Whatever is transcribed here is based on personal analysis and research, and not endorsed or found in any standard texts. So buyer of this information is subject to Caveat Emptor and I hold no liability to anyone claiming to have been misled by the information published herewith. Please do not copy this information without prior written permission.
Kapal Bhati is one of the most powerful Pranayamas. Till I get time to demonstrate it, please check some video by Ramdev or by someone in Youtube.
Still I would note down the steps to do this Pranayama.
1. Sit in Padmaasan, Sukha, Siddha or Vajra Aasan - cross-leg-ed or Lotus Posture and make sure your back is as straight as possible. There should be no forward looking curvature of the spine and the stomach should be free to move without any obstruction. Vajra Aasan is the best as it keeps the spin straight and backwards, and keeps the stomach loose from any constraints.
2. Do not use any chest, neck or nose muscles to do the breathing. This would be difficult in beginning but try to make a conscious effort. Over time this would become a second nature with practice.
3. Try to expand your stomach/belly slowly as much as you can and see the air rush in slowly. This would be the inhalation part. In Kapalbhati this is suppose to happen when one focuses on contraction, which is for exhalation.
4. Then contract your stomach/belly slowly as much as you can and see the air rush out slowly. This would be the exhalation part.
5. Over the time, try to increase the pace between the expansion and the contraction of the stomach/belly. This is difficult in the beginning but over the time this would become easy.
6. Please make sure that the contraction is done in a sudden jerk and the expansion is done slightly slowly. Exhalations should be relatively faster and Contractions should be relatively slower. Later the combination of the pace of the expansion and the contraction can be varied with practice.
7. Some people would find the contracting of tummy/stomach first easier, and then expanding it loose. So they can throw the air out and contract their stomach/belly first and then relax or expanding the stomach/belly muscles to let the air in, and repeat this cycle. Others would find the expansion of the stomach first easier, and that would be the ideal way to start, as mentioned in steps 3 and 4. In a continuous cycle of breathing in and out, it does not matter which comes first, breathing in with the contraction of stomach or breathing out with the tightening of stomach.
8. Make sure you do not raise your collar bones or move your spine go forward and backward in this process of the exhalation and the inhalation.
9. Do 25 in rapid cycle, then hold air as long as you can - with or without nostrils closed with right hand thumb and index finger - as part of Antariya Kumbha, and close your eyes and focus on your stomach. Slowly raise this cycle to 50 rounds and then to 100 rounds, and later on to 500 rounds. Later after some years, one may be able to continuously do 1000 rounds in one cycle and then hold his breath for longer time. Without closing nostrils, it is easier to hold breath for longer time but their is more benefit of holding breath with the nostrils closed.
Do Not:
1. Wait for 1 hour after food before doing Kapal-bhati - at least not very hard but may try slowly and see if there is any burning or painful sensation in the upper digestive tract.
2. If there is any heart or chest pain, please do not do this. Heart, Brain Trauma, and Hernia Patients should be very careful and pay special attention when doing this exercise.
3. Patients with digestive disorders should be careful and make sure they they do not hurt themselves.
4. Pregnant women should NOT do Kapal-bhati.
5. Menstruating women should consult their doctor before doing this, specially in early days of heavy bleeding as one may loose a lot of blood. They can try doing this as later part of their period, and it should help get rid of dead tissues and cleanup the uterus.
6. If you had a recent surgery please do NOT do this exercise.
7. If you are taking any medication that you think affects your breathing, respiration, blood circulation, metabolism, kidneys, liver, spleen, gall-bladder, cardio-vascular and nervous system, please consult your doctor.
8. People with Pulmonary, Middle and Inner Ear, Vertigo, Dizziness, and Eye/Retina/Glucoma issues should be careful.
Most of the time it is my opinion that individuals are fine if they listen to your body and notice any first sign of warning or protest from the body, before continuing in the path of doing anything that you think may hurt you. You are your best judge.
Medical Benefits:
1. Loose belly and make the stomach flat and taut.
2. Food is digested fast as gastric juices are mixed well with the food - like cooking - and assisting Peristalsis of organs in the digestive track.
3. Feces is passed fast.
4. Flatulence is cleared.
5. Urination happens fast.
6. Internal organs like Liver, Kidneys, Spleen and Gallbladder are massaged - helping stimulation of the organs as well as cleansing of toxic.
7. Increased Oxygen Level which helps increased energy levels and metabolism rate.
8. Fat and Cholesterol is burnt faster because of increased metabolism.
9. Increased Osmotic Pressure acts like a blast cleansing process, where toxins in blood are burnt.
10. Skin is cleared up of toxic and one can feel that skin is oozing out some gases - like the feeling in perspiration but with more intensity.
11. Some people may feel that their body is electrified and going through involuntary jerks. Later they can direct these jerks consciously with their thoughts with practice.
12. Helps in singing as one's capacity to hold and blow air improves - helping in maintaining a pitch and not needing as many pauses to take breath. Wondered how Shankar Mahadevan does a breath-less singing?
13. Because of "storage" effect, blood is more richer in oxygen, and one can hold one's breath for longer time, which helps swimming.
14. Respiratory Tract infections, like Cough, Cold, Bronchitis, Influenza and Tuberculosis get treated as the stress cycle of intense oxygenation and intense oxygen deprivation kills bacterial and viral infections. One can get rid of cold and infection, but land up with lost voice for a day!
14. Skin starts glowing and becomes clearer, smooth and shiny. Their is a radiance on the face which is what meant by the word "Kapal Bhati", the Face-Shine literally.
15. When one does Kapalbhati very fast, one can come to a resonance frequency of the stomach and the alimentary canals tract that suddenly the stomach will collapse on itself and one will not be able to exert any more pressure or force on the stomach muscles for those seconds, just like when an earthquake comes, the earth becomes a wave of liquid or powder particles, and it can not bear any thing solid, which causes so much of structural damage, besides shearing and swaying forces. So all the dirt and fat accumulation inside the linings of the alimentary canal would be cleaned up. The next day when one passes the stool, one would notice something "liquid fat" droplets. The same principle is used for cleaning surfaces, de-greasing, de-painting, and dentists use Ultrasound scalpel to clean teeth and at the same time create pressured water spray.
Also, see my article on Hyperberic Oxygen Therapy (coming soon) and based on this finding, apparently some newer benefits that I can think of are:
a. Stem Cells count goes up in the bone marrow.
b. Healing becomes faster
c. Bacterial and viral infections are cured
d. Newer blood vessels are formed, specially around the damaged areas in the brain and other parts of the body.
e. Stress does also leads to damages in the brain tissue, besides other complications, and research has found that by increasing ATP (Adenosine Tri Phosphate) metabolism, important for aerobic energy production, the damages can be prevented. Since oxygen is an important part of the equation, increased levels of Oxygen delivery alleviates the harm. Please see my posting on Stress (Stress And Yoga Mmeditation Can Help It and the video referenced there.
Over a period of time, one would find that one has developed a lot of Muscle control over Abdominal Muscles and also between the Eyes and inside the Nostrils and Thoriac Passage. Some may call it "awake-ning"of "local Chakaras" but whatever it may be called, it helps one accelerate the excretion of feaces faster and voluntarily. One can literally churn the Alimentary canal with different Pectoral Muscles Combinations. It is my observation, that after one thinks that one is done with the business of ablution, there is 40% more matter left to be excreted sometimes! This is why Pranayama is also called a Kriya or Cleansing Exercise.
In another form of Pranayama, it is my observation, that one can literally vaporize ones solid waste into voluntary flatulence discharges. Perhaps this is one of the reasons, that some of the Yogis bodies have not decomposed very rapidly in comparison to other normal people - and hence busting the myth of "divine" intervention.
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