Ron Fletcher® developed the wonderful percussive breathing. It involves fully expanding your rib cage by inhaling through the nose and fully exhaling by engaging the abdominals to squeese the air out through a constricted mouth. The real fun comes when you divide the inhale into two or more segments and divide the exhale as well. A double breath would be inhale, inhale, then exhale, exhale. Try it with four inhales and exhales - move to six and eight. See if you can do 12! You will find yourself taking a much fuller inhale at the end of the exercise. And it is movement! The percussive breath adds rhythm to the work.
It came in very handy today as I was hiking in the Purissima Creek Redwood Open Space. The hill was pretty steep. I started in with the double breath - one step for each inhale and exhale. The extra oxygen served me well in marching up the mountain and the rhythm kept me going at a steady pace. I really felt much more energetic and charged up than I did when I was just walking and breathing normally (heavy).
When do you need extra engery? Try it. Here is part of the beautiful hike.
No comments:
Post a Comment