What is 80-20 breathing?
80-20 breathing is a breathing method used for the standing postures and backbending poses that allows practitioners to maintain and derive benefits from a posture in as relaxed a manner as possible. This method builds energy and equipoise for the posture. Exhalation breathing is used in forward bending postures to help relax the body, compress the digestive organs, and promote proper forward rotation of the pelvis (thereby protecting the lower back from strain.) 80-20: Start your posture with a deep breath, and with lifted ribs and firmed, stretched abdominals, hold the breath in as if you were about to dive into a pool. Then as you’re in the posture, breathe normally keeping your lungs 80% full. Exhale only the upper 20% of the breath and inhale into that upper 20%. This method of breathing is used in Half Moon, Awkward Pose, Eagle and the entire standing series (except Tree Pose and Toe Stand). Exhalation: For the forward bending postures, such as Pada-hastasana and standing separat
