To: K-list
Recieved: 2003/07/25 20:24
Subject: [K-list] Diaphragmology
From: Richard Friedel
On 2003/07/25 20:24, Richard Friedel posted thus to the K-list:
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
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