DEEP

BREATHING

Exercise System

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“In order to have good blood, we must breathe well. Full, deep inspirations of pure air, which fill the lungs with oxygen, purify the blood. They impart to it a bright color and send it, a life-giving current, to every part of the body. Good res-piration soothes the nerves, stimulates the appe-tite, and aids digestion. And it induces sound, re-freshing sleep.”

“The lungs should be allowed the greatest freedom possible. Their capacity is developed by free action; it diminishes if they are cramped and compressed. Ill effects follow the practice so com-mon, especially in sedentary pursuits, of stooping at one’s work. In this position it is impossible to breathe deeply. Superficial breathing soon be-comes a habit, and the lungs lose their power to expand.”

Ellen G. White The Ministry of Health and Healing, pp. 151, 152.

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2 About ...

Deep Breathing Exercise System (DBES) is a most unique and amazingly effective exercise program. It was developed by Alexandra Strelnikova, in Russia. For many years she was teaching these exercises to singers, actors, announc-ers, and teachers to restore their voice, to improve timbre of the voice and to expand the voices’ range.

Like many other exercise programs DBES helps the body to exercise physically, gives a full volume lungs’ workout and enriches the blood with oxygen.

The difference DBES has from other exercise programs is DBES includes a simple combination of physical and breathing exercises which can be done by people with al-most any physical abilities in standing, sitting, or laying po-sitions.

The most important elements of DBES are it’s quality and quantity of the deep breathing. In combination with simple body movements DBES brings good results to physical health as any other exercise program.

This exercise system is intended for people of all ages. However before starting any exercise program, it is ad-visable to consult your physician.

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3 What is deep breathing?

From our childhood we were amazed by hardy sportsmen and how they can run or swim so fast , or how famous sing-ers can take high notes. We heard that all of it was the re-sult of practice and deep breathing. What is deep breath-ing? Let’s learn from nature.

When we run, walk, actively work, sing, scream or just talk our breathing is short. On the other hand long and spacious breathing occurs in a inactive relaxed position and not in active workouts. Long breathing spreads the air into the lungs passively and muscles which help us breathe don’t work well. In long and specious breathing the lungs stretch without using the lung’s full volume and the body loses large amounts of carbon dioxide which is a very important element for normal lung functioning in some quantities. Deep breathing is using the full capacity of your lungs.

So we need to learn how to breathe to keep our lungs work-ing in full volume.

DBES breathing

Most important in DBES is a short powerful breathe IN when the lungs aren’t extending but tightening up. In this position the air fills up the lungs form top to bottom.

DBES focuses on breathing IN only, and NOT on breathing out, which goes by itself naturally.

The breathe IN has to be short and sharp like when you sniff the air when something burns. It will make a loud hiss with your nose as you catch the air, and the exhalation will passively leave through your mouth by itself. Your lips should be opened a little bit and facial muscles relaxed. Never help yourself to push the air out from your lungs! Don’t make faces!

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4 Four rules of the Deep Breathing

Rule 1: Breathe IN is short like the poke of a needle. Every short breathe IN is active. Don’t be shy—sniff the air! It is a mistake to ‘pull the air’ to take as much air as possi-ble. We know that overeating and overdrinking are harmful for our body. Why not over sizing our lungs? Think only about the breathe IN.

Rule 2: Breathe OUT is the result of the breathe IN. Do not control your breathing out. Better if it goes through the mouth than the nose. Pay attention only to your breathe IN that has to go along with the movement.

Rule 3: Repeat breathe IN’s rhythmically like you would the pump of a bicycle tire. Pump up the lungs so even small passages of the lungs will be filled up with air. Think about it. You can’t pump up a tire with a slow passive push in. Don’t rush it, just do it rhythmi-cally.

Rule 4: Do as many breathes in a row as your body lets you make easily. Do NOT force your lungs to make many breathes with high frequency. They need to be trained and the body will tell you when it’s ready. From the beginning it is advisable to do a series of 2 or 4 breathe IN’s with some pause in between, and the total number of breaths also depends on your feel-ings. Each time the number and frequency needs to be in-creased to reach the exercise level.

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5 Counting and the number of breathes

All DBES are developed for counting on 2,4,8,16 or 32. This count is physiological. We use it in sports and music. Scien-tists found out that the human’s brain works on cycles of 4 and 8. So it is easier to do exercises on this count.

If you do not feel well you can do the exercises in a series of 2, 4 or 8 breaths standing, sitting or in the laying position.

If your health condition is normal you can do the exercises in a series of 8, 16 or 32 breaths. After 3 weeks of exercis-es you can do the series in 96 breaths. Find out what is most comfortable in counts for you.

Make a short pause of 10 seconds between the sessions if you need it.

Don’t forget to count your breaths. Bend a finger after each series. I found it easier for me to bend a finger after each 8 breaths. For 96 breaths you bend 10 fingers on both hands then unbend the 2 thumbs. This way you can keep track of your counts up to 12 series.

The average number of exercises is twice a day @ 960 breaths

2 x (10exercises x 96 breaths)

But you can choose your number of breaths depending on your health condition. For beginners it’s better to do as many breaths as it feels comfortable and increase each time a little more. Choose your favorite exercises, create your own program, and do it at your own pace. Your body will tell you when it is ready to do more. Don’t force it!

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People with serious health problems need to contact a phy-sician in order to find out if it’s okay to do these exercises. They can do less number of breaths in one time but the number of exercise programs a day can be increased.

For best result do the DBES twice a day before you eat or 1– 1.5 hours after you eat. It’s especially important to ‘pumpup the lungs’ right before the night time.

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7 Exercises Learning the basics

DBES can be done in standing, sitting or in a laying position. Please adjust these exercises to your personal abilities. The main context of DBES will be given for the average user. 1 session = 96 breaths

Warm up

Stand straight. Feet are one foot apart. Make short and noisy breaths on a count of 2 or 4 at 1 session. Imagine that your nos-trils stick to each other every time when you breathe IN. You can walk around your room making a step at each short breath IN, or just move your weight from one leg to another. If the movement is to difficult to do then just do the breaths.

Head turns

Stand straight. Feet are one foot apart. Turn your head to the right and take a short and noisy breathe IN. Next turn your head to the left and take a breathe IN. Neck should be relaxed. Contin-ue the head turns for the entire1 session.

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Ears

Stand straight. Feet are one foot apart. Incline your head to the right shoulder and take a short breathe IN and after that to the left shoulder and take a another breathe IN. Don’t move your body. Continue the pattern for the entire session. 1 session

Head pendulum

Stand straight. Feet are one foot apart. Put your head down, look to the floor and take a short strong breathe IN. Put your head up, look to the ceiling and take another breathe IN. Continue the pat-tern for the entire session. 1 session

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9 Cat

Stand straight. Feet are one foot apart. Heels on the floor. Hands out at waist level. Bend lightly your knees and turn yourself to the right making a short breathe IN then turn to the other side a short breathe IN. Turn your body only at the waist. Move the weight of your body from one foot to another. Keep the back is straight. Re-peat the pattern for the entire session. 1 to 2 sessions

Pump

Stand straight. Feet are one foot apart. Hands are at the waist line. Bend over a little bit, as the hands go down imitating pumping up a tire. Make a short noisy breathe IN at the lowest point. You have to end your breathe IN at the incline! After that you need to lift yourself up but not all the way and repeat the “pump” routine. You can take a stick or rolled up maga-zine in imitating the handle of a pump if that helps. Your pump-ing need to be light and easy. Do not bend too low. Do not spread your shoulders. Keep head down. 3,4 or 5 sessions

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Hug

Stand straight. Hands touching shoulders. When you make your short breathe IN cross your arms. One hand goes to one shoulder and another goes across to another. Try to strongly hug yourself and con-strict your thorax. Arms have to be relaxed. Don’t spread them too far apart and do not change their position (one arm always is on the top of the hug and another is on the bottom.) You can put your head up lightly when you take a breathe IN. Relax the hug and repeat the pattern. 2 sessions

Big pendulum

This exercise is a combination of 2 other exercises, the “Pump” and the “Hug.” Stand straight. Feet are one foot apart. Bend over and take a short breathe IN at the low-est point. Unbend yourself, lightly sag backwards and hug yourself. At the last point again take a short noisy breathe IN. Bend down and repeat the pat-tern for the entire session. 2 sessions

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Rock-n-Roll

You can do this exercise from any of these standing posi-tions: feet 1 foot a part One foot in front, weight on

the front foot and the otherfoot slightly touching thefloor

Weight on the foot behindand front foot slightlytouching the floor

Bend your knee and slightly sit down– making a short breathe IN on each sit down. Come up and repeat the sit pattern. Do it like a dance. 1 session

Kick back

Stand straight. Feet are one foot apart. Kick back with one foot and squat on other and take a short noisy breathe IN. Do the same on the other foot. Repeat the pattern for the en-tire session. 1 session

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Extras

Hands

Stand straight. Hands down, Bend arms and bring hands up to shoulders. Make 4 noisy breathes Ins gripping fists and then relax them. Rest after each series for 3-4 seconds. 1 session

Shoulder loop

Stand straight. Bring your fists to waist level. Shoulders re-laxed, Make short breathe IN and at the same time bring fists fast down. Fists go back when you make exhalation. Repeat pattern for the entire session. 1 session

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Bibliography:

Ирина Кочеткова, “Парадоксальная Гимнастика Стрельниковой” Физкультура Против Недуга. Советский Спорт, 1989

“Целебник” периодическое издание №22, 2002

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The Deep Breathing Exercise System is an amazing program that helps

to exercise the lungs and brings more oxygen to the blood.

It’s a simple complex of workouts for people of almost all physical abilities.

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