Buteyko Breathing

Buteyko breathing are a form of breathing exercises that are designed to teach normal breathing. The method was developed by Dr.Buteyko- a Russian physician and could be helpful to improve problems associated with improper breathing such as asthma, sleep apnea, hyperventilation, COPD, mouth-breathing, etc.

Factors like stress, junk food, bad lifestyle and habits cause us to unknowingly overbreathe. The Buteyko technique essentially brings the breathing volume towards normalcy to provide better oxygenation to the body organs.

This technique includes the following exercises:

Breathing through the nose instead of the mouth

This is actually harder than it sounds because many of us don’t realize how much we rely on our mouth for breathing. Additionally nodding, tipping, ‘hold & bow’ exercises are also included to clear the nasal track before starting proper breathing exercises.

Relaxed breathing

Sit in a quite peaceful spot and relax your body. Become aware of your breathing. Do this for a few minutes everyday.

Control pause

This exercise involves inhaling a small breath in from your nose and exhaling a small breath through your nose. Then hold your nose until you feel the desire to breathe again.

Restricted mouth breathing

Cover your mouth for an hour everyday to force yourself to breathe through your nose. You can also take a short 15 minute walk focused on nose-breathing

Stop cough

The idea is to substitute a swallow of water for a cough, because the swallow is less traumatic to the tissues.