5 Simple Breathing Exercises For Seniors

Transcript

G'day everyone!
Welcome back to another exercise video.  What we're going to go through today are 
some exercises to help you improve your   breathing. We're going to go through five 
exercises today. These exercises will help   strengthen the muscles of your respiratory system. 
These exercises will also help you to relax   because when you're anxious or you're holding on 
to extra tension or you've got a lot of worries,   this will make you work of breathing much 
more. If you can get yourself more relaxed,   you will find your breathing much easier. As with 
all exercises make sure you see your doctor before   undertaking them. Do the same with this exercise 
video today, and if you find yourself getting   light-headed or dizzy during this exercise 
video, stop the exercises or slow them down.   It may be a good idea to see a physio as well 
who can go through these exercises with you,   and make sure you're doing it all correctly.
Let's get into the exercises now.  What you want to be doing is sitting in a nice 
comfortable position as upright as best as you   can, shoulders back and down. What we're going to 
do is start with some relaxation to help decrease   any tension. We're going to take a breath 
in through our nose, and then breathe out   through our nose as well. If you do have trouble 
breathing out through your nose, you can breathe   out through your mouth. What I recommend for 
doing that is to do a purse lip position which   will be another exercise we do after this one. 
That's basically placing your lips like this   so like you're sucking on a straw, and 
breathing out into that narrow mouth space.  Once you're in the relaxed position, taking a 
nice gentle slow breath in through your nose,   and a gentle breath out through your nose as well. 
So as you're doing that, I want you to let go of   any tension as you're breathing out. So again 
breathing in nice and slow, and gentle through   your nose, and relaxing your body letting go of 
any tension as you breathe out nice and slow.  Let's go, four more times breathing in,   and a gentle breath out. Good let's 
go again, nice gentle breath in,   focus on relaxing your body in 
any tension as you breathe out,   good. Let's go again, nice gentle breath in,   and a nice relaxing gentle breath 
out. Focus on relaxing your body,   excellent work! Just relaxing 
further into the chair.  We're going to do the same thing, now then we're 
going to slow down each breath. We're going to   do it three times. Following along with me, let's 
go. Breathing in through the nose, nice and slow,   and now breathing out through 
the nose, nice and slow,   good. Focus on relaxing that body, let's 
go again. Breathing in through the nose,   breathing out through the nose, 
focusing on relaxing that body,   good. Let's go once more, 
breathing in through the nose   and breathing out through the nose, 
focusing on relaxing that body,   relaxing further into the chair, excellent work!
Let's now get on to the next exercise this is   known as purse lip breathing. We're going 
to do similar to what we did just then. You   may have already done this exercise if you did 
have trouble breathing out of your nose. What   we're going to do is breathe in through the 
nose in that purse lip position. We're going   to breathe out nice and slow through the 
mouth. We're going to do that five times,   following along with me, let's go!
Breathing in through the nose,   and a gentle breath out through the 
mouth in that purse lip position,   good. Let's have a little rest, let's 
go again, breathing in through the nose,   and breathing out through the 
mouth in the purse lip position.   Have a little rest, let's go again. 
Breathing in through the nose,   breathing out through the mouth,   have a little rest again. Let's go 
when you're ready, in through the nose,   nice gentle breath out through the mouth,   good. Let's go once more, 
breathing in through the nose,   nice deep breath, breathing out 
through the mouth, great work.  Let's adjust our position now, getting 
back into that upright seated position.   Let's now do some abdominal breathing. We're going 
to place our hand on our belly just like this,   we're going to place another hand on our chest. We 
don't want our chest to move during this exercise,   we want to breathe into our stomach on each 
breath keeping that chest as still as possible.  Relaxing into the chair, let's now 
take a deep breath into that belly,   keeping that chest still, breathing out. 
Again let's breathe into that belly,   and out, again into that belly, 
feeling that belly rise, breathing out.   Let's go once more breathing into that belly,   and breathing out, so during that exercise 
making sure you're breathing into that belly and   stopping that chest rising as much as possible.
Let's now get into the next exercise in which   we breathe in, we hold for three seconds, 
known as an inspiratory hold, and then we   breathe out. We're taking a nice deep breath 
in, all the way in, we hold, one, two, three,   breathing out through the mouth, great work!
Let's go again, nice deep breath in,   all the way in, hold, and breathing out, have a 
little rest. Let's go again, nice deep breath in,   hold, and breathing out, excellent work!
Let's now get into the last exercise. What   we're going to do are some quick sniffles in 
and out through our nose. We're going to do   this for 15 seconds. However, we're going to do 
it in five second bouts, so what you're going to   do is get nice and comfortable in that chair, 
nice and quick in and out through your nose.  Let's go in three, two, one, great work! 
Having a little rest, let's go again,   great work. Having another little 
rest, let's go in three, two, one,   great work! Taking a nice deep breath in, 
and a gentle breath out through the mouth.  Just relax in that chair again, we're all done 
with those breathing exercises to help you improve   your breathing. As with all exercises, make 
sure you stay consistent with them. When you   stay consistent, you will see the improvements.
You want to be doing these exercises at least   once or twice a day. You can do them in 
the morning, you can do them at night.  Go at your own pace with these exercises as well, 
if you do feel you need to break it up then break   it up. It is also a good idea to combine these 
exercises with other exercises to help get   those lungs and your skeletal muscles moving.
I did also write an article on better breathing