Vertical breathing or full yogic breathing is the technique that is used when doing pranayama proper. It involves using, or trying to use, the full capacity of your lungs. This is achieved by focusing on three main areas as you inhale and exhale. The first area is the abdomen, the second is the chest or thoracic region, and the third is the clavicle region. Emphasis is given to the abdomen (60%), then the chest (30%), and finally the clavicle area (10%).
When inhaling, focus first on breathing to the abdomen (this should be for about 60% of the inhalation time), then to the chest (30% of the inhalation time), and finally to the clavicle region (10% of the inhalation time). When exhaling do the opposite. First focus on exhaling from the clavicle region (this should be about 10% of the exhalation time), then the chest (about 30% of the exhalation time), and finally the abdomen (about 60% of the total exhalation time).
In practice, and especially when inhalations and exhalations are quite short, it can be difficult dividing the time allocated in such a way. In this case, I have found the best thing is to focus primarily on the abdomen and chest and divide the count 50:50. If you are inhaling for 4 seconds, breathe to the abdomen for 2 seconds and 2 seconds to the chest. If your inhalation/exhalation is 5 seconds, you can do 3 seconds for the abdomen and 2 seconds for the chest. The table below gives you an example of the breathing proportions. These are based on my own personal experience and are not exactly 60, 30, 10 (abdominal; chest; clavicle).
Table1: Table showing inhalation and exhalation durations in abdomen, chest, and clavicle regions with inhalation/exhalation ratios of 4:4, 5:5, and 6:6.
| Abdomen 60% | Chest 30% | Clavicle 10% | ||
| 4:4 Inhalation/Exhalation ratio | ||||
| Inhalation/Exhalation | 2 secs | 2 secs | – | |
| 5:5 Inhalation/Exhalation ratio | ||||
| Inhalation/exhalation | 3 seconds | 2 seconds | – | |
| 6:6 Inhalation/exhalation ratio | ||||
| Exhalation/exhalation | 3 secs | 2 secs | 1 second | |
Knowing where to focus as you inhale and exhale
When you deep breathe it’s important not just to know where to breathe to and for how long, but the dynamic of these key areas, how they work together when inhaling and exhaling, and what you need to do to ensure correct deep breathing technique is applied. Here is a simple 6-step sequence that I have found to be helpful in my own practice.
- When you start inhaling, your focus should be on inflating the abdomen. The diaphragm is pushing down and as the air enters the lungs the abdomen expands. But it’s important for the muscles of the abdomen not to be completely passive. Keep the muscles in and around the abdomen gently engaged and don’t let the abdomen just drop out completely. Controlled expansion of the abdomen is what you want.
- After you have completed the inflation of the abdominal region, your focus switches to inflating the chest. But you will still need to be aware of the abdominal area. When you inflate the chest area, the abdominal area will naturally retract back. You should expect this and start to pull back the abdomen with the abdominal muscles (the diaphragm is still pushing downwards). This allows the expansion of the chest, but also massages the internal organs as they are compressed by the diaphragm, abdominal muscles, and lower back.
- The final part of inhalation moves to the clavicle region. This is a small but important part of deep breathing and focuses your attention on filling the lungs completely, right to the top. You will also find that this part of the inhalation helps to ensure the back is straight.
- Now you switch to exhalation. This first step is to empty the lungs from the clavicle region. But what often happens is that the abdomen and chest also start to contract. You don’t want this. At the start of the exhale, focus on keeping the abdomen and chest inflated as well as slowly exhaling from the clavicle region.
- The next step is to empty the lungs from the chest area. Again, your abdominal area will want to start retracting. Stay focused on slowly deflating the chest area, but also remain focused on keeping the abdominal area inflated.
- Now you move to the final part of deep breathing, exhaling from the abdomen. Sometimes, exhalation can speed up towards the end as there may be a need to inhale oxygen to the body. But try to keep the exhalation nice a slow and steady, slowly retracting the abdomen and pulling up the diaphragm to complete one full cycle.
Now practice full yogic breathing for 3 minutes. After, relax and return to normal breathing.