Introducing NIRVANA Fitness

Every Tuesday 10.45am & Thursday 8pm. BYO mats.

Fitness isn’t always strenuous. We need to also take care of our emotional and mental wellness, and train to breathe deep into cellular levels for maximum body efficiency. Mindful exercise that synchronize movement and breath has the power to change more than how you look. It has the power to positively change your entire perspective of life.

Deep Breathing - The Truly Essential Exercise

In a 2005 review and analysis of several studies, Richard Brown, MD and Patricia Gerbarg, MD reported that deep-breathing techniques were extremely effective in handling depression, anxiety, and stress-related disorders. These techniques can serve as an excellent adjunct to conventional medical treatment, or in some cases as a suitable substitute, in treating myriad psychological disorders, as well as eating disorders and obesity. Many people show irregularly high levels of carbon dioxide in their blood. Interestingly, the carbon dioxide level is often abnormal when all the others tests of the blood are fine. While this is not life threatening, it does carry heavy consequences such as fatigue, mental fog and decreased tissue function.

One of the reasons aerobic exercise is good for you is that it ups your heart rate and forces your lungs to take in more oxygen while expelling more carbon dioxide. This gives your heart a good workout and enables it to pump a quick jolt of oxygen through your cells. However during rest periods and throughout your regular daily activites, habitual shallow breathing can cause a constriction of the chest and lung tissue, over time decreasing oxygen flow and delivery to your tissues. Training to breathe deep and rhythmically expands the diaphragm muscle, thus expanding the lung’s air pockets, which will invoke the relaxation response and massage the lymphatic system.

Breathing Exercises and The Relaxation Response

Your sympathetic system, when stimulated in times of stress and anxiety, controls your fight or flight response. Chronic stress depletes the body of nutrients and destabilizes brain and endocrine chemistry. Depression, muscle tension and pain, insulin sensitivity, GI issues, insomnia, and adrenal fatigure are among scores of other conditions all related to an overworked sympathetic nervous system. What counteracts this mechanism? The parasympathetic nervous system.

Deep breathing is the fastest way to trigger your parasympathetic nervous system, or what medical practitioners call the relaxation response. Breath is the fastest medium by which these two systems can communicate, flicking the switch from high alert to low in a matter of seconds. When someone is frightened or stressed, they tend to hold their breath or take rapid, shallow breaths. The heart pounds and muscles clench as the adrenaline kicks in. When the stress issue is resolved, they let out a deep breath, signaling the brain that everything is okay again. If deep breathing continues, the heart rate decreases, the lungs expand and the muscles relax. Equilibrium is restored.

Many Eastern cultures have long recognized the importance of breathing to cultivate a positive relationship between the body and the mind, one that results in a more tranquil state of being and a more resilient physiology. Yoga, Qi-Gong and T’ai Chi are such healthy practices because they combine deep breathing and movement to support a steady central nervous response. And this is also important when you are trying to lose weight and burn fat.

Weight Loss and Deep Breathing

Deep breathing delivers many of the benefits of exercise, including facilitating weight loss. Though not a substitute for exercise, it’s a great complimentary partner as deep breathing enhances the benefits of any form of exercise.

One basic measure of fitness is cardiovascular capacity, or how much oxygen our heart and lungs can deliver to our cells. When muscle cells spring into action, they must have energy to burn and the waste products of that metabolism must be removed. When our cardiovascular system can keep up with these demands, the exercise is said to be aerobic. When the demands of the exercise exceed cardiovascular capacity, the exercise is anaerobic, and the metabolic steps change forcing the cells to tap energy stored in the form of glycogen from other body tissues. This process produces waste products in the form of toxins, and once the accumulated toxins reach saturation point, the muscle can’t keep working. Such anaerobic exercise is especially good at raising the capacity of the cardiovascular system, and it burns fat for energy, an essential element in weight loss. However toxin removal systems must be kept at peak performance levels also for them to be at their most effective. Deep breathing ensures that the lymphatic toxin removal systems are maintained, and encourages the burning of fat to continue long after exercise, into daily low-demand activities.

Stimulating the Lymphatic System

Breathing serves as the pump for the lymphatic system, just as the heart serves the circulatory system. Your cells must have oxygen to survive moment to moment. To thrive, they rely on a complex exchange between the circulatory system and the lymphatic system. Blood flow carries nutrients and ample amounts of oxygen into the capillaries, while a healthy lymphatic system carries away destructive toxins. Proper breathing is the moderator of this exchange.

The lymphatic system could be likened to the body’s sewer system. Lymph vessels form a drainage system throughout the body. Our cells swim in an ocean of lymphatic fluid that carries away the derbis of our immune system, including dead white blood cells, unused plasma protein and toxins. Blood is pumped around the body by the heart, transporting nutrients and oxygen to the cells. Once the cells have absorbed what they need, they excrete debris and toxins, which then get flushed and deactivated by lymphatic fluid. But unlike your circulatory system, your lymph system does not have a built-in pump. It relies on the act of breathing and bodily movement to move all that waste fluid around.

The consequence of a sluggish lymphatic system is that you cannot detoxify properly. And if you aren’t breathing deeply or moving regularly, chances are your lymph fluid is not flowing as well as it could. This can lead to health concerns over time, including weight gain, muscle loss, high blood pressure, fatigue and inflammation. There is a wise saying to ‘pay yourself first’. So often we make time for everyone else, rising to meet the demands of others before we nurture ourselves. Learning how to breathe more fully and deeply is a meaningful and vital way to honor yourself and your miraculous life. By taking the time to really pay attention to the inhalation and exhalation that supports your life, you will slowly and surely move toward being healthier and happier.

Article www.womentowomen.com

Nirvana is an uplifting blend of Yoga Stretch, Pilates Toning and Rhythmic Breathing exercises set to specially composed music and designed to de-stress, detox and holistically reset our metabolism. Regular Nirvana Fit workouts will alleviate and improve many of the common ailments and stress related symptoms and behavior that we have taken for granted as 'normal', when in fact it is a clear signal from the body for help and relief. Dancevault runs Nirvana Fit weekly. Please like our page FB.com/Dancevaultstudios or refer our website www.dancevaultstudios.com for Nirvana Fit schedules.