How to Use Your Breath In Asana Practice

While priorities may differ between styles and teachers, when to inhale and exhale during asana is a fairly standardized practice element. Here, Cole offers three simple guidelines for pairing breath with types of poses.

When bending forward, exhale. When you exhale, the lungs empty, making the torso more compact, so there is less physical mass between your upper and lower body as they move toward each other. The heart rate also slows on the exhalation, making it less activating than an inhalation and inducing a relaxation response. Since forward bends are typically quieting postures, this breathing rule enhances the energetic effects of the pose and the depth of the fold.

upward facing dog pose, urdhva mukha svasana When lifting or opening the chest, inhale. In a heart-opening backbend, for instance, you increase the space in your chest cavity, giving the lungs, rib cage, and diaphragm more room to fill with air. And heart rate speeds up on an inhalation, increasing alertness and pumping more blood to muscles. Plus, “Deep inhalation requires muscular effort that contributes to its activating effect,” Cole says. Poses that lift and open the chest are often the practice’s energizing components, so synchronizing them with inhalations takes optimum advantage of the breath’s effects on the body.

When twisting, exhale.

In twists, the inhalation accompanies the preparation phase of the pose (lengthening the spine, etc.), and the exhalat