LPT Medical lists a technique which is calls Stop, Rest, Continue.  I had never considered this a technique.  This is one of the first techniques that people use to help them cope with being short of breath.  6 Effective Breathing Techniques and Exercises for COPD (lptmedical.com)

The above link also explains the remaining techniques discussed today.  LPT lists coordinated breathing as a type of breathing technique.  Most gyms and I as a physical education major learned this technique which says that you exhale during the effort part of an exercise.  I was taught to do this like pursed lip breathing in that we inhaled through the nose and exhaled through pursed lips.  If we are doing crunches, we would exhale on the way up and inhale on the way down.

Another breathing technique which is like coordinated breathing is learned in yoga.  Yoga teaches us to inhale during chest expanding moves and exhale during chest contracting moves.  An example would be the cat-cow sequence.  Cat-Cow Pose for Beginners: Yoga Tutorial ( Health Tips) – Bing video

Deep breathing is also discussed by LPT.  This technique met with some negative reviews when it was proposed to cure asthma, but if used to help control your breathing it is a particularly good technique.  The idea is to inhale all the air that you can and then hold for a few counts or seconds and exhale all the air that you can and hold for a few seconds.  Another technique termed controlled breathing or deep breathing adds a little twist.  You inhale all that you think that you can and while you hold you take three small added inhales.  When you exhale all that, you think that you can, you will then use your abdominal muscles to attempt to blow three extra exhales.

There are also methods that resist your inhale using a device to build up the muscles used in breathing.  The problem with this breathing technique for people with COPD is that getting air in is not our problem but getting air out.  Another way of thinking of it is that anything that builds respiratory capacity cannot be bad.

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