Wow. So I have supplied you with all this information and only now do I get to the big issue: how do you get to where you should be. Sorry about that, but I did want to cover all the issues before you start on a directed course of action to get your breathing to be where it should be.

Need I say it again?

NEVER NEVER PUSH. BETTER

Too Slowly Than Too Fast

If your reaction to the breath work is too strong, stop the breath session. Come back to it a few days or a week later. This is not a contest and it is not a test of determination and it is not a test of will power. I usually illustrate this issue with the following.

Suppose you have not exercised in years. You go into a health club and you immediate try to bench press two hundred pounds. What is likely to happen? You are likely to break bones, or tear muscles, or tear ligaments. That is, you are likely to injure. Now suppose that you go in and you bench press 20 pounds. Then over the next year or two you slowly work up to heavier and heavier weights. Now you can do it and the result will be further strength, not injury. The rule throughout both parts of this book is:

ALWAYS TOO SLOWLY.

Dealing With Chest Shapes

For our purposes here in freeing the diaphragm and the chest I have broken it up into two categories: chest held high and chest held low.

As I discussed before: "don't stress beyond endurance"; don't try to be a hero; don't try to be the fastest changer on the block; don't think that you will not change unless you push to your limit; don't overdo it. Anything that is present and arises in a session will still be there to arise in another session without your pushing it. Let things happen to a degree that seems reasonable for you in any given session and then stop. Some people, by reason of where they start, proceed with extreme rapidity and others with immense slowness. You are who you are, accept that and work within those limitations.

I. Preparation

1. Work first on the belly-chest sequence of breathing. If you can not use your chest because it is frozen in the chronic inhale position, I will get to that presently. Likewise if you can not use you belly, I will get to that presently also. Just do your best to make a habit of the belly-chest sequence, both inhale and exhale.

2. Next work on the sound. Remember this is not a contest, there is no failure, just something not yet mastered. If you are making some sound other than 'ah' or if you are closing your throat (articulated or guttural), this can be corrected later.

3. Now attempt to get rid of any pause between the inhale and the exhale. If you need to think of the process as first and inhale and then an exhale, that is OK for the present. Later you will get the hang of rhythmic breathing.

4. Become accustomed to the effects of reduced carbon dioxide (hyperventilation) until the tingling or the spasm or the other symptoms do not frighten you. I say again this is not a contest and 'look how quickly I can learn to do it' is only another way to say 'look how I can endure unpleasantness without stopping (i.e. masochism).' You want to learn to accept and even find pleasure in the effects of hyperventilation so if, in a given session, it gets too strong then simply stop the session for awhile or even stop for the day and pick up later or the next time.

I would also remind you of MEDICAL NOTE on page 61 concerning hyperventilation.

II. If You Can Not Use The Diaphragm, Then

1. Use the breathe belly only exercise (page 85). Do not try the gasp inhale belly, that is too advanced. Keep working on this exercise until you are not able to make any more progress. Some people have very tight abdominal muscles (recall the difference between tonic muscles and toned muscles) and thus their ability to use the diaphragm will be limited. In Chapter five I partially explained the roll the pelvis exercise (page 95). The roll the pelvis exercise is the big one for loosening the abdomen. You will not do any harm to this work if you skip to ROLL THE PELVIS on page 281, learn the proper way to do the exercise; and spend as many months as needed with the roll the pelvis exercise to loosen the abdomen. If you are working with a helper, the use of pressure by the helper is explained at THE DIAPHRAGM on page 157. However, you can also just accept your limitations until you get to the abdominal section in Part Two of the book where the roll the pelvis exercise is presented as a major exercise.

2. When you have made as much progress as you can on breathing only into the abdomen, then try the gasp inhale belly exercise (page 99) to see that you really have control of this muscle. Keep in mind that the chest should not move at all in the belly only or gasp belly only exercises. The idea of using this exercise at this time is only to test how well you have freed the diaphragm. Later you will actually use this exercise as part of your routine.

III. If Your Chest Is Held In Chronic Exhale (Chest Down), Then

The exercises to use for this condition are the side bend (below) and the extend belly breathe chest only (page 91). If you are working with a helper then you can also get help on the held-down chest there by the helper preventing you from breathing into the belly, thus forcing chest breathing (page 159). Note that this assumes that you have already learned the belly only breathing.

Bringing the chest up will not happen quickly. Don't get discouraged. Keep in mind that your objective is to free the chest so that you can breathe into it using the muscles between the ribs. Your chest shape will change in time but you will not get the barrel shape. Given your body build it will still remain long and thin, but it will be not quite as linear as it used to be.

Side Bend

This exercise is used by people who can not get the chest to rise because it is held down. The reason for the use of the exercise is a little more difficult to explain, so bear with me.

Recall that I spoke of the long thin chest that can not move up and the barrel chest that is already up and can not get down. Generally, whatever your chest shape you were born that way. Some people have long thin bodies like many rock stars and other people have large barrel chests like weight lifters or opera singers. You are not going to change your basic body shape; what both types need, however, is to be able to have the chest move with the breath.

For the long thin type the issue usually is getting the chest to expand and rise with the inhale. For the barrel type the issue usually is getting the chest to fall after the exhale. What one seeks is to be in a state of flexibility, of life, of change where the chest moves with each breath.

Like all human attributes, the long thin chest to the barrel chest is really a continuous variation with the long thin chest and the barrel chest being the extremes. With the barrel chest being in a state of chronic inhale, this exercise is not applicable.

This exercise is for the person with a chest that is round but not held up and for the person with the chest down in chronic exhale. There are two common reasons why these people can not get their chest to expand and rise with the inhale. The first reason is that he or she can not use the muscle between the ribs and thus attempts to get the chest to rise by using the accessory muscles of respiration. But there is another reason for difficulty. That reason is that the chest is being held down, prevented from rising, by other muscles. These muscles are at the side of the abdomen.

These are the abdominal oblique muscles. The technique for relaxing the abdominal obliques is shown in Figure 33 and Figure 34 on page 124. Note in Figure 33 that our model is standing straight with the arm against the head and in Figure 34 that bending to the side does not change that, the model is straight not bending forward.

Footnote 21. There is also a muscle in the back which can prevent the chest from rising. That muscle is ignored in this presentation.

You may note that this technique is quite close to a yoga posture except that there is, as I will explain, movement here in contrast to the steady holding of a yoga posture.

Figure 33

Figure 34

The following photos (Figure 35) show the error of either the arm not being close to the head or bending forward.

Figure 35

On the inhale stand with the arm straight over the head and bent as shown in the Figure 33. Try to breathe belly then chest. During the exhale reach downward, with the straight arm toward the floor and the bent arm reaching further to the side (as though your arm were pushing your head to the side). That is, the pulling on the abdominal oblique muscles is accomplished both by the reaching downward and the reaching across the head.

There are two minor issues here. One is that the main focus of your motion is the arm that is reaching downward at your side.

Think of this as though you were actually trying to bend so far to the side that your down arm could touch the floor. It can't, of course, but think of reaching downward as though your down arm were actually going to touch the floor.

The other issue is that this is not a single static movement. That is, you don't just reach and then hold it for the whole exhale.

Rather you kind of bounce to the side, each time trying to touch the floor. But keep in mind as you do this not to bend forward as the model is doing in Figure 35.

After each exhale is finished, you return to the upright stance to do the inhale.

Do this about six times with one arm over the head and then switch to the other arm over the head. The exercise should go on for about five minutes.

IV. If Your Chest Is Held In Chronic Inhale (Chest Up), Then

The exercise to use to get the chest down is the push breathing (page 94). Please do it exactly as I have described with the rolling of the pelvis and the belly held out during the whole forced exhale.

You may have difficulty with this exercise if your accessory muscles of respiration are chronically tight. This issue is discussed in the next chapter.

If you are working with a helper, the helper can help greatly with this issue by the use of pressure. There are several references to this in Chapter nine: (1) diaphragm and chest pressure at pages 158 and 159, (2) work on some of the accessory muscles and in particular the pectorals (page 160) and the trapezius (page 171).

Footnote 22. Unfortunately my model posing lacks proper shots on chest pressure. Figure 55 on page 159, right, only shows pressure on the lower ribs. In fact to help push the chest down, the helper should use the downward pressure on the ribs over the whole of the chest and especially on the sternum (breast bone). For female workers, the helper should avoid pressure on breast tissue. Pressure on breast tissue is painful and non-productive. There is no breast tissue over the sternum so pressure here (angled toward the feet and the bed) can be used. For the middle ribs, the helper can move up the chest from below so that the breast tissue is moved up and is not under the hands. Pressure on the chest is often uncomfortable, but rarely painful. The pressure should be even and slowly applied. The ribs are attached to the sternum by cartilage so it flexes easily. However, as we age the cartilage becomes bone. It is possible to fracture the cartilage or, in older workers, the bone. In 35 years of doing this work, that has happened three times. If there is a fracture, it heals, untreated, in six weeks.

V. Chest Mobile

Now, if you have the diaphragm moving properly and the chest breathing is with the rib muscles, you are ready for more advanced exercises.

1. gasp inhale belly

2. gasp inhale chest

3. gasp exhale belly

4. gasp exhale chest

5. see-saw breathing

Also, you are very ready for all the exercises in Part Two of this book.

VI. Finishing The Process

By now you have likely seen a lot of changes in yourself. You have a lot more flexibility in life and your control needs have been considerably reduced. You are ready for the final steps. Finish the process by using the other exercises including, now, the advanced exercises and all of the body work exercises in Part Two of this book.

1. shout exhale

2. growl exhale

3. moan exhale

4. groan exhale

5. words

6. no sound

7. 'ah' with no breath sound

8. rhythmic breathing