How to improve your Breathing

Most people living a standard modern lifestyle, with long hours sitting at a desk and less than perfect exercise regimes, have problems with their breathing. In fact, many very fit people still have lost touch with what is a healthy, natural breath.

Bad breathing techique is one of the main causes of problems with your voice. Even issues like a 'flat tune' or 'thinness of tone' are usually caused by your breathing. Therefore it makes sense to do some simple exercises to help you re-establish a natural breath.

A word of warning! The breathing system is very sensitive to all kinds of influence. It is easy to try to 'force' it to get the results I describe. But this forcing will not give you an easy, healthy breath. An efficient breath is controlled by the stem brain, which means you don't feel like you are in control of it; it seems to be happening to you.

However, our clever front brain does have the ability to take control of the breath. And it can impose tensions and use inappropriate muscles.

Having a qualified and experienced voice specialist guide you through this work is therefore very useful. But if you have to do the work on your own, try to think of 'observing' and 'feeling' the breath, and letting the exercises produce reactions that you're not in control of, rather than trying to control it. When your natural reactions start to resemble what I describe as a natural breath - you will know your body is allowing its natural habits to reassert.

Lastly - the breath is the result of the body as a whole. Therefore any tensions and misalignments in your body will inhibit the movement of the ribcage and the diaphragm (the main muscle of breathing, right in the centre of your body). Every body is unique, again a reason why most people need the personal guidance of a voice coach, but in general look for- a long spine - soft heavy legs dropping their weight through soft, broad feet - a lightly balanced head on the stem of the neck - and a soft jaw.

All of these free materials are strictly copyright to Morwenna Rowe and Speak Easily and are offered as a resource to our clients and website visitors. They may not be reproduced in any way or used for any purpose other than individual personal practice and information.

IMPORTANT We advise people to undertake this training in the presence of one of our highly qualified Voice Coaches. We offer these simple online exercises for your information only and you need to apply common sense when using them and take responsibility for your body. It is very unlikely you will have any adverse reactions, but we accept no liability whatsoever for anything that may happen as a result of your personal exploration of these exercises and suggest you query any special needs or doubts with your doctor.

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EXERCISE 1 - Posture

There is a simple way of helping your breath improve. That is to re-discover the health of your spine. Loosening the upper spine and rediscovering the balance of the head on the spine will really help your voice.

Sit on the floor with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor in front of you.

Lengthen up through your spine - like your ears are being pulled gently to the ceiling.

Then nod your head very gently on a pivot point just between your ears and behind your eyes.

Only nod up and down a millimetre or so until you feel the balance point of the head on the first vertebra of the spine.

Then from this point nod forwards and allow your spine to curve forwards, millimetre by millimetre, from top to bottom, until you are gently rounded forward over your knees.

Breath into your back several times in this position, then, from the bottom, gently unroll the spine to vertical again until you find the balance point of the head on the top vertebra once more.

Do this 4-5 times.

EXERCISE 2 - Discover your Natural (Uncontrolled) In-Breath

Many people over-control their in-breath by sucking in the air. If you can hear your in-breath, it is probably very tense. The in-breath should ideally be completely silent. Also - it should feel effortless - like there is no muscular effort involved. We are often taught at school, or when in the doctor's surgery, to 'take a deep breath'. This seems to involve noisily sucking in air whilst at the same time heaving up the shoulders and upper chest. If you don't do this, you can sometimes be accused of not having breathed in!

However, a natural inbreath is replacing air much lower in the lungs. It is using the action of the diaphragm muscle which is right in the very centre of the torso. This muscle you cannot feel (there are no sensory nerves), so apart from a little expansion in the back ribs, you actually can't feel any muscular effort at all when your breath comes in. So the natural inbreath is low - silent - passive. Rather than the high - noisy - active breath advocated by the 'take a deep breath' educators.

The best way to find this in-breath, is actually to work on the out-breath and then allow the body to start breathing in on its own without interference. But here is one exercise that may help you start to experience it.

Open your mouth wide (really wide - don't cheat!) and put one of your palms flat in front of your mouth - a few inches away. Put the other palm flat on your lower belly - down below your waistband only a few inches above your pubic bone.

Try breathing in and out of your wide open mouth absolutely silently!.

Notice a direct connection between the belly and the air coming in through your mouth. If it is completely silent - you may feel the in-breath seems to go straight to the belly - filling it up like a balloon.

Your silent out-breath, may get hotter and damper on your hand as you reach air deeper in the lungs.

Try extending the silent out-breath, and notice the increased urgency of the in-breath (still keeping it silent). It will really begin to feel like the in-breath is 'taking itself'. The in-breath becomes an elastic rebound from the long, silent out-breath.

 

IMPORTANT! Stop if you feel dizzy. It is only that the oxygen levels in your body have raised quickly (move around a bit energetically and the feeling will wear off). If you continue once you feel dizzy, you may get very dizzy and even faint - so be sensible and continue your practice another day. Your body will quickly get used to the higher levels of oxygen, and there is no point in feeling uncomfortable.

EXERCISE 3 - Discover your Natural Out-Breath

This can be the best way to improve your breathing. By focusing on the out-breath, most people learn to allow a natural in-breath too. The important thing here is to observe with a mirror what is happening in the whole of the torse. Initially start by sitting on a chair, standing involves more structural tension in the body, and any alignment issues you may have can interfere with the breathing initially.

There are 3 experiments here. Treat them as experiments and observe the results - rather than forcing results. You may initially want to yawn, stretch, shrug your shoulders or sigh (allow youself to do any of these - they're good for you). Again you may feel dizzy, nauseous or tired due to the raised levels of oxygen. STOP if you feel any of these and move around or wait for the feeling to wear off. Oxygen isn't bad for you, but you need to get used to changed levels and you will only feel awful if you persevere. Start again on another day.

1. Slowing down the out-breath - Breathing out through a straw.

This exercises focuses on allowing all the out-breath out through a straw, or if you don't have one, through a narrow tube made from your lips. Don't force the breath out, just allow the whole outbreath out through the narrow gap. This will slow it down.

Continue for as long as you can without pushing (be patient and don't be alarmed by the length of time), and then allow the breath to replace. Wait for several breaths - in and out - before doing the experiment again.

Explore opening the mouth and allowing the breath back in quickly and silently through a wide open mouth. Keep your hand on your belly. It is like the breath is dropping back into the belly suddenly and effortlessly like a stone dropping into a well.

2. Speeding up the breath - the Open Mouth/Flat Palm technique

Just as we tried before, open the mouth really widely. Again use a mirror to check you don't close it without realising. The open mouth can have a strong effect on the breathing and very often I notice that clients close the mouth to avoid this change without even realising they've done so.

Allow the whole breath out against the one flat palm - it will feel hot and damp, don't allow even a whisper of sound or any feeling of air. My own teacher used to describe this utterly silent, damp air as 'Magic Breath' - it's like a mist rising off your inner organs...

Again wait, patiently, until the lungs have really emptied themselves. Keep the other palm on your lower belly, just above the pubic bone, and notice how the muscles seem to contract when the air is leaving the body, and release so the belly gets fat as the breath comes back in.

Notice:

Out-breath silent - hot damp on palm - belly muscles contract and flatten towards the spine

In-breath - silent - belly muscles release and belly gets fat - breath drops into the lower body like a stone into a deep well

If you don't notice the above effects, then try sitting in front of a full-length mirror and notice your upper chest. Is it rising and falling? Is the whole upper body collapsing slightly as you breath out, or lifting as the in-breath comes in. Is your chin raised and your head/neck relationship tense. Re-do the Posture Exercise 1 and try to keep your upper body completely still (not stiff). If you take your top off you'll notice any muscle movement across the upper chest at all - try and avoid any muscle reaction at all.

3. Putting the out-breath under pressure - the Hissing 'S'

Use the same idea as above, only this time you want to make a consistent and medium-strength hissing 's' sound during the entire out-breath. This sound is a sustained 's' consonant - like you're imitating a snake.

Make sure you keep the sound consistent. If it wavers a little - try making it stronger.

Try to completely relax the throat, back of tongue and jaw as you make this sound. You can try imagining that whole area melting and becoming liquid. You may try to 'help' the sound with these muscles.

The hissing 's', when done correctly without additional 'support' from the throat/tongue/jaw, will elicit a stronger response from your abdominal muscles.

And the in-breath will be stronger and more urgent too. But both of these effects will happen without you trying! Remember - let the exercise do the work, you stay passive and focus on your consistent 's' sound.

When you have done these exercises you may, as mentioned above, want to yawn, stretch, shrug your shoulders, sigh, sleep, even lie down. All of these are fine responses and to be encouraged. They show you that your body is reacting to the work of developing your breathing. Over a period of time, these responses may become less as your breathing becomes more natural more of the time.

After the exercises try two more things.

Firstly put your hand on your lower belly - where you've felt the muscles contract during the out-breath. Try to make a sudden 'Ha!' sound from here - as if these muscles are making the sound. It may sound deep and full. If you can make a 'Ha!' sound from these muscles, you can talk from them. And that will be your full, rich, natural voice.

Secondly, spend the day observing your breath. Try to still the upper chest and feel the inbreath dropping into the belly. This will calm you and keep you centred, and allow the tension in the upper body to drop away. If you keep the breath silent and the jaw muscles soft, this will help even more.

Lastly - consider visiting one of our Specialist Voice Coaches. Or look for a voice coach in your area. Be very sure to check that any coach you choose has undertaken at least a year of full time training, specifically as a Voice Coach, either at Central School of Speech and Drama London, or the Guildhall London. Or another directly equivalent course. They will have either an MA or a PG Diploma in Voice.

People who have taken part time courses, or actors trying to adapt their own training, are not qualified to a professional level and you would be advised to avoid them. Other people who may be able to offer good quality voice coaching are Opera Singing tutors who have again undertaken considerable personal training themselves, and have additional teaching experience/education.

If you wish to find out more about your voice, or how to take a private session with one of our Voice Specialists. Just call the number below.

Happy practising!

The Speak Easily Team