathing instead of practicing asanas. Only correct breathing can help your body relax better.

Chest breathing method:

When you inhale slowly, draw the air into the chest area, allowing the sternum and ribs to expand outwards; the abdomen should remain flat. As your inhale deepens, your abdomen should draw inward. When you exhale, slowly expel the foul air from your lungs and allow your ribs and chest to return to their original positions.

Abdominal breathing method:

When inhaling, use your nose to slowly and deeply inhale fresh air into the bottom of your lungs. As the amount of inhalation increases, the diaphragm between the chest and abdomen will drop, the abdominal organs will move downward, and your lower abdomen will slowly swell like a balloon. When you exhale, the abdomen tightens inward toward the spine, and the diaphragm naturally rises, completely expelling the foul air in the lungs from the body and returning the internal organs to their original positions.

Complete breathing method:

It is the correct and natural breathing that combines chest breathing and abdominal breathing. When you inhale gently, first inhale the air into the bottom of the lungs, the abdominal area swells, and then the air fills the middle and upper parts of the lungs. At this time, you transition from abdominal breathing to chest breathing. When you have inhaled to full capacity into your lungs, you will feel your abdominal wall and lower ribs push outward, with only slight movement of your chest. Exhale in reverse order, first relaxing your chest, then your abdomen, trying to exhale as much air as possible, then intentionally tightening your abdominal muscles inward and gently contracting your lungs. The entire breathing process is a very smooth movement, like a wave that gently spreads from the abdomen to the middle chest and then to the upper chest, then weakens and disappears.

Friends who have just started practicing yoga should not rush to practice yoga poses. They should first practice the three breathing methods introduced above. After mastering the breathing methods, they can practice yoga poses. This way, the exercise will be more effective. Sharpening the knife does not delay the chopping of wood. If you want to practice yoga, start with breathing!