Learn about the best techniques and exercises for good breathing. Health: what benefits can good breathing bring?
It is important that people work and seek well-being in all aspects of life, in order to maintain a balance between mental and physical health and avoid the stress or anxiety that daily routines can generate.
Sometimes it is necessary to relax from work or personal worries and do breathing exercises. Maintaining a good breathing habit can bring benefits.
If you are one of the people who has many occupations and worries, but you want to take a moment of the day for yourself, it is ideal that you know this technique. It consists of exercises and tactics that are not very complex and that you can carry out whenever you want, and that will provide great benefits to your health.
If you are looking to improve your breathing, specialist Miguel Soro, member of the Board of Directors of the Spanish Association of Physiotherapists (AFI), recommends these exercises that may be what you need:
Breathing with apnea: this technique consists of holding the air, exhaling and holding it again, always trying to do it at equal intervals. If you want to start practicing it, you can inhale the air for a slow count of four, hold it for another four seconds and expel it in the same time. Repeat the process constantly several times and you will be able to incorporate the technique.
Diaphragmatic breathing: for this exercise you must breathe deeply using your diaphragm. To carry out this practice, you need to sit or lie down in a comfortable position with one hand on your chest and the other on your belly. You have to inhale slowly through your nose, making the abdomen expand, but without the chest moving, trying to keep it as still as possible. Then exhale through your mouth allowing your abdomen to appear contracted. The key to this exercise is to focus on your breathing, it should be deep and slow.
Breathing correctly, applying one of the two techniques mentioned above, can be really beneficial, as indicated by specialist Miguel Soro. He assures that one of the first benefits of improving breathing, making it deep and efficient, is that “it helps oxygenate the body in a more adequate way and makes the muscles stronger and function correctly.”
According to Gerard Muoz Castro, a researcher and respiratory physiotherapist belonging to the Spanish Society of Pneumology and Thoracic Surgery (SEPAR), breathing well means “an improvement in physical capacity and therefore can contribute to better development of peripheral muscles.”
Likewise, carrying out a series of breathing exercises can help people who need to recover from surgeries or operations, it is even a common practice within hospitals. Performing these breathing exercises before and after surgery can promote recovery.
So much so that in recent years this began to be done, but in advance. That is, prior to surgical interventions. Regarding this, Muoz highlights: “these respiratory rehabilitation or ‘pre-habilitation’ programs have demonstrated a reduction in post-surgical complications, a reduction in hospitalization time or less functional loss.”
