Pranayama and the Respiratory system

'As long as there is breath in the body, there is life. When breath departs, so too does life, Therefore, regulate the breath'.

• During normal inhalation, an average person takes in about 500 cubic centimeters of air ; during deep inhalation the intake of air is about six times as great, amounting to almost 3000 cubic centimeters. The capacities of individuals vary according to their constitution. The practice of pranayama increases the sadhaka's lung capacity and allows the lungs to achieve optimum ventilation.

• The second chapter of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika deals with pranayama. The first three verse state: 'Being firmly established in the practise of asanas, with his senses under control, the yogi should practise of asanas, with his sense under control, the yogi should practise pranayama as thought by his guru, observing moderate and nutritious diet. When the breath is irregular, the mind wavers; when the breath is steady, so is the mind. To attain steadiness, the yogi should restrain his breath. As long as there is breath within the body, there is life. When breath departs, life also departs. Therefore regulate the breath'.

• The practice of pranayama helps to cleanse the nadis, which are tubular organs of the subtle body through which energy f;ows. There are several thousand nadis in the body and most of them start from the areas if the heart and the navel. Pranayama keeps the nadis in a healthy condition and prevents their decay. This in turn brings about changes in the mental attitude of the sadhaka. The reason for this is that in pranayama breathing starts from the base of the diapheagm on either side of the body near the pelvic girdle. As such, the thoracic diaphragm and accessory respiratory musclesof the neck are relalxed. This in turn helps to relax the facial muscles. When the facial muscles relax, they loosen their grip over the organs of perception, namely, the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin, thereby lessening the tension in the brain. When tension there is lessened, the sadhaka attains concentration, equanimity and serenity.

• WHY SO MANY PRANAYAMAS?

Numerous asanas have been evolved to exercise various parts of the anatomy – muscles, nerves, organs and glands – so that the entire organism works in a healthy and harmonies manner. Human environments, constitutions,temperaments and states of health and mind vary, and different asanas help in different situation to alleviate human ills and develop harmony. Many types of pranayamas have been devised and evolved to meet the physical, mental, intellectual and spiritual requirements of the sadhakas under fluctuating conditions.

• Four stages of Pranayamas.

The siva samhita discusses the four stages (avastha) of pranayama in its third chapter. These are: (a) commencement (arambha), (b) intent endeavour (ghata), (c)intimate knowledge (parichaya) and (d)consummation (nispatti).

• In the arambha stage, the sadhaka's interest in pranayama is awakened. In the beginning he is hasty and by reason of his hasty and by reason of his exertion and the speed with which he wants results, his body trembles and he perspires. When by perseverance he continues his practice, the termors and perspiration cease and the sadhaka reaches the second stages of ghatavastha. Ghata means a water pot. The body is compared to a pot. Like an unbaked earthen pot, the physical body wears away bake it hard in the three sariras are integrated. After this integration, the sadhaka reaches the parichayavastha, where he obtains intimate knowledge of pranayama practices and of himself. By this knowledge he controls exhis qualities(gunas) and realises the causes of his actions (karma). From the third stage, the sadhaka goes forth towards nispatti avastha, the final stage of consummation. His efforts have ripened, the seeds of his karma are burnt out. He has crossed the barriers of the gunas and becomes a gunatita. He becomes a jivanmukta – a person who is emancipated (mukta) during his lifetime (jivana) by the knowledge of the supreme spirit. He has experienced the state of ecstasy (ananda).

• RESPIRATORY SYSTEM

To enable the reader to have a clear picture of how pranayama benefits the body, it is essential to have some idea of the respiratory system. This is discussed below.

• It is known that the basic energy needs of the human body are met predominantly by oxygen plus glucose. The former aids in the process of elimination by oxidising the waste matter, while glucose supplied with oxygen nourishes the body cells in the flow of respiration.

• The purpose of pranayama is to make the respiratory system function at its best. This automatically improves the circulatory system, whithout which the processes of digestion and elimination would suffer. Toxins would accumulate, diseases spread through the body and ill-health becomes habitual.

• The respiratory system is the gateway to purifying the body, mind and intellect. The key to this is pranayaam.

• respiration is essential for sustaining all forms of animal life from the single – celled amoeba to man. It is possible to live without food or water for a few days, but when respiration ceases so does life. In the chandogyopanisad it is said: 'Even as the spokes are fastened to the hub, so no this life breath, all is fastened. Life moves with the life breath, which gives life to a living creature. Life breath is one's teacher, the brahman verily, he who sees this knows and understands this becomes the excellent speaker.' (S. Radhakrishnan: The principal Upanisads, VII, 15,1- 4)

• The kausitaki Upanisad says 'One can live deprived of speech, for we see the thumb; one deprived of sight, for we see the blind; of hearing, for we see the deaf; and of mind, for we see the childish; one can live without arms and legs, for thus we see. But now it is the breathing spirit alone, the intelligence – self that seize hold of this body and makes it rise up. This is the all obtaining in the breathing spirit. What is the breathing spirit, that is the intelligence – self. What is intelligence – self, that is the breathing spirit, for together they live in this body and together they go out of it.

• Breathing starts with independent life outside the mother and ends when life ceases. When the child is still in the womb its oxygen is supplied through its mother's blood, and its lungs are not required to function. When it is born, the first breath of life started by command from brain.

• During most of one's life, the depth and rate of breathing are self-regualted through the nervous system to meet the purpose of breathing, to supply in a regulated and controlled way the fresh oxygen which is constantly needed by the cells and to discharge the carbon dioxide accumulated in them.

• Most of us assume that because breathing is usually automatic, it is beyond our active control. This is not true. In pranayama by arduous training of the lungs and nervous system., breathing can be made more efficient by changing its rate, depth and quality. The lung capacity of great athletes, mountain climbers, and yogis is far greater than that of ordinary men, allowing them to perform extraordinary feats. Better breathing means a better and healthier life.

• The act of breathing is so organised that the lungs are normally inflated sixteen to eighteen times a minute. Fresh air containing life-giving oxygen is sucked into them, and gases containing carbon dioxide from the body tissues are sent out in exchange through the breathing passages. The rhythmic inflation of the soft, honeycombed bellows of the lungs is maintained by the movements of the rib-cage and diaphragm. The latter in turn are driven or powered by impulses sent down by the respiratory centre in the brain to the relevant muscles through the nerves. Thus the brain is the instigator through which the respiration and the three mental functions of thought, will and consciousness are regulated.

• The breathing cycle consists of three parts: inhalation, exhalation and retention.

Inhalation is an active expansion of the chest by which the lungs are filled with fresh air. Exhalation is a normal and passive recoil of the elastic chest wall by means of which the stale air is exhaled and the lungs are emptied. Retention is a pause at the end of each inhalation and exhalation. These three form one cycle of breathing. The breathing affects the heart rate. During the prolonged holding of breath, a slowing of the heart rate is observed, which ensures increased rest to the heart muscle.

• Respiration may be classified into four types:

(a) High or clavicular breathing, where the relevant muscles in the neck mainly activate the top parts of the lungs. (b) Intercostal or midbreathing, where the lower portions of the lungs are activated. (c) Low or diaphragmatic breathing, where the lower portions of the lungs are activated chiefly, while the top and central portions remain less active. (d) In total or pranayamic breathing, the entire lungs are used to their fullest capacity.

In pranayamic inspiration, diaphragmatic contraction is delayed until after the conscious contraction of the muscles of the anterior and lateral abdominal wall. These muscles are diagonally connected to the ribcage above and the pelvis below. This action lowers and stabilises the dome shaped diaphragm which originates at the lower ribmargin; it pushes up the abdominal organs and increases the capacity of the thorax. This prepares the diaphragm for a subsequent contraction of maximum extent the efficiency by reducing the centripetal pull. This minimises interferences with the next action of the sequences, the elevation and expansion of the lower ribcage in ascending upwards. This is accomplished by the vertical pull of the diaphragm followed by the sequential activation of the intercostal muscles to allow the fullest caliper-like movements of the floating ribs, bucket – handle like movements of the individual ribs, elevation and full circumferential expansion of the ribcage as a whole from its origin at the spine. Finally the highest intercostals and the muscles connecting the upper ribs, sternum and clavicles to the neck and skull are contracted, enabling the upper part of the lungs to be filled. Then the already expanded thoracic cavity expands further forwards,upwards and sideways.

• This series of movements of the abdomen, chestwall and neck, in which each step of the sequence prepares the ground for the next, results in a maximum filling of the lungs, to create space for the incoming air to reach every corner of each lung.

• The sadhaka must first direct his body-conscious awareness specifically and intelligently at the lower anterior abdominal wall just above the pelvis. To accomplish this, he has to move the lower abdominal wall towards the spine and against the diaphragm as if massaging from the skin to the muscles and muscles to the inner organs. This sense of active conscious contraction is associated with visible movements of the abdominal wall from the surface skin to its deepest layers, and can be directed at will. After that, direct your attention to expand the lateral and posterior regions of the chest. Elevate the lower chest wall simultaneously expanding the top chest wall with its skin and muscles. The diaphragm gradually and smoothly resumes its domed shape as it starts to relax towards the end of inspiration. During exhalation the dome moves up again. It is active at the start of expiration to encourage a smooth slow start to the elastic recoil of the lungs.

• The fresh oxygen which is sucked in percolates the minute sacs (the alveolar sacs) which form the basic unit of the lungs. The membranes round these alveoli convey this oxygen into the blood stream and then the carbon dioxide from the blood into the air of the lungs for its disposal through exhalation. The blood with fresh oxygen is carried by arteries from the left side of the heart to cells in every nook and corner of the body, thus replenishing their store of lifegiven oxygen. The waste products (mainly the carbon dioxide) thrown out by each sac are then taken by the venous blood stream from the right side of the heart to the lungs for disposal. The heart pumps this blood through the body at an average rate of seventy times per minute. Hence to breath properly we need the smooth co-ordination of all the relevant parts of the body, the power or controlhouse (the nervous system), the bellows (the lungs), the pump(the heart) and the plumbing system (the arteries and veins), besides the driving motor of the rib cage and the diaphragm.

THE CHEST

• The chest is the cage formed by the ribs in which the lungs and heart are located. It is shaped like a turncated cone, narrow at the top and winding below. The top is closed off by the muscles of the neck attached to the clavicles. The wind- pipe (trachea) passes through it on its way from the throat to the lungs. This turncated cone is slightly flat from to back. Its bony surface include the thoracic part of the vertebral column in the midline at the back and the breast plate in the front. It has twelve pairs of flattened ribs which curve across the gap between the spine at the back and the breastbone in front to form semicircular bridges on each side. The spaces between the ribs are filled by internal and external intercostal muscles. There are, in additio, muscles joining the twelfth rib to the pelvis and the first one to the cervical spine. There are eleven pairs of muscles in all. The expansion and contraction of the chest are controlled by these muscles and the diaphragm. The thoracic dorsal area is like the broad mid-section of a banana leaf, the spine being the stem, the evenly spaced ribs being the veins and the tail bone the thin end of the leaf.

THE LUNGS AND BRONCHIAL TREE

• The right and left lungs differ in shape and capacity. In most of us the bulk of the heart, which is about the size of a fist, is on the left side. Consequently, that lungs is smaller. It is divided into two lobes, one above the other; Whereas the right lung has three lobes.

• The lungs are covered with a membrane called the pleura ans due to their shape expand rather like the bladder of a football.

• The dome of the right diaphragm is higher than the left. Beneath it is the liver, the largest solid abdominal organ, less compressible and depressible than the stomach and spleen lying below the left diaphragm. In full inhalation, when attempting to fill the lungs, most people can feel a sense of increased resistance below the right side of the diaphragm, where the liver is, when their attention is drawn to the area. In order to equalise the filling of both lungs from base and side, special effort and attention must be directed to diaphragmatic and chest wall movements on the right side.

• The bronchial system, connecting the windpipe and the alveoli, is in the thoracic cage. It resembles an inverted tree with its roots in the gullet, while the branches spread out downwards the diaphragm and the side walls of the chest cavity.

• The windpipe in the throat is a tube about four inches ling and less than an inch wide, which branches out into two primary bronchi, one leading into each lung. Both then branch out into numerous tiny air passages called the bronchioles. At the end of each of these bronchioles are the alveoli, the tiny air sacs clustered like bunches of grapes, some 300 million lining each lung, their surface covers about eighty to one hundred square yards – forty to fifty times that of the human skin.

• These alveoli are small, multiple sac-like chambers with an incomplete lining of cells. The gap between the cells (the interstitial space) is filled with fluid. Around the outer wall of the alveoli lie minute blood vessels (the capillaries). Exchange of gases takes place between the alveoli and the red blood cells and plasma of the blood via the fluid in the alveoli or interstital spsce.

• The air in the alveoli contains more oxygen and less carbon dioxide than the blood passing through the capillaries in the lungs. During the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide, the moleclues of oxygen diffuse into, and carbon dioxide out of, the blood.

THE SPINE

• The spine should be kept firm like the trunk of a tree. The spinal cord is protected by thirty-three vertebrae. The seven vertebrae in the neck are called cervical. Below them are the twelve dorsal or throacic vertebrae which are connected to the ribs, forming a cage to protect the lungs and the heart. The ten top ribs on either side are joined in front to the inner side of the berastbone, but not the two floating ribs below. The floating rib are so called, as they are not anchrored to the breastbone. Below the dorsal are the lumbar vertebrate and lower still the sacrum and coccyx, both formed of fused vertebrae. The lowest coccygeal vertebrae curls forward.

THE BREASTBONE

• The breastbone has three parts. In breathing, the top and bottom should be kept perpendicular to the floor. Use it to act as a support for lifting the side ribs like the handle of a bucket, and so create more space through the expansion of the lungs sideways ans upwards.

• The lungs open sideways and space for expansion is created with the help of the intercostal muscles. Keep the interior intercostal muscles at the back firm. If the skin at the back does not co-ordinate with the intercostal muscles, breathing becomes shallow, reducing the intakeof oxygen, causing physical weakness and lack of bodily resistance.

THE SKIN

• As a drummer tightens the skin of his drum to get resonance and a violinist tightens his strings to get clarity of sound, the yogi adjusts and stretches the skin of his torso to create maximum response from the intercostal muscles to aid the respiratory process when practising pranayama.

• The floating ribs, not being fixed in front to the sternum expand like a pair of calipers to create more space in the chest. Laterally, the thick middle ribs can also expand laterally, thus widening and lifting the rib-cage. This does not affect the top ribs. To fill the upper most reaches of the lungs requires training and attention. Learn to use the upper inner intercostal muscles and the top part of the dternum. Expand the rib-cage from the inner frame outwards, as this will stretch the intercostal muscles.

THE DIAPHRAGM

• The diaphragm is a large dome-shaped muscle -like- partition which seperates the thoracic cavity from the abdominal one. Anchored all around the circumference of the lower yhoracic cage, it is attached at the back to the lumbar vertebrae, at the sides to the lower six ribs and in the front to the dagger-shaped cartilage of the breastbone. Above it are the heart and lungs and below it the liver on the right and the stomach and spleen on the left.

ACCESSORY MUSCLES

• The respiratory muscles of the throat, torso, spine and abdomen are the accessories used in breathing, which is ordinarily dominated by the diaphragm. Besides the muscles already described, those of the neck, espically th estrenomastoids and the scalenus, play their parts. They contribute very little to quiet breathing, but become active when the rate or depthis increased and rigid when the breath is held.the use of accessory respiratory muscles varies from one individual to another. It also varies from time to time in the same person depending on how powerfully he exerts in his breathing and how efficiently and how tensely.

• We all breath, but how many of us do so correctly, with attention? Bad posture, an ill – shaped or carved-in chest, obesity, emotional disorders, various lung troubles, smoking and uneven use of the respiratory muscles, lead to improper breathing, below one's capacity. We are aware of the discomfort and disability which then arises. Many subtle changes take place in our body as a result of poor breathing and bad posture, leading to heavy breathing, inadequate pilmonary function and aggravation of heart disease. Pranayama can help to prevent these disorders and help to check or cure them, so that one can live fully and well.

• As light radiates from the disc of the sun, so air is spread through the lungs. Move the chest up and out. If the skin over the centre of the breastbone can move vertically up and down and it can expand from side to side circumferentially, it shows that the lungs are being filled to their maximum capacity.

References

The above mentioned information is added from the book called LIGHT ON PRANAYAMA by B.K.S. IYENGAR.