Breathing and Yoga

[Blond37]

not sure if this is ok to post.. but has anyone tried breathing or yoga.. it work? sounds like snake oil to me!!

[mecch]

Breathing reduces panic and anxiety for me. There seems to be some biological basis for this calming effect.
Yoga helped me on so many levels in my 20's.
What do you mean, "it work?".  Nothing like this is gonna cure the AIDS.

[Nestor]

Like Mecch, I'm wondering what you mean by "works" and what part of it sounds like snake oil.  If someone claimed miraculous curative results from minor actions, that would be a snake-oil-like claim.  

The serious claims for yoga are:  

1. Increased flexibility and better posture
2. Increased blood flow to various parts of the body
3. Massages various internal organs
4. Reduced stress in the medical sense of less cortisol.  

I have tried yoga at various times in my life and wish I had the sort of discipline that would be required to do it more seriously.  I would caution you or anyone else to do it carefully, slowly, and without straining--I hurt my knee rather seriously by trying to force my body into a pose that it was not ready for.  

Here in New York where I live, there are several free yoga classes devoted specifically to the needs of people with HIV.  The two that I have frequented are at the Integral Yoga center (1:00 on Saturday) and at the Iyengar Yoga Institute (noon on Friday).  Each has a devoted and enthusiastic following of healthy HIV-positive people.  

This article: http://www.yogajournal.com/health/581 describes some of the claims made for yoga's benefits for people with HIV.

[zach]

i tried breathing once, but i didn't inhale  seriously though, breathing is much better than suffocating

[sharkdiver]

    Most of what is practiced in the Western Part of the World is the physical or asana branch of yoga. The asanas or poses were designed to prepare yourself for meditation. I've been a yogi for several decades and it has helped me center and calm myself in times of great stress.
    If you are going to try an asana practice, find a teacher that has a lot of experience, goes slowly and is hands-on. It's not a contest and many of the poses you see in books are for advanced practitioners and some may not be right for your body. Kundalini yoga works on breath work and repetitive movement and I believed it helped me with my lung issues (of course there is a lot of chanting in it, so it might not be for you0. Hey there are even naked yoga classes.
  
   Satnam and namanasty,
Shark