Hi it's Elissa Weinzimmer founder of Voice Body Connection and it is time for
another how to warm up video
How to Warm Up
In today's How to Warm Up breathing
exercise we are going to do something called Breath of Fire Breath of Fire
okay now Breath of Fire which is called kapalabhati in Sanskrit is a very useful
practice for speech and singing even though it comes in and out through the
nose and here's why if you go back to the release on the inhalation breathing
video that's also in this How to Warm Up series that is my number one exercise
for getting the body to feel what it feels like to do an easy inhalation but
we also do that pattern in this breath a little bit faster and more vigorously so
if you're trying to train your body what it feels like to do that support on the
exhalation and draw in on the exhalation and then release on the inhalation
feeling you can get that with this exercise
so let me explain how the
exercise works and then we will dive in you're gonna draw your low belly in that
pattern of breath support that we talked about also in the shh let it go exercise the
breath support exercise you draw your low belly in quickly as you breathe out
suddenly and quickly through your nose then you draw the breath in through your
nose so this time we will hear it and then you breathe out suddenly and
quickly through your nose again you want to do the effort on the exhalation and
let the inhalation be a recover or a recoil but because it's coming in
through the very small airways of the nostrils you will hear it okay we'll do
18 and then we'll do a long breath out through the nose long breath in through
the nose long breath out and then we'll take a break that'll be one package of
kapalabhati or Breath of Fire okay you're ready to dive in here we go
sit up nice and tall you can close your eyes if it's helpful to put your hand on your
low belly you can do so and we'll begin
good and release it okay so it was pretty quick right you do 18 you're
you're doing a forceful exhalation or at least a effortful exhalation and then an
easy inhalation you're doing it 18 times pumping the belly really this does get
the low belly pumping which is the value of this exercise for teaching our body
this pattern of supporting from the low place and then we do the long breath out
on the nineteenth breath long breath in Long breath out let's do one more set
here we go
good awesome
so now here's the most important thing to know about this
pattern is this is what it looks like if you're doing it quote/unquote wrong
you'll go we do not want our chest to push down and collapse as we breathe out
we want to be using the lowest belly muscles to draw in and if anything the
chest is actually going to bounce up if we are squeezing in and pushing down up
here we're doing what I like to call squeezing the middle of the toothpaste
tube or doing a poopy breath where the breath is going down in the poopy
direction and that's just not ideal for speech or for singing so this exercise
is really about practicing that idea of engaging the low abdominal muscles to
send energy up and out let's do one more set of the whole thing
here we go drawing in the low belly full set of 18
really nice
and that my friends is Breath of Fire or kapalabhati which by
the way the translation of the word kapalabhati means skull shining breath
so it is indeed all about doing a breath that sends energy upwards so you might
feel a sense of shininess or glowingness in your skull is the idea so if
after doing this exercise you do feel like you've got a little bit of tingling-ness
that's great and normal and you can just sit with it for a moment to let
your body calibrate before you go about into any other exercises so go ahead and
check out the How to Warm Up series if you want to combine this in any order
with other exercises you can of course watch the intro video if you have
questions about what order this goes in but it is a breathing exercise so it
should go towards the beginning of your warmup
alright so I look forward to seeing you in a future How to Warm Up video
How to Warm Up