One Lung Breathing

I'm Debra lessen and we are going to work on one lung breathing. This is a term of Eve gentries and we are working on this to get lateral movement in the thoracic spine. So my assistant in the a jury, Gabriel is going to demonstrate the basic breathing. She's going to have her hand as much around the side of her rib cage as she can thumb to the back fingers to the front, and this is really the shape that your anterior serratus is in those of you study anatomy. So I want her to drop all the way down into a c curve so that her waist is dropping into the mat. Now on her inhalation, she's going to breathe up into the top ribs and you can see her spine coming up off the mat and as she exhale she drops back down into a c curve.

All right, so this c curve, as she inhales her spine is elongating parallel to the mat. As she exhale, she's going back into the c curve. Now this is incredibly important if you have any lateral curve in your spine, we all have some. So we're going to ask [inaudible] to do this on the other side and see if she feels any difference. Okay? Okay. Okay.

Okay. So you want to be in a really comfortable position and get that hand is high under your arm pit as you can. Okay. So inhale up through the top rips excellent. And exhale drop. So the exhalation is as important as the inhalation that you're able to let go and exhale, dra good. One more time.

Inhale, expanding the top rips and exhale drop. And you can just take this hand down on the mat in front of the center of your chest. And can you tell us which side you felt more mobility on the right side. Okay. The right side. So in other words, the top side coming up and probably this will be her stronger side when she supporting on the left. All right. It's, it's absolutely essential that you work on both sides of the body, just like you work on the front of the body, in the back of the body. So now we're going to take this into stabilization.

You're going to inhale up into those ribs. Hold that position so you can keep breathing. But I want you to visualize your spine parallel to the mat and slide your legs down till they're straight out below your body. Good. Now you're going to keep the support on the underneath side and take the legs just an inch off the mat. So they're the same height off the mat as the spine and lower the legs and legs off.

And I do this in almost every mat class and most of my clients do this as part of their warmup so that they get a much more three-dimensional, warm up and lower down. Now you're going to come off and stay and now we're going to add some movement. So you're going to take your right leg forward, your left leg back, and come back to center and reverse and center. So while she's doing this movement, she has to concentrate on keeping that support on the underneath side. Good. One more.

Stay Center. Extend this arm. Good. You can let your head rest on your arm if you want. Take your right arm overhead. That's it. Keep your back nice and wide. Keep the support underneath. And now let's try that walking again. Good.

So we just jumped to advanced and you can step this up one piece at a time, but I want you to consider that when you do your leg work, lying on your side, you have to maintain this stabilization all the time. Good whole center and balance and rest. Good. And you can come sit up, uh, facing me. Actually turn facing the other side. Okay. So again, you're going to feel, uh, much more balanced on one side than the other and the other side needs to work a lot more to find the right recipe of muscle action to stabilize. Okay? So now I want you to take that underneath arm all the way out legs, all the way down.

Her front hand is right in front of the center of the chest, giving her support. She's holding up underneath. You're going to take the legs off, turn both legs out, and now we're just going to do a side leg circle. So you're going to take the top lick forward as far as you're comfortable. Turn out an open second position and keep that support on the underneath side and close together. So just that circle forward, turn out and close together and reverse it. Yeah, thanks.

Ah, not backwards. Just up forward. Taking the leg to the back in this position is a quite a step up into advanced, which you should do and we will do it in a different class. Good. Okay. Rest. And let's go to the other side and just repeat that. Okay. So long spine.

Inhale up into the top, rips top leg circles forward. Turn out, open and close together. Good. So just for the heck of it from here, let's go to Tom do back, which is very slightly back because you don't want to change your pelvis close together and reverse Taan do back. Come directly up, the tail goes down in the back, the leg comes forward and hopefully you can see some ocean underneath her rib cage. Tod, do back open. Good forward and close together and rest. Okay. And come sit up, um, facing the windows. So, uh, if you notice at the end I said and rest, because while you are moving, until you have completed the exercise, your entire body should be engaged and then you rest.

Okay? So now you're going to take your hands behind your head and just give a little pressure against the back of your head so that you feel the edges of your shoulder blades pressing toward the front of your body. Okay, so now we're going to do a little side bending, but I don't want her to drop. I want her to go up and out literally like the crown of her head is tracing along the ceiling and then center the bottom of the spine to return and lift up to, okay? So that was a little lateral shift that she just did. We all learn along the way. So you're going to go straight up. That's it. That's what you did on the other side.

And this is the importance of doing these simple exercises because you discover that you have two different strategies on the two sides. Inhale up to go over excellent and rise up to come to center once more. Inhale up. That's it. So she has to actually think of sending her rib cage. This. Just do that same side one more time.

Inhale up open the left rips that was perfect and rise up. And now let's add on to it. Come to the first side. Good. Now I want you to round your spine. Keep those elbows open and spiral. That's it.

Come back to side bend and rise up. So this is a lot of control. Lift up, shift and open those left ribs. Soften the sternum just like we did before. Excellent. Go back to side bend and rise up once more on each side. Lift, soften the chest and rotate.

Feel equal weight on both. Sit bones. Go back to side bend and rise up last time. Open the left ribs. That was beautiful. Soften and round. Come back to side bend and rise up. Beautiful. Okay, now I want you to turn facing the opposite way.

Come slightly to the right and now we're going to do your tripod arm. Yes, right hand on that arm. Yes. Bring your upper body forward slightly. There you go. Legs out to the side. That's it. Okay. I'm going to bring them back just a little bit and you can flex these feet.

Okay. Now we're, we're actually going back to stabilization. So for her to come up into a side support position from here, she has to get a lot of support from the underneath side, so I want you to think of inhaling into your right ribs to initiate and rise up and hold center. Good. Now keep that support on the underneath side and bring your tail back and down. Excellent. That way she doesn't have to side Ben to come down and inhale, rise up. Beautiful.

And bring the tail back and down. Now she's creating a really solid position. Inhale forward and up. Stay there. Open your right arm toward the ceiling. Piece of cake. Come back to your support position, bringing the right hand down and tail back and down.

Let's just repeat this one more time. Forward and up. Open the right arm. Excellent. You can take that arm overhead. You can take this leg up off the mat and she hasn't lost any support on the underneath side. Bring the leg down, bring the hand back down and come down and rest. Thank you.