Breathing exercises that strengthen your lungs

More and more people are being afflicted with Asthma nowadays. There can be many triggers of asthma: stress and anxiety, allergies, genetics, and so on. Here's a yoga programme to tackle the root causes of the disease and strengthen your system. Yoga tackles the symptoms and causes of asthma and helps minimise it. But remember, it will not help you unless you are regular and committed in your yoga practice.
To begin with, here are a few breathing exercises that help strengthen your lungs and nervous system, and help relax both body and mind.

Caution:
• Those with high blood pressure or heart problems should not hold their breath
• Those with cervical spondylitis should keep their chin up and not press it down.

Exercise 1

• Sit in padmasana with your back straight

• Press your chin down against your neck, inhale deeply and hold your breath

• Raise your chin and exhale through the mouth

• Repeat 15 times.

Exercise 2

• Sit with your legs stretched out and back straight

• Sit in padmasana. Place your left hand on the knee

• Bend the forefinger and the middle finger of your right hand

• Place the thumb between your eyebrows and press the ring finger on the left nostril. n Breathe in through the right nostril and hold your breath

• Reverse positions. Place your ring finger between your eyebrows, press the right nostril with your thumb. Exhale through the left nostril

• Now inhale through your left nostril and hold your breath

• Reverse the position of your fingers, as in step 3, exhale through the right nostril

• Repeat 10 -12 times.