Breathing Changing While Aging

Breathing is vital in our aging process. When passing 40 it already becomes clear that you need to pay attention to your health condition. Most people are often “out of breath” . What are the reasons and how can we recuperate from this. This podcast brings you some solutions.

Transcript

Hello,

This is again one of my health podcasts.

You know that during COVID we enter a lot of times that we feel not good,

We feel stressed and we are wondering many things.

So one of the things is what is really happening to our lungs,

Our breathing system.

Especially during the COVID crisis,

The lung function is often discussed,

But attention was rarely paid to the elderly and their lung functions.

So what happens when you get older with the respiration system and what can you do to keep it in an obstinal shape?

Now let me first start to think about it.

Anybody get older?

But it's the most important part of your aging process that is all muscle functions decline with age.

And the strength of your muscles change and without exercises or resistance the muscles will lose power.

This applies to every muscle,

At the wide and the red muscles.

Your strength and fitness always decreases.

We know it affects almost every part of your body but the lungs are an essential organ and directly affected by everything in your body.

The muscles around your lungs allow you to breathe diaphragm or under your lungs,

Which is the muscle plate that separates your lungs from your stomach and intestines.

It contracts and relaxes throughout your whole life.

That's the way how you breathe.

Around your chest are a lot of muscle mass that pulls the ribs apart and allow them to recede.

All these muscles together form your respiration system.

These muscles are designed to be unconsciously controlled and to be active day and night.

Because of your unconscious process it is usually neglected.

In Asian health teaching breathing is central because it is precisely this action that brings life.

Your breathing is your real life air,

Without properly functioning breathing the body will go behind and you age faster.

You get more problems.

And not only do the muscle strength decrease during aging,

The absorption of air and the release of CO2 gases also changes.

Inhaling O2,

That's the oxygen to the lung and removes the CO2.

You exhale it as you get older,

Usually after the age of around 55.

You may notice a change in smell into your bedroom when you have a night sleep.

So when you wake up in the morning it smells a little bit musty.

Young people say it smells old.

And the reason for this odor is an increase of exhaled CO2 during the night and its concentration in the room.

An increase.

So that is why a good ventilation is therefore very necessary.

A changing uptake and release of oxygen have consequences for the entire body because oxygen is needed in almost every cellular process.

Due to the decreased lung capacity you get a chain reaction in your body.

Much attention is paid to the muscle capacity of the elder but rarely to the properly breathing techniques of the elderly.

As already been shown from the foregoing,

A training of breathing apart from other physical exercises is a process of awareness whereby aging is experienced more consciously.

With the exercises you learn to recognize the process itself,

To realize it and more importantly you gain insight into the changes of your own body.

Breathing is leading in the aging process and must be giving much more attention.

By concentrated breathing you can detect cardiovascular disorders,

Complain of intestines,

Balance organs and many other things in the body itself.

Good breathing techniques is like self-diagnosis and you can share with doctors,

Caretakers or nurses.

To understand and feel this I propose you to follow the next exercises and feel the effects of breathing all by yourself.

We do different exercises,

Standing,

Sitting and laying down.

Get yourself to a good place where you have a table,

Chair and a place you can lay down.

Preferable flat on the ground.

Okay we begin in the sitting position.

Because most people now spend their days sitting most of the time.

Do it like you always do and place your left hand on your chest and your right hand on your belly.

Close your eyes and just breathe as normal but concentrate on your hands moving up and down.

Do you feel the distance they travel up and down?

Yes,

Okay and now we change the position.

Sit straight up and your back a little hollow.

Just out to the front,

Feet both flat on the ground and get your knees into that 90 degree angle.

Keep your eyes closed and keep breathing the way you always do.

And you feel that your old way is nearly impossible in this position.

The reason is that most people have a shallow low breathing which is lung focused.

So start breathing in and focus on the rise of the left hand on your chest and try to keep the right hand as still as possible.

So only your left hand must move while you breathe in and out.

So keep that right hand on your belly as still as possible.

So after you do this around five times it is time to bring your focus down to your right hand.

And with this breathing only your right hand must rise and the left hand must stay in original position as possible.

So try this form of breathing whenever you have time and when you feel tension.

The next move is simple to do.

The same and breathing.

Hold the breath for three to five counts and exhale again.

Keep those eyes closed and focus on your hands.

First the left hand at the chest and after that the right hand on your belly.

So breathe in,

Left hand go up,

Breathe in,

Right hand go up,

Breathe out,

Right hand go down,

Breathe out,

Left hand go down.

So after these exercises you go to play with the air in your body and to see if you can control it.

First you breathe in with your upper body and let left hand rise again.

Hold the breath two counts and now you push the air out with your right hand.

You inhale with your left hand rise and exhale with your right hand push.

So after a few times of your trying you change this by inhaling and let the right hand rise and exhaling by pushing the left hand down.

Then after a few times trying you change this by inhaling and let the right hand rise and exhaling by pushing the left hand down.

By training this way you find out that what feels right for you.

Everyone has a personal favorite in breathing and to make this exercise interesting and add another factor so we start making noises upon exhaling.

So we call it humming breathing.

When you exhale you make a humming sound.

Try to find your personal humming.

This is different from everybody and is often a part of meditation and concentration practice.

So find it.

Try to copy,

Try to find your own breathing.

So now you try to do the same exercises as before but this time find your personal humming when exhaling.

Humming is always exhaling.

Up to now we just did breathe without realizing every breathe through the mouth or through the nose and did you check that by yourself?

How and what did you do?

So our step is to become aware of how and with what we breathe.

First step is mouth breathing.

So open your mouth and breathe as deep as possible in a few times.

So you feel you can take a lot of air in but does it feel nice or clean?

Most people feel it's not comfortable and even strange or an awareness of danger.

The feeling is hi what if a fly comes into my mouth when I breathe in?

It is one of the most familiar feelings that people have especially when you're older because you had that experience before.

Mouth breathing is not very natural although we often use it unconsciously.

So nose breathing on the other hand is safe and gives us clean air to the body.

It's even warmer.

It's clean.

It is the right temperature and this is what your body needs.

The lungs needs.

The next exercise is shallow breathing.

So only through the nose.

Your first simple task is to breathe through the nose around five times and stop.

Be aware do not breathe deep.

Just in and out and move to the next.

So only shallow breathing.

And next is to breathe as deep as possible and hold that bridge.

So count to five.

Keep it in.

Five counts and then exhale.

So breathe in.

Five times.

In two three four five exhale.

And after this you do the same with deep breathing but keep inhaling and exhaling in the same tempo.

Try to do as deep as possible for around five times and exhale five times and stop again.

So repeat that again five times.

And this form of breathing can you feel a little bit light in your head but it's great to relax from stress especially from anger because it gives you a lot of extra oxygen and reduces the CO2.

It is also considered a clean breathing.

You clean your airways and with all what is inside it.

So you're putting a little bit of force on it.

Okay now from sitting we go to lay down in a position where we focus on the diaphragm as the muscle of power.

Lay down on a flat surface and put both hands on your belly.

You're breathing by focusing on that hands to move up and down.

Try to avoid chest breathing.

Your lungs are in your chest so you can be sure that your chest is responding on every breath that you take and will move.

But we want to concentrate on what is important is the muscle on the bottom the diaphragm.

And to train this muscle we can use all kinds of methods.

The most familiar and easy to practice is slow breathing in and hold the breath five counts and exhale.

Again slow breathing in and hold the breath for five counts and then exhale.

And you get fast breathing and where you focus on the fast rising and lowering of your hands.

Remember they're on the stomach.

Try fast and not too fast as you easily get dizzy of this method.

So try some variation.

Try it yourself whenever you feel comfortable to do that.

And the last method is to inhale through the stomach and exhale with the chest.

This feels strange in the beginning but soon you realize and feel that the lungs are in your chest as mentioned before.

And no matter the method you use it is only to train the muscles and you cannot change the position of your lungs.

Now we go to the last position of this pulse cast.

So okay stand up raise up on your feet and try not to wiggle and waggle because maybe you're a little bit dizzy.

First of all relax stand up on your feet try to find a stable position so probably shoulder wide and put your hands somewhere that you feel that your balance is guaranteed.

Okay and then now we go on to the last exercise.

In ASEAN medicine and teaching there are many methods in the breathing standing position.

So each method can have specific benefits of health results and my goal is to stay as close as possible to the methods that are easy to learn and can be used every day.

While standing we follow the butterfly method with the arms starting in the down position straight against your body.

We breathe in in three segments.

First lift your arm like a butterfly is going to fly straight up and stop at shoulder height.

During lifting your arms you breathe up but not deep just a normal breathe and then from shoulder height you move all the way to the top and touch palms.

Moving the way up you breathe as deep as possible and open the chest as wide as possible.

So you take in extra air and then you turn the palms of your hands out and now you let your arms slowly flow down while exhaling.

Try to keep exhaling as much as you can and when your arms are back at your side of your leg press your arms harder against your body to remove all possible air from your lungs and finally let go.

Relax and by relaxing the breathing you will start right away from the natural flexibility of your lung and rib cage.

I try to do this exercise every day just a few times and focus on expanding and contracting the rib cage as much as possible.

So during my lessons and my training sessions I use many different methods but in fact all are based on the same easy to do and mentioned methods of inhaling and exhaling exercises.

Because breathing is your life,

The air is your lifeline and you should realize that the air you breathe is as important as the food you eat.

So when you want to know more go to my website Yota.

You write it as a Y like in yoga and t-h-a dot info.

Yota.

In that way you will learn some more exercises.

Stay healthy,

Stay fit and stay put because hey you are alive when you breathe in the energy,

When you let your energy flow because energy need to be on the go at all time of your life.

I hear you again.

Reviews

Such a great reminder of the importance of breathing along with other exercise routine.

Interesting. Thanks for posting on this important subject.