These next two exercises will take you beyond the basic abdominal breathing exercises we looked at earlier. Once you've had a chance to practice with the basic mp3 for 5 or 6 sessions, you may be ready to add these exercises.

Straw Breathing

Straw breathing trains your diaphragm to be stronger, because you practice more forceful exhales. Without moving into strain, you will play with the duration and concentration of your exhale, using your mouth instead of your nose. Combined with a shorter inhale through the nose, this is a much more challenging exercise.

Twisting to Open the Ribs

Adding twisting movements that favor one side of the body will highlight proper rib movement and help you expand your breath into a new area. The focus of this exercise is on the side-ways expansion of the rib cage. Before you attempt it in your practice flow, check out the instructional video and practice the movements first. Later, coordinate the breathing with the movements.

Guided Breathing Practice

[CSSBUTTON target="/downloads/Expanded_Breathing_Practice.mp3" color="ff0000"]Download Breathing Practice Mp3[/CSSBUTTON] (right click to "save as")

This page is part of a series of free breathing exercises. If you found this page somewhere else and you'd like to learn more about the entire series, you can sign up here.