Sitting too much – be it at a desk bound job, students studying on their study table or being on your devices, all have led to a serious common hazard – ‘A Revised Breathing Pattern.’ Man, who was born a deep breather has slowly yet steadily transformed into a ‘shallow breather’ and thus a ‘reduced lung capacity.’
‘The slouched posture one unknowingly adopts, while sitting, is the main contributing factor to this altered process of ‘Respiration.’
Result of Collapsed Chest
Collapsed chest leads to rounded upper back. The unmediated outcome is a misaligned spine. Misaligned spine may not be such matter of concern if it is a ‘once in a while occurrence’. But, in practice, we have a different story. Because of constant sitting for hours – turned into days, into months and years, our body starts training itself to assume that particular posture automatically. The developed memory then, is transferred into all the other activities we do, be it walking, running or any other action. The actual group of muscles which are supposed to support the sitting or other activities, fail to do so to their optimal capacity, due to this newly assumed habitual pattern. This results in other muscle groups, being forced to compensate the actions.
This thwarts the ‘Normal’ functioning of the body and so starts the germination of a whole series psycho somatic problems.
To point out one such problem, continuous sitting in this habitual pattern, reduces the optimal functioning of the respiratory muscles – lung capacity gets compromised and the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide is sub-optimal. A new pattern of – ‘Shallow Breathing’ or even worse ‘Paradoxical Breathing’ emerges. The worst part of the whole process is that we do not even realize the occurrence of this change. The freedom to have a ‘Stress Free’ life starts withering away and we become slaves of a ‘Stressful’ life – the single one root cause for all our psycho somatic problems.
Two Stretches
These two stretches, hands-in hands-out and arms-up arms-down, shown in the video will help maximize the lung capacity to a great extent. These include vertical and horizontal stretches to the respiratory organs, which aims at massaging the chest region in all the four directions and when performed with minute details, strengthens the scapula / shoulder blades along with the arms and the neck region. These stretches can be performed anytime, anywhere, while sitting down on the floor or while sitting on a chair. Further, it can be performed by kids, office goers, old people, people suffering from cervical spondylosis or even by the people suffering from heart problems or any kind of respiratory problems such as asthma, bronchitis, COPD, neck pain, shoulder stiffness, frozen shoulders, tight shoulders etc.
The ease of performance and adaptability of the stretches makes it extremely easy to perform. So, go forth and practice. Check other videos on our YouTube channel – shammisyogalaya
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Shammi Gupta, founder of Shammi’s Yogalaya holds an MA in Yoga Shastra, is a certified Yogic Therapist and Naturopath, has completed an Advanced Yoga Course and holds a Diploma in Yoga Education from Mumbai University. She is a certified trainer from American College of Sports Medicine and holds an MBA in HR & MBA in Finance from The University of Akron, Ohio, USA. She conducts Health Awareness Workshops for Corporate, Yogasana Workshops for Athletes and Yoga Therapy Workshops on different medical issues for patients. Among the celebrities Shammi trains are eminent personalities from the film and television industry and corporate world.