Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “Pranayama”
By learning ‘breath-control’ exercises, know as Pranayama you can experience improved energy, health and longevity. If you haven’t practiced pranayama before, you may want to join Simon Borg-Olivier who teaches the proper techniques for these breathing exercises. Simon has over 50 years experience and is a qualified Physiotherapist. Simon teaches a technique that can increase oxygen uptake directly to the …
Simon’s recent Online Workshops cover a range of helpful topics for improving your Yoga and teaching skills. His most recent workshop is on the topic of Back Pain Relief where you will learn the most common causes of back pain and how to manage it through intelligently applied exercise-based physiotherapy founded on the techniques of traditional hatha yoga. We also have a …
Actually, HATHA YOGA is also known as the RIGHT HANDED PATH OF TANTRA. Are you really practising ASHTANGA YOGA or is it SAPTANGA YOGA ? HATHA YOGA = the RIGHT PATH OF TANTRA)? Here is a link to a great chat on these topics I just had with James Gopala on his podcast Gopala Yoga There are TWO SIDES OF …
The many benefits of abdominal self-massage, going for walk or maybe even doing mayurasana: The ability to relax the abdomen and especially the sides of the abdomen reflects a very healthy regular practice of abdominal or diaphragmatic breathing. Diaphragmatic breathing directly stimulates the immune system. One of the best places to learn diaphragmatic breathing is any of the variations of …
“It is only if you can somehow reduce your resting minute ventilation to less that one full breath per minute (or ideally one full breath every two or more minutes) that the benefits of this type of practice really begin to show up.” Simon Borg-Olivier. My regular morning breath-control sequence for the last few years is to very slowly breathe …
In this video (part 2) Simon talks about the benefits of holding your breath out. Here he demonstrates holding his breath completely out and practicing nauli (rectus abdominis isolation) and lauliki (abdominal churning using rectus abdominis as well as the oblique muscles) while expanding the chest as if inhaling to the chest but not actually inhaling. This practice, which is …
One of Simon’s most popular videos on YouTube Although there are many benefits to learning how to use all the muscles of breathing, and to learn to breathe in many ways, in over breathing (hyperventilation) can have significant physiological disadvantages while breathing in a relaxed and natural way and approaching under-breathing (mild hypoventilation) has the most physiological benefits. In this …
Here I am practicing the 8 main spinal movements underwater while holding my breath out. Underwater yoga has been a favourite pastime of mine since I was a kid. My father (George Borg-Olivier) was a freediver in the Mediterranean Sea and, when I was 6 years old, he taught me how to swim a lap of an olympic pool underwater …
Chest breathing can be extremely beneficially if done correctly but can also cause problems if done in a way that overstimulates the nervous system. Many people teach and practice to inhale into the chest, and to exhale from the lower abdomen, but clinical research using Real Time Ultrasound (RTU) has shown that about 90% of the average adult population cannot really breathe …
by Simon Borg-Olivier In this blog I want to discuss some points about Kundalini energy and Chakras. Much of the information available on the subject of Kundalini is esoteric and so not easy to justify with rational conventional science. I think the best explanation of the science of kundalini comes from Jana Dixon and her excellent book ‘The Biology of Kundalini”. …
