Breathing exercises: my daily routine.

[Marc]

Hey, mates.

I just wanted to share some breathing exercises I perform daily, which help me improve a lot my fiato (blowing endurance). They only take 20 minutes, maybe extended to 30 if you add the final section, which I’ll explain later.

I use the classic “loaded belly” technique to strenghten abdominal muscles, those directly involved in diaphragm respiration (which is what we all want to improve). The weight should not be more than 6-8 pounds to start with, and can be gradually increasing, but you should never feel your abdomen crushed. Two or three large books is a good starting point, those printed on thick glossy paper like illustration, design or graphic arts books are ideal.

1- Lay down on the bed or a comfortable mat on the floor (if you’ll add the final section, I recommend the bed). I use a small thin pillow, since I tend to feel dizzy if I lay my head flat. That’s up to you, just lay down comfortable.

2- Put the weight on your abdomen just below the ribs. You should feel it on your belly, not on the lower part of your chest.

3- Start by letting the air go (exhaling) through the mouth, needless to say, uh? You’ll see this is easy because the weight pushes down and “deflates” your lungs effortlessly. This is the first large movement the diaphragm makes, forced by an external condition. For most people, who aren’t used to diaphragm breathing in daily life, this may feel strangely nice.

4- Inhale all the air you can, only by raising your abdomen, without expanding your chest. Only in the last part of the inhale process you could “add some air” by using the thorax muscles. Experts say this extra air is not necessary nor used for blowing wind instruments. Nevertheless, it helps in the exercises, at least it does for me. The inhaling process must be slow taking some 6-8 seconds or more, depending on body size and training. At this point the body must be relaxed with arms at the sides and legs slightly spread. Some people use to raise their arms up to shoulder lever, this helps a bit, but should only be made AFTER diaphragm inhaling is done, just to support the final chest respiration, if desired.

5- Hold the breath, keep the weight up for a few seconds. Always feel comfortable, this is NOT an extreme sport, nor tough effort should be made.

6- Exhale very slowly and controlled as if you were playing a long note. Make the “whistle” gesture with your mouth to add some resistance (no need to sound, of course, just let the air go tight between your lips). This helps to have the feel of the air flow and control it. Exhaling process could last for half a minute or so, until the lungs are almost empty.

7- Depending on your apnea resistance, stay 2-3 seconds airless. This step is not so important, so you can start inhaling immediately if you feel urged to. After some practice you’ll be able to improve your apnea.

8- Repeat from point 4. Make 10 to 15 repetitions. The entire process must be done slow since those extreme air movements, if made too fast, will cause dizzynes due to the raise of oxygen levels in blood. After all, it’s not a velocity drill.

The final section.

For those familiar with yoga, reiki or relaxation exercises, after completing the 15 to 20 minutes of the above described, you can do something similar.
Take the last 10 minutes to relax (proper music recommended), close your eyes and fall into that half-sleep stage where dreams come along freely into your mind. At that moment, breathing is naturally diaphragm, as you may know. But in our case we will not take the weight off our abdomen. We will relax, breath normally, and even fall half-asleep. Your body will breathe normally, slow-paced, even with the “loaded belly”. This will help to making the unconscious connection needed to recover the natural diaphragm breathing ability we had when we were babies (and sports or military instructors made us to lose since our childhood, pity).

Post-relaxation is important too. Once “awaken”, take the weight off your belly and DO NOT raise immediately. Some people gets dizzy when changing body position from horizontal to vertical in a few seconds, moreover coming from a near-sleep stage. Better to take a minute or so just sitting on the bed or floor, let your blood pressure and heart rate stabilize (both were pretty low minutes before) and then get on your feet.

I devote half an hour daily to this exercise. This includes relaxation, so I can just raise and take a shower before breakfast. Believe me it improved my long (middle C) notes from 18 seconds up to 30 in a matter of ten days or so. Well, I practice my saxophone an entire hour daily, so that must have helped as well.

Here’s an interesting article about this topic you may want to download and keep.

http://lindseybresourcefile.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/7/5/13753093/windinstrumentbreathing.pdf

Hope this helps, stay healthy and safe, have fun and blow music.

Marc.

[john]

good stuff Marc, I hope others take note!
I will say that the most advancement I ever made in improving tone was when I discovered how to breathe properly into the sax.

[Author]

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