How to Breathe in a Pose

The instruction is always "keep breathing," which is true and completely useless, because the reason you stopped is that the shape made breathing difficult and nobody explained what to do about it.

Here is what to do about it.

Why the breath stops

Three causes, and they need different responses.

The ribs are physically compressed. In a deep twist, a tight forward fold, or anything where the belly is folded against the thighs, the diaphragm has less room to descend. The breath does not stop from effort — it stops because the usual route is blocked.

You are bracing. Under load, the body's default is to hold the breath and stiffen the trunk. It is a reasonable strategy for lifting a heavy object once. It is a bad strategy for holding a pose for a minute.

You are concentrating. Most people hold their breath while threading a needle. Fine motor attention suppresses breathing. In yoga this shows up in balance poses and in anything new.

What to do in each case

When the ribs are compressed: breathe into the back.

The lungs extend further back than most people picture, and the back of the ribcage can expand even when the front cannot. In a twist or a deep fold, direct the inhale to the space between the shoulder blades and along the back of the lower ribs.

To find it: sit and lean forward over your thighs, wrap your arms around your shins so the front of the body is completely shut. Breathe. Whatever moves is your back ribs. That is the sensation to reach for.

The breath will be smaller. That is correct. A small breath in the right place is worth more than a large one you have to leave the pose to take.

When you are bracing: lengthen the exhale first.

Do not try to breathe in more. Trying to inhale against a braced trunk makes the bracing worse. Instead, make the next exhale longer and slower than it wants to be, and let the inhale arrive on its own without being pulled.

Two or three of those and the bracing releases, because the body reads a long exhale as evidence the emergency is over.

When you are concentrating: put the breath first in the order of operations.

Set the breath before you go into the shape, not after. Establish a slow, even rhythm standing at the top of the mat, then enter the pose and hold that rhythm as the primary task, with the alignment second. This is the reverse of how most people do it and it works considerably better.

The rule for movement

Where a movement opens the front of the body, inhale. Where it closes the front of the body, exhale.

Arms overhead, chest lifting, spine extending — inhale. Folding forward, twisting, drawing the knees in, lowering to the floor — exhale.

This is not a convention. Opening the front creates space for the lungs; closing it removes space. Fighting that is unnecessary work. Two things follow from the rule:

• The exhale is when you go deeper into any closing shape. Fold on the out-breath, then wait; do not push on the inhale.
• If a sequence has you inhaling into a fold, either the sequence is wrong or you have lost the thread. Both happen.

The one habit worth building

Make the exhale slightly longer than the inhale, all the time, in everything.

Not dramatically — four in, six out is plenty. The inhale is the activating half of the cycle and the exhale is the settling half, and biasing towards the exhale gives you a body that is working hard without being alarmed about it.

You will lose it constantly at first. The measure of the skill is not whether it holds; it is how quickly you notice it has gone and reset. In the first weeks that is thirty seconds. Eventually it is two breaths.

When the breath will not settle

Come out. This is the only reliable rule in the whole subject.

If you are in a shape and the breath is ragged, short, or held no matter what you do, the shape is past your working edge today, regardless of how it looks or how far you got into it last week. Back off until the breath is available, and stay there. That is your pose today. The breath is the most accurate feedback instrument you have and it is the only one that reports honestly on effort.