healthy lungs, heart & kidneys exercise list...healthy lungs, heart & kidneys exercise list...

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Healthy Lungs, Heart & Kidneys Exercise List

• Tapping. Tap whole body with your hands, tap your thorax, legs, arms, skull

• Lift and lower our shoulders while we breathe. We adapt the shoulder movement to our breathing. Shoulders go upwards when inhaling and downwards when exhaling. Repeat movement and breathing three times.

• Circle shoulders with breathing. The movement of your shoulders follows your breath. Shoulders upward when inhaling, and downward when exhaling. Repeat the movement / breathing three times.

• Lung sponging. Place your fingers on your shoulders and move your arms and shoulders forward fairly rapidly while exhaling on “Haaa”. Imagine the lungs being squeezed and emptied like two large sponges full of air. Repeat the exercise several times at different speeds.

• Organs / Immunity and Imagery: Lift your arms up over your head and say “my immune system is strong”. Lift your arms again, only this time say the opposite. Lift your arms and say “my heart is strong and healthy”. Do the same, only say the opposite. Lift and lower your arms and say “my lungs are strong and healthy”. Again, repeat only say the opposite. What feels better?

• Visualize the three fluid compartments of our body: Intracellular, interstitial, vascular. Lift and lower your arms and concentrate on the flow of blood in your arteries and veins. Imagine that the vessels move up and down with our arms and the blood is moving/sloshing in your vessels. Observe a vein in your arm. Place a finger on a vein and perhaps you are able to feel the pressure changing as you move. How does the vein look when the arm is raised up compared to lowered?

• Tapp your diaphragm: Visualize the location of the diaphragm in your body. Tap the origins of the diaphragm, the lowest six ribs, lower sternum and lumbar spine.

• Embody the movement of the diaphragm. The diaphragm moves downwards

when we inhale and upwards when exhale. Model the movement with your hands.

1May 2020 - Texts, pictures and informa8on are subject to the copyright of Franklin Method/Ins8tutes für Franklin-Methode GmbH


• Exhale on SSS. We exhale on Ssssss, doing a lateral flexion or a rotation of the spine.

• Spiral inhalation through the nose: As you inhale through your nose the air is spiraled, which helps in cleaning and the production of N.O. which is a pulmonary vasodilator. N.O. improves the ability of the lungs to absorb oxygen and increases transport of oxygen throughout your body.

• Visualizing lung movement when breathing: Visualize the three dimensional movement of the lungs. Place one hand on the top ribs and one hand on the lowest ribs. Bend the spine to the side and inhale. Exhale as you return to the upright position. Imagine the elastic recoil of the helps assisting the movement. Perform circular movements with the upper body. Compare the sides before doing the same exercise on the other side.

• What do we associate with the word “heart”? Kindheartedness, large heartedness, good-heartedness, warmheartedness, coldheartedness, hard-heartedness, never lost heart, the heart of the matter, deep in the heart.

• The heart, breathing and the coronary arteries. The heart actually moves downwards when we inhale and upwards when we exhale. Inhalation is “heart stretching”. This promotes blood flow to the heart itself through the coronary arteries. Place your right hand on the sternum and imagine it to be your heart. Its base is at the top and the tip apex downwards, forwards and to the left . Inhale and stretch the heart to open the coronary arteries and improve transport of oxygen to the heart muscle.

• Moving the joints of the heart and lungs. Lift one arm and imagine that the lung on that side is sliding upward inside the ribcage and on the heart. The heart forms “joints” with the diaphragm and lungs. The lungs form joints with the inside of the thorax, the heart (mediastinum) and the diaphragm. These joints have the most movement of any joints in the body. Lower your arm and imagine that your lung sliding downward. Repeat several times.

• Lungs slide forward, heart slides back. Place one hand on your heart. Stretch the other arm forward and imagine how that lung is sliding around the heart. Stretch the arm to the back and imagine how the lung is sliding backwards around the heart. Say “Lungs forward, heart back, heart forward, lungs back.”

• Lungs forward, heart back, on both sides: Place your fingertips on your shoulders and move your shoulders forward as you flex your spine. Imagine how the heart is sliding backward and the lungs forwards. As we extend the spine the movements



reverse; the lungs slides back and the heart moves forward. Repeat the movement and imagery several times. Inhale during extension, exhale during flexion.

• Pulmonary and somatic circulation. We imagine the two circulations and practice their path through the body by sliding your hands over your body in the direction of flow. The deoxygenated blood flows from the whole body back to the right atrium, from there to the right ventricle. From here it flows to the lungs where oxygen is absorbed. The oxygenated blood returns to the left atrium, from there to the powerful left ventricle, then to the aorta, arteries, capillaries and the whole body.

• Heart spiral: We move our hands to model the spiral of the heart muscle in action. The heart pumps and sucks in a spiral fashion.

• Kidney movement when breathing. Imagine how the kidneys moves downwards when inhaling and upwards when exhaling. We accompany this movement with our hands, first on the right, then on the left side of the body. Notice the very positive effect on your posture and back.

• Kidney movement with the spine. Place both your hands on your kidneys in the upper lumbar area. Extend your spine as you inhale and slide your hands down on


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your back. As you exhale flex your spine and slide your hands back up again. Repeat several times and notice the miraculous effect on your lower back, posture and grounding.

• Lateral flexion and kidney movement. Place your hands on your kidneys and laterally flex your spine to the left and right. Imagine how the kidneys slide on the Psoas major and the quadratus lumborum muscles. They slide upwards and downwards in opposite directions.

• Swing your kidneys around the spine: Place your hands on the kidneys and rotate the spine to the left and right. Imagine the kidneys swinging around the spine.

• Heart ligaments improve posture: Place one hand on the back of the neck and the other on your heart. Push up the back of your head and visualize how the sternocleidomastoid muscle lifts the sternum which in turn lifts the heart through the sternopericardial ligaments. Notice the increased space in your torso and your naturally lengthened spine.

• A high heart is a happy heart: We imagine that the heart is floating upwards between the lungs like a sun rising over the hills in the morning. Slide your hands up over your sternum as you do this.

• Notice your state of mind and body. Is your mind calmer, your thoughts happier and the body more comfortable?


Franklin Method 2020

healthy lungs, heart & kidneys exercise list...healthy lungs, heart & kidneys exercise list...

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