There are three types of breathing

Breathing is the driving force of human voice, which is not only the basis of singing art, but also an important guarantee of high frequency and high intensity sound. Whether the sound method is correct or not depends on whether the breathing method is scientific.

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that Qi is the handsome voice. Without breath, the vocal cords cannot vibrate to produce sound, and the vocal cords alone are not enough to produce sound. The reason why the voice is elastic and durable is directly related to the continuous flow of air to the vocal cords. Human breathing can be divided into chest breathing, abdominal breathing and combined chest and abdomen breathing.

In ancient vocal music theory, there is a description of "air makes sound". Many people have vocal cord problems, such as vocal nodules, vocal cord polyps, etc., often only know chest breathing, but do not know how to combine abdominal breathing, that is, people often say that the stomach is involved in breathing, and do not use the method of chest and abdomen combined breathing.

Chest breathing is bad for your lungs

Chest breathing, also called rib breathing, horizontal breathing, this breathing method relies solely on the lateral expansion of the ribs to inhale, using the external intercostal muscles to lift the ribs to enlarge the thorax. When breathing, the shoulders are raised, and the breath is inhaled shallow, so it is also called shoulder breathing, clavicle breathing or high chest breathing.

During chest breathing, only the upper part of the lung, the alveoli, is working, while the alveoli in the middle and lower lobe, which make up a fifth of the whole lung, are "resting." In the long run, if the middle and lower lung lobes are not exercised and disused for a long time, it is easy to aging the lung lobes, reduce elasticity, deteriorate respiratory function, and fail to obtain sufficient oxygen to meet the demand of various tissues and organs for oxygen, which then affects the body's metabolism, leading to decreased resistance and respiratory diseases, especially in autumn and winter, it is more likely to cause pneumonia in the elderly due to occasional wind cold. Most of the degenerative diseases of the lung invade the middle and lower lobe of the elderly, which is closely related to the long-term use of the middle and lower lobe caused by chest breathing.

Most people, especially women, mostly use chest breathing, only the ribs up and down movement and the chest slightly expanded, a large number of the bottom of the lung alveoli have not been thoroughly expanded and contracted, can not get good exercise. Oxygen cannot be adequately transported to all parts of the body; Over time, the various organs of the body will produce different degrees of hypoxia, and many chronic diseases will be born as a result.

Abdominal breathing is a good way to strengthen the lungs

In contrast to chest breathing, abdominal breathing allows the diaphragm to move up and down. Because the diaphragm descends when you inhale, pushing the organs down, the stomach expands, not the chest. For this reason, the diaphragm will rise higher than usual when exhaling, allowing for deep breathing and exhaling more of the carbon dioxide trapped at the bottom of the lungs.

Abdominal deep breathing is a good way to strengthen the lungs, not only make up for the defects of chest breathing, but also strengthen the alveoli of the middle and lower lung lobes in the air exchange, so as to delay aging, maintain good elasticity, and prevent pulmonary fibrosis. Do abdominal deep breathing exercises, help the body to get enough oxygen, but also to meet the brain's need for oxygen, so that full of energy. Not only that, abdominal breathing exercise also has an excellent regulatory effect on the gastrointestinal tract.

Some of you might be wondering, is the stomach involved in breathing? Abdominal breathing is a more labor-saving and effective way of breathing, and the sound emitted will be more durable, three-dimensional and elastic, and will produce better resonance, expand the intensity of the sound, so that the sound can be penetrated, and can reduce throat fatigue and prevent damage.

Learn abdominal breathing to be scientific

So, how can you learn belly breathing? Relax your whole body by lying on your back or in a comfortable meditation sitting position. Observe natural breathing for a while. Place your right hand on your belly button and your left hand on your chest. As you inhale, expand your abdomen outward as much as possible, keeping your chest still.

As you exhale, contract your abdomen inward as much as possible, keeping your chest still. Repeat the cycle, keeping the same rhythm with each breath. Notice a drop in the abdomen. After a period of practice, you can take your hands away and just focus on the breathing process with your awareness. The breathing process should not be tense or deliberately forced, if you are a beginner, you should pay more attention to the process of practice and the impact on the body. When inhaling, feel the breath begins to pass through the nasal cavity and throat, and then fully concentrate on the lungs, when the lung volume gradually increases, while keeping the chest motionless, it will force the diaphragm to sink, while the abdomen slightly bulges out; Exhale inward to pull back the abdomen, the diaphragm rises upward, so that a large amount of cloudy air out of the body. Put the abdomen as a ball, inhale with the nose to raise the abdomen, stop for a second or two, exhale through the mouth until the abdominal wall sinks. About five or six times a minute. Usually twice a day, in the city can be selected at 10 am and 4 PM, each time about 10 minutes.

The key to abdominal breathing is to reach the "limit" amount as far as possible, whether inhaling or inhaling, that is, inhaling until you can no longer breathe, and inhaling until you can no longer breathe. In the same way, the abdomen should also contract and expand to the extreme, and strive for every breath like direct dantian is better.

Gradually practice the combined chest and abdomen breathing

Abdominal breathing is essential for vital activity. Because the abdominal cavity carries all the organs except the heart, brain and lungs, including digestive, hematopoietic, reproductive, urinary, endocrine and lymphatic systems, and has a large number of blood vessels and nerves. It can be seen that it is very necessary to strengthen abdominal breathing training and enhance abdominal movement to participate in breathing. The advantage of abdominal breathing is that through the change of abdominal pressure, the thorax volume increases, the chest negative pressure increases, the upper and lower vena cava pressure decreases, and the blood return accelerates. Due to the regular increase and decrease of abdominal pressure, the activity of internal organs in the abdomen is enhanced, which can improve the blood circulation of the digestive tract, enhance the digestion and absorption function of the digestive tract, stimulate intestinal peristalsis, prevent constipation, accelerate toxin discharge, reduce self-poisoning, and finally achieve the purpose of slowing down aging. Abdominal breathing also includes pelvic exercises, that is, while controlling the abdomen for large breathing movements, it can also cooperate with anal retraction and anal relaxation movements and abdominal retraction and upward lifting to promote pelvic blood flow.

Training abdominal breathing can be carried out in running, walking, sitting, lying, or after school, and it is convenient and easy, such as daily, to eliminate abdominal fat, eliminate abdominal waste, improve abdominal blood flow, and promote the activity of abdominal and pelvic organs are of great significance.

On the basis of the formation of free abdominal breathing, it is very important for the prevention of voice diseases, especially for the voice function of professional voice users.