Ujjayi Pranayama – To Cure Snoring, Manage Asthma and A Healthy Thyroid Gland

Ujjayi pranayama is the last, but not the least, among recommended 7 simple breathing exercises that daily practice of Pranayama involves.

Pranayama is the art of conscious breathing. All it takes is a small investment of 20 minutes a day to reap the amazing benefits that practice of pranayama has to offer.

Benefits of Ujjayi pranayama:

Ujjayi Pranayama invloves constriction of throat during inhalation. The sound, heat and vibrations generated due to the constriction work on thyroid gland to restore it to its healthy state. As thyroid controls how quickly the body burns energy, makes proteins, and controls how sensitive the body should be to other hormones, a healthy thyroid is imperative for an overall healthy body.

Thyroid gland also plays a vital role in controlling metabolism(BMR), thus, Ujjayi pranayama may indirectly help both overweight and underweight practitioners to achieve a desirable, healthier weight.

Ujjayi pranayama, in due course of time, also cures the problem of snoring – and in doing so, might save some relationships

Besides all these benefits, Ujjayi pranayama is extremely efective in management of Asthma as well as all issues related to heart. It also works well on Tonsillitis and might help avoid a tonsillectomy.

Precautions:

All pranayama should be done on empty stomach. Having a gap of 5 hours after a full meal is advised. For this reason, Best time for pranayama is early morning after freshening up.

Besides being on empty stomach, there are no other restrictions for Ujjayi pranayama. Everybody can do it under certain limits explained in next section. Nevertheless, those suffering from Asthma should take it easy and progress gradually, and comfortably.

How much of Ujjayi Pranayama:

To maintain good health, start with 3 repetitions of Ujjayi pranayama and increase the repetitions slowly, and comfortably, upto a maximum of 11. It is easy to do 3 repetitions in less than 2 minutes. During early days of Ujjayi practice, mild coughing sensation is normal and expected but it would go away soon. Nothing to be worried about.

Those seeking a cure for problems referred above should start with 3 repetitions like everybody else but try to reach upto 11, comfortable repetitions soon.

How to do Ujjayi:

• Sit comfortably but erect; either in Sukhasana or Padmasana. If either of these is not possible; you might use a chair with straight back. If a chair is not feasible either, doing it lying down works fine as well. Either way, keep your back straight and eyes closed.

• Constrict your throat to lengthen and lighten the inhalation. Now, inhalation would produce a sound like ujjayi  sound.
• Producing the ujjayi sound, inhale slowly, through both nostrils to lung’s capacity.
• While exhaling, close right nostril with right thumb and exhale through left nostril only.
• Repeat this cycle at least 3 times. Here is a visual demonstration of Ujjayi pranayama by Swami Ramdev. The language of video is Hindi but having read the description above, it should be easy to follow. 0:55 – 01:29 and 01:52 – 2:22 are two prime areas of importance.