How to breathe better while seated (in just 3 minutes!)- Episode 414

 So, once again, you going to grab your band, your rope, your breath belt, whatever you need. For me, I’m going to actually put this around my abdomen basically at the level of the navel. Remember, we use the band as an awareness tool to make sure that as we’re doing breathwork. we are thinking about a three-dimensional expansion of the abdomen as we work on diaphragmatic excursion. So, in the chair, you can do this at work. This one’s fantastic. This is the basic flow sequence that I want you to do. Remember when we work on this, we focus on three to five breaths in each position, just in a kind of a flow sequence breathing in through the nose out through the mouth or in through the nose, out through the nose. You choose. As I always say, I recommend that you work on doing both.

So we’re going to begin in the chair. Move your back away from the back of the chair and just sit up nice and tall. You’ll start here. Three breaths in. And out. Again, paying attention to what’s happening at the band. Are you getting good three-dimensional expansion. From here we’re now going to flex forward. So you can roll forward. On this chair I like to just roll my hands down on the legs. I’m trying to get some flexion in my lumbar spine, and I’ll breathe there. And then going to come up. I’m going to grab the seat or grab the legs of the chair or the arms and I’m going to go back into an extended position. Now, I’m not trying to do something super gymnastic-like. In the chair I want to make sure that I feel supported which is why I’m having you grab. So I’m going to hold on. Go into an extended position. Do my three breaths. From here we’re now going to go into side bending. So some people depending on the chair set up, you might want to move forward so that you can grab the leg of the chair and you’re just going to slide down. It is nice to use a chair that you can hold on to so that you feel safe and supported. So once again, we’re going to tilt and we’re going to breathe. We’ll do our 3 here. We’re going to tilt to the opposite side and repeat. Three more here. We’re then going to finalize this by going into rotation. So I’m going to take my arms out, one in front one in back.

Remember, whenever we take our arms out, we’re stretching toward the walls and then I’m going to look at my back hand and breathe for three. And then I’m a look at my front hand and breath for three. I’m then going to counterrotate or rotate in the opposite direction and repeat. So super simple. We begin in a neutral seated position we flex. We hold on to the chair. We extend, we move forward, we laterally bend, laterally bend, come back into a comfortable position. Rotate, look behind. Look forward. Rotate look behind. Look forward.