| | Selected Past Issues: Sound
Like You Mean Business
Get Any Audience To Love
And Admire You
Improve Your Breathing
Breaking
Bad News |
Are You a Superficial Breather?
Take this
test to find out!By Susan Berkley
Voice Mastery and Vocal Persuasion for Professionals Involved in Public Speaking.
copyright 2001, The Great Voice Company | All Rights
Reserved
Superficial breathing undermines your performance
whether you are a public speaker, voiceover artist or anyone who wants to sound
his or her best. In order to breathe properly for good speaking (and good health),
respiratory therapist Peggy Nicholson, a leading expert on proper breathing technique,
advises us to breathe deeply from the abdomen or diaphragm whenever possible.
Most people, unfortunately, have no idea what this means. Find Your DiaphragmPlace
one hand on the upper portion of the stomach just a few inches above the navel
but below the breast bone. Sniff in several small inhalations per breath through
the nose. The movement in that area is the diaphragm working at its best. Test
Your Breathing TechniqueThe next time you feel stressed place one
hand on your upper chest and the other on your stomach. If you are breathing correctly
(diaphragmatically) your stomach should feel as if it is expanding (filling up,
as if with air). But if your chest is rising you are breathing superficially. Why
Is Superficial Breathing So Harmful?The average breath rate is 12-15 times
per minute and many of us breathe faster than that. Rapid, shallow breathing can
reduce the level of carbon dioxide in the blood which causes the arteries to constrict,
reducing the flow of blood throughout the body. When this constriction occurs,
even though the lungs are breathing in more oxygen than the body needs, the brain
and body will experience a shortage of oxygen. This lack of oxygen can play havoc
with the sympathetic nervous system, making us feel tense or anxious and less
likely to think clearly. How To Breathe From The Diaphragm -
Place one hand just above your stomach and the other on your upper chest. -
Purse lips slightly as if to whistle. -
Exhale slowly through pursed
lips while slightly contracting the stomach muscles. Its not necessary to force
all the air out. -
Inhale slowly through the nose. -
Pause
slightly to allow for better oxygen exchange in the lungs. -
Repeat.
Exhalation should be slightly longer than inhalation. The diaphragm
should do at least 80% of the work of breathing. In order for you to get the most
out of this magnificent muscle, you should practice regularly several times a
day to ensure that you are not breathing superficially from your upper chest.
An Easy Way to Improve Breath Support For Better Breathing I recently
discovered a wonderful, inexpensive and deceptively simple little device that
can help improve and strengthen breathing muscles in only minutes per day. Its
called The Breather®. The Breather® is a resistive
training device originally developed for hospital use, but can be useful for anyone
who would benefit from better breath control: - Public speakers who
must have tremendous breath control to speak with poise, clarity, and self-confidence.
- Vocalists and voiceover artists who need good breath control to
eliminate pauses between phrases.
- Musicians who need to increase
their ability for accurate, longer tones.
- Athletes who depend
on lung power and endurance.
- Asthmatics who would like to increase
lung capacity.
The Breather®
fits into the palm of your hand and looks kind of like a kazoo. There's a mouthpiece
you breathe into on one end and two dials you turn to increase resistance on the
other. The principle of the intake of air and the release of air against resistance
is essentially the same principle used in weight training. The Breather®
is weight training for your respiratory muscles. As a voiceover artist and
public speaker I consider myself a person with pretty good lung capacity. When
I got The Breather® I cranked it up to maximum resistance and tried
it out. Boy, was I wrong!! My lungs got a real workout! It only takes a couple
of minutes a day and I can already feel the difference. Because I think you too
will benefit from this cool little device I've made it available to you. Check
it out in the "voice care" section
of our website or call 800-333-8108 for more information.
 |
The Breather® |
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| Resistive Breathing Training Device $29.95 |
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