Pulmonary exercises are very important to people with COPD or even people looking to have stronger lungs. Many breathing exercises can also reduce stress and relax your body. With all breathing exercises, inhale through your nose, and exhale through your mouth with your lips pursed.
The first breathing exercise is very simple. Breath in through your nose for 2 seconds and breath out through your mouth with pursed lips for 4 seconds. Do this 10 times.
Now you are going to move your arms with the breathing to loosen up the muscles around your chest area. Put your arms out in front of you and clasp your hands together. Take a deep breath in through your nose, and as you are breathing out through your mouth, twist your trunk, moving your arms side to side. Repeat this 5 times.
Next is the “chicken wing” exercise. Place your hands on your shoulders, which will make you look like you have chicken wings. Take a deep breath in and make circles with your arms as you are breathing out. Repeat this 5 times.
Breathing with your diaphragm, or belly breathing, is a great way to relax. Instead of your chest rising when you breath, you want your stomach to move in and out. To make sure you are doing this correctly, you can place your hands on your stomach with your fingers almost interlocking. When you breathe in and out, your fingers should get closer together and further apart. Do this 5 times.
Finally is a technique that helps push out all your reserve oxygen and helps get your lungs stronger. You want to forcefully blow all your air out of your lungs. At the end, you will hold your breath and swallow or try to breathe back in without taking a breath. This will make a suction like feeling in the notch at your throat. Try to hold it as long as you can, but since you have pushed all the air out, it might not be for very long. When you take a breath in, it will make a suction like noise if you have done it right. Repeat 5 times.
Breathing exercises can be a great way to help relieve stress and anxiety. This video focuses on two relaxing breathing techniques: Square breathing (aka box breathing, 4x4 breathing, 4-part breath, etc.) and Pursed breathing.
Muscle Scraping can help promote tissue healing, improve motion, and help reduce pain. This form of scraping therapy evolved from the traditional Chinese medicine healing technique known as Gua sha.
Groin pain can come from many things, so it’s important to get a proper diagnosis. Groin pain can be from an adductor strain, labral tear, hip impingement, hip arthritis, or a sports hernia. These simple stretches and exercises should help relieve the pain.
The pelvic floor muscles are often overlooked, and people don’t think about strengthening them. Since the pelvic floor muscles are small, it doesn’t take a lot of movement to work them, so it’s best to start with a little and slowly progress.
This real-time lower body isometrics routine features easy exercises that can help strengthen the lower body & relieve pain. It can also help decrease tightness and improve overall flexibility.
Yoga at bedtime can help you fall asleep faster and sleep better. Trudy, a registered yoga teacher and fellow Physical Therapist, stops by to show me a therapeutic yoga bedtime routine.
Fibromyalgia and other chronic pain conditions can cause pain all over the body. This is often called widespread pain. The key to finding relief with stretches and exercises with these types of conditions is to find the right amount of intensity for you. Lying down while performing simple stretches and exercises often helps.
Vagus nerve stimulation uses gentle electrical impulses to stimulate the vagus nerve. The vagus nerves control our parasympathetic system (resting and digesting) by sending signals to the brain to release calming neurotransmitters.
