Exercises for easier breathing

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With COPD, your lungs become stiff and overstretched, trapping air, which makes the diaphragm less efficient.

To compensate, your neck, shoulders, and back muscles try to help, but they don't do it very well. To retrain and strengthen your breathing muscles,

breathing exercises can help. Pulmonary rehab specialists often teach two useful breathing exercises to people with lung conditions like COPD,

pursed lip breathing and diaphragmatic, or belly, breathing. Pursed lip breathing is like blowing out the candles

on a birthday cake. It slows your breathing, decreasing the number of breaths you take, and keeps the airways open

longer so you can exhale more stale air. Diaphragmatic, or belly, breathing helps retrain and strengthen the diaphragm

so that it can do its job to help you breathe better. Belly breathing requires less effort and energy than using your shoulder, back, or neck muscles to breathe.

When you're doing these exercises, it helps to try to relax your neck and shoulders. It'll take time to learn these techniques.

But with practice, you'll get the hang of it. Get in the habit of doing each breathing technique 5 to 10 minutes every day at a time