10 minutes of diaphragmatic breathing equals 3 hours of exercise? Unveiling the amazing breathing method for weight loss.

3. Ten minutes of diaphragmatic breathing is equivalent to three hours of exercise.

Pre-class preparation**:

What is diaphragmatic breathing?

What are the benefits of diaphragmatic breathing?

How do you practice diaphragmatic breathing?

Lily is a trendsetter, always eager to try new things. Take weight loss, for example; she's tried no fewer than ten different methods, such as detox diets, acupuncture, massage... but each time it's just a three-minute fad before giving up. She always complains that one method is too time-consuming or too strenuous, or that she's always busy – it all boils down to laziness. But this lazy person has many ideas. She heard that 10 minutes of diaphragmatic breathing is equivalent to 3 hours of exercise, so she went home and eagerly started practicing. However, all that followed were complaints: "Why is it so hard?", "It's so tiring!", "Did I do it wrong?"...

What is abdominal breathing?

Breathing? It's simple, just inhaling and exhaling. Abdominal breathing? Is it breathing with your abdomen? How do you do that?

When we breathe normally, our abdomen contracts unconsciously and relaxes when we exhale. Abdominal breathing, however, involves consciously expanding the abdomen when inhaling and contracting it when exhaling. Give it a try! What? That's hard! That's tiring!

Indeed, practicing diaphragmatic breathing is not easy, as it is different from normal breathing and requires conscious effort to complete.

Actually, abdominal breathing primarily relies on the movement of the diaphragm. During inhalation, the diaphragm moves up and down, increasing the vertical diameter of the thoracic cavity. When we inhale, the diaphragm descends, pushing the organs downwards, causing the abdomen to expand, not the chest. Simultaneously, because the diaphragm descends, it rises more than usual during exhalation, allowing for deeper breathing and expelling more carbon dioxide that tends to stagnate at the bottom of the lungs.

Abdominal breathing has two benefits for the body: First, it can exercise the muscles in your lower abdomen and eliminate an unsightly belly; second, it can stimulate the function of the body's organs and glands, and accelerate your metabolism.

The amazing effects of diaphragmatic breathing

Breathing is a normal physiological phenomenon and an important way to maintain health. Did you know that our two lungs are on average the size of two footballs, but many people only use about one-third of their capacity in their lifetime? If we could utilize the remaining two-thirds, it would greatly improve our physical health.

Everyone just practiced diaphragmatic breathing. Did you feel like you couldn't take it after only a minute? Why is that? That's because diaphragmatic breathing mobilizes all the energy in your body! The most basic way to check if you're doing diaphragmatic breathing is to see if your abdomen feels warm. If it doesn't, your breathing method is incorrect. Also, please note that beginners are not advised to practice diaphragmatic breathing for such a long time; you should proceed gradually.

The International Yoga Association has found through research that 10 minutes of diaphragmatic breathing is roughly equivalent to 3 hours of exercise. In addition, diaphragmatic breathing has other benefits.

▲Expelling stale air from the lungs

Because we take deep breaths when we breathe with our abdomen, the diaphragm can hold more air, so when we exhale, we can expel the stale air that is not normally expelled from the lungs.

▲Purify the blood

Abdominal breathing allows for the inhalation of more air, thus increasing the amount of oxygen entering our bodies. This increased oxygen effectively enhances the function of hemoglobin, purifying the blood.

▲Promotes intestinal peristalsis

At the same time, because the pressure in the abdominal cavity increases and decreases regularly during abdominal breathing, the activity of the abdominal organs is strengthened, the blood circulation in the digestive tract is improved, the digestive and absorptive functions of the digestive tract are promoted, and thus intestinal peristalsis is promoted.

▲ Engaging abdominal muscles

When we do abdominal breathing, we consciously expand and contract our abdomen when we inhale and exhale. Unconsciously, this engages our abdominal muscles, allowing our abdomen to move and reducing excess fat.

Simple tutorial on diaphragmatic breathing

Now that we've covered this, are you all eager to get started practicing? Don't rush, we'll now provide some simple tutorials.

First, relax your whole body and find a posture that suits you best, such as lying on your back or a comfortable meditation seat. Actually, start by breathing naturally and observe for a while.

Next, place your right hand on your abdomen (navel) 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. Maintain this inhalation and exhalation cycle several times, keeping each breath rhythmic.

After practicing for a while, you can remove your hands and consciously breathe. You'll find that abdominal breathing isn't as difficult as you imagined!

The key to abdominal breathing is to try to reach the "limit" in both inhalation and exhalation, that is, to inhale as much as you can and exhale as much as you can; similarly, the abdomen should expand and contract to the extreme, and it would be even better if each breath went straight to the lower dantian.

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