This blog post of an exclusive excerpt from my new book, The Physiology of Yoga.
Ujjayi pranayama is a breathing technique used in many styles of yoga. It means victorious breath or is often referred to as ocean breathing. There are so many pseudoscientific-sounding benefits to ujjayi breathing out there! Read on to find out about the anatomy and physiology of this technique.
The Adam’s apple—the bump in the front of the neck that is more prominent in men—is formed of the thyroid cartilage, which is connected to the larynx, or voice box. Within the voice box are the vocal folds, commonly referred to as the vocal cords (figure 3.8 below). During relaxed breathing, the vocal folds will be opened, or abducted. The space between the vocal folds, where the air passes, is called the glottis. During voiced phonation, which is the process of producing sound for speaking or singing, the vocal folds touch together (they are adducted) and vibrate, thus creating sound as the air rushes past them.
Biomechanically, ujjayi is the same thing as whispering. With whispering, the vocal folds open to just about 25% of maximal opening, usually forming a small triangle at the posterior aspect (Ball and Rahilly 2003). During whispering, airflow is strongly turbulent, which creates the hushing sound we know.
Vocal folds and glottis during ujjayi breathing
Partially constricting the airway with ujjayi breathing (whispering) helps to create a steadier degree of intra-abdominal pressure (IAP). Additionally, air friction creates heat so the larynx might heat up slightly. Finally, if ujjayi is maintained on the inhalation, which is certainly possible, the diaphragm will have to work harder to contract and draw air in while the expiratory muscles—that is, the deep abdominal muscles—might have to engage during the exhalation. All these factors will certainly help to, as many teachers say, create heat on the inside.
Ujjayi breathing is not exclusive to yogis. People use ujjayi breathing—or airway constriction with the means of increasing IAP—without ever hearing its name or attending a yoga class. During core work like double leg raises, when you want your intra-abdominal pressure steady, even nonyogis frequently switch on ujjayi breathing. The same can be true when someone is holding a heavy object.
In traditional ashtanga yoga, the practitioner is instructed to maintain ujjayi breathing from the beginning of the practice until the start of Savasana. As Kaminoff and Matthews point out in Yoga Anatomy, however, ujjayi breathing might not suit every yoga asana or every yoga style. They say, “Because the ultimate goal of yoga breath training is to free up the system from habitual, dysfunctional restrictions, the first thing we need to do is free ourselves from the idea that there is a single correct way to breathe” (Kaminoff and Matthews 2007, p. 20). Saying that yoga helps with dysfunctional restrictions, though, implies that some, or even many, of us have dysfunctional patterns.
What are the benefits of ujjayi?
The Internet is rife with pseudoscientific-sounding benefits to ujjayi breathing. The Wikipedia entry on ujjayi breathing, which lacks citations, claims the following: “This breathing technique enables the practitioner to maintain a rhythm to his or her practice, take in enough oxygen, and helps [sic] build energy to maintain the practice, while clearing toxins out of the bodily system”.
Ujjayi and pseudoscience
While it makes sense that ujjayi can help maintain a certain rhythm to one’s practice, the claims that it will also ensure you have enough oxygen and clear the “bodily system” do not have much of a scientific basis. As for blood oxygenation, ujjayi might reduce the amount of oxygen in our blood because of the slower inhalation but that is not a bad thing. As for detoxifying the body, detoxification is a cellular process that happens with the liver and lymphatic system, and, while evidence exists that shows exercise in general helps make our liver more efficient, there is no evidence or logic to ujjayi breathing significantly doing so.
Other logical benefits to ujjayi breathing include slowing down the breath, which can have a calming effect on the body; maintaining awareness of the breath as ujjayi requires a continuous conscious effort; and helping to create a steady degree of IAP, which stabilizes the spine and midsection, useful when practicing certain challenging asanas.
The right way to breathe depends on the task being performed, whether that is sprinting, relaxing, or practicing the primary series of ashtanga. So, ujjayi breathing would not suit all types of yoga or all asanas within each practice.
References:
Ball, M.J., and J. Rahilly. 2003. Phonetics: The Science of Speech. London: Arnold.
Kaminoff, L., and A. Matthews. 2007. Yoga Anatomy. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.