Exercises

Well, it appears that there are four ways that you might be able to improve and control asthma through exercises . The yoga teacher's exercises, Ravi Shankar's exercise, some yoga exercises with controlled breathing and some Russian exercises.

But, I guess you can mix and match to suit yourself too.

I wasn't keen on putting the whole exercise up because it's got contraindications again and, for some people, it's best to ask your doctor next time you see him/her if it's wise to do these exercises. I'm doing a very gentle modified version but my body still seems to be looking up and taking notice that there's something going on.

The Russian exercises are apparently very gentle.

Pranayama

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pranayama

Please take notice of the cautions.

Buteyko .. which I found out about by reading the notes towards the end of the wiki Pranayama page.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buteyko_method

These exercises are to be used along with asthma medication.

Baba Ramdev mentions contraindications for this kind of yoga in his Pranayam video that I've linked to later on. The main contraindications for these exercises are a hernia, high blood pressure and heart problems and it's best to have a word with your doctor when you next see him/her before starting on these exercises. That's what yoga teachers say. The exercises can be done at a much higher density than Baba Ramdev is showing. Should not be done without a teacher I'd think. If you have any of the contraindications do them at a slower pace after being given the go ahead on your next visit to the doc. Also epilepsy is a contraindication. Have to say that Baba Ramdev goes into this a lot .. can't remember if he mentions a hernia but it's something to be careful with too.

As I said I.m just doing very gentle versions while sitting at the computer .. and that seems to be enough to have some effect. I haven't got asthma, though my brother has .. he's very interested in all this too as well as drinking his teas. I have to be careful because of the condition my muscles are in and can only do this very gently and slowly. As I said I just do the exercises sitting at the computer. Very gently.

There are some long videos from India ... Baba Ram Dev's ... that you might've watched on youtube. Unfortunately the one for asthma hasn't been dubbed into English .. though, as it's about exercising I suppose watching it might help a bit!!!!!!! But there is another one about breathing techniques that is. He's very enthusiastic about the breathing exercises .. they have been shown to work for asthma .. and I guess they do tone up the whole system!!!! Might be worth making notes from the various things as we go along I guess, These weren't the videos I watched to start with. Well, still haven't watched much of them but I guess I will. He seems to do them for all ages dubbed into English cept for us older folk. I guess we have to adapt as we go along if we haven't been doing yoga or our health has changed .. the last goes for everyone.

Again if you have heart problems, a hernia or high blood pressure ask your doc next time you see him or her about doing these exercises. I watched the first 20 minutes or so of the video and it seemed that he was doing gentle exercices. But, still, it's like running the marathon .. you'd ask first if you have certain health problems.

He does a video for high blood pressure in English too

Breathing exercises

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_Jnra2O9Fc

Blood pressure

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io1orTAgVHM

I will write about other exercises later on and link to written pages for the yoga exercises.