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| Who can tell in what distinction Bhastrika and kapalabhati.
Thanks.
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| Bhastrika is a mix of Kapalabhati and Ujjayi prananyama. One should practice kapalabhathi inorder to practice Bhastrika.
I have practiced Ujai and Kapalabhathi. But not Bhastrika. You can learn more details from this site
http://www.yoga-age.com/asanas/prana.html
Hope it helps you |
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| Kapalabhati is done with forceful exhalation by contracting abdominal muscles. Bhastrika on the other hand is done mainly by lungs. Abdominal muscles do not forcefully exhale air in Bhastrika. In Kapalabhati exhalation is very forceful and inhalation is mild and natural. As against this in Bhastrika inhalation as well as exhalation are powerful. You can perform Bhastrika in three ways - slow, medium and fast.
As per classic text - "Hathayoga Pradipika" Kapalabhati is treated as "cleansing kriya" where as Bhastrika ia one type of Pranayama.
Kapalabhati is recommended for balancing "kapha" dosha where as Bhastrika balances all the three (Kapha, Vata and Pitta) doshas.
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Location: London, England | Hi Bipinjoshi,
"Bhastrika on the other hand is done mainly by lungs"
The lungs aren't muscles, so it is not them that are doing anything! Also, if you are exhaling forcefully, it is difficult to imagine not using the abdominals-they are the muscles of exhalation. It used to be thought that they were only active during forceful exhalation, but recent evidence suggests that they may be active even during quiet breathing.
Take care,
Nick |
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| >The lungs aren't muscles, so it is not them that are doing anything!
Agree. Lungs are not muscles but it is the lung intake capacity that matters. Anybody who practices can make out how the lung capacity increases over a period of time. In Bhastrika it is the lungs that are filled completely. Ever seen bellows of blacksmith? Bhastrika exactly does that to lungs.
>Also, if you are exhaling forcefully, it is difficult to imagine not using the abdominals-they are the muscles of exhalation.
I am referring to the amount of force you apply in Kapalabhati and Bhastrika. In Kapalabhati you exhale forcefully by abdominal muscles where as in Bhastrika more power of lungs and chest muscles is used.
It is also worth to note that there are variations of these techniques being practiced by many people. What I mentioned and follow is classic way of doing them.
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Location: London, England | Hi Bipinjoshi,
I agree, the lung capacity does seem to increase-but it is probably true that the apparent increase is due to a number of factors-if the lung capacity does indeed increase, then I would think that there has been a decease due to age, diease, smoking which has produced scar tissue.
If we can compare the lungs to the bellows of a blacksmith, which in reality we can't, then you will see that the material of the bellows cannot be stretched without breaking it-anyway the analogy does not hold. A suitable analogy is to take the bottom off a bell jar and replace it with an elastic sheet, which represents the diaphragm. put a straw throught the sealed top and attach a balloon(which represents the lungs) to the straw in the jar. As you pull on the elastic sheet, the balloon will fill with air. hope you don't mind me making these observations, but they are true.
Take care
Nick |
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| Hi Nick,
During the week end I managed to join a Yoga workshop and there I practiced Bhastrika. But I felt too tired after that.. I mean really tired., Is it normal., or I dont know something wrong.
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Location: London, England | Hi Thushara,
"During the week end I managed to join a Yoga workshop and there I practiced Bhastrika. But I felt too tired after that.. I mean really tired., Is it normal., or I dont know something wrong."
I would be lying if I could give you a straight answer, because there could be many causes-for instance, yoga and breathing increase self-awareness, so it could be that the bhastrika practice merely exposed how you already felt-weekends are for a purpose! Yoga workshops can be shattering in themselves unles you already have a strong daily practice.
But let's just assume that it was bhastrika which tired you-Bhastrika is quite an advanced breatrhing technique, which, if we are not prepared for, or do inefficiently, can be very demanding.Even when you know what you are doing it can be very demanding!
When done properly, the sound that is made is very smooth, and sounds like there are no restrictions from the joints and muscles which allow us to breathe at a higher rate. However, most people do have restrictions, so whilst you are learning, take a soft approach to learning bhastrika so that you can jump the hurdles that are presented by it more smoothly. It is a bit like a newly-tarmacced road which does not offer so many bumps-practicing bhastrika methodically will iron out rerstrictions-but I think concentrate on ujjaiy pranayama intitially, with some bhastrika thrown in. Do not let the facial and jaw muscles tighten-tongue to the roof of the mouth. Listen to the sound you are making-it should sound somewhat like a saw going through wood-when an expert saws, the action is smooth and uninterrupted-try to get rid of any pause at the end of each exhale/inhale.
A good bhastrika practice should have the the effect of making us less tired-because the breathing muscles are stronger, they can cope more easily with the demands of breathing all day, both quietly and during exercise-to use an analogy, a strong bicep will not tire so quickly of lifting a barbell, but a weak bicep will start to get tired sooner, and the action will become wobbly more quickly. It is important to breathe efficiently, and to possess a breathing apparatus which responds optimally to the demands of your life-a good pranayama practice should help you do this.
Hope that helps, I realize that I haven't done the subject justice, will get back to you if I can!!
Take care
Nick |
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| Thushara:Hi Nick,During the week end I managed to join a Yoga workshop and there I practiced Bhastrika. But I felt too tired after that.. I mean really tired., Is it normal., or I dont know something wrong.
===> Dear Thushara: Of course, you did something wrong! It is OK to have a weekend workshop to learn the Bhastrika. But, to do it quite a lot is NOT a Yoga Practice at all. Anything you do such as this, I mean do a lot, whether it is Bhastrika, Yoga Exercise of any style, office work, or eating, all that shall make you tired. That is normal. To go further, doing too much whether it is on a weekend or regularly, is harmful.
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| Thank you so much Nick for the reply. Yes this is the first time I practiced it., And didn’t have a good daily practice for quite a some time other than some poses., I didn’t practice pranayama lately (at all.), To tell you the truth I couldn’t keep up with the teacher in the workshop when practicing it.
Thanks Kulkarnn too So nice talking to you after long time.. It was not a lot ., But I did for the 1st time., May be I was not ready for it., Im thinking of continuing to the next week tooo..
Yes I accept your advise., you are very correct anything too much is not good., But unfortunately work wise… I cant do anything about it.. its always too much ? and now I have toooo much of work pressure, dunno what to do ? that’s one reason I went for the work shop
Edited by Thushara 2006-04-24 8:19 AM
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Location: London, England | Hi Thushara,
Personally I take the following approach to pranayama. I'm only going to look at pranayama from one level, and that is, that we practice in a way that is, at the very least, ultimatrely beneficial for our physical health. Hopefully this means optimum benefit for our spiritual wellness also.
In training the various techniques of pranayama, we are affecting the movement of the thoracic cage, which suppports and influnces the position and function of the heart and lungs. the position of the thoracic cage aslo directly influnces the position of the neck and head, and the resulting posture and movement of the arms is affected by the support form the thoracic cage.
In ujjayi pranayama, we test the compliance of the rib cage-that is, the ease with which the joints of the ribs and thoracic spine travel through their physiological range of motion. In order to obtain the correct movement it is useful to get a theraband and tie it around the lower rib cage. Try to breathe outwards against the band and allow the diaphragm muscle to lft up the lower rib cage, around the back also, which then helps to position the lower back as it is pulled by the diaphragm into alignment which allows greater freedom and therefore compliance of the thoracic cage. in this way, the movement of the whole body is one in which arcs of movement are used to allow more optimal breathing. this includes the postion used to meditate in, as well as in our yoga practice.
As far as I can see, any other type of pranayama can only be healthy if it makes the good function set up by using ujjayi pranayama more optimal, not less. I witness many people only doing disservice to their function by using all types of supposed breathing training to de-optimize their good function. That's a word of caution-be careful in the way you breathe in yoga or in pranayama, because breathing is an exstremely complex event, but is also one which is reflexive. i think that it is possible that by training our breathing we can perhaps go into unchanted territory-if the habits we gain are not good for us-well, you know how hard it can be to break bad habits! 
Take care
Nick |
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Bhastrika and kapalabhati
