Crocodile Breathing with Ankle Weights

This exercise or technique is used to teach and train diaphragmatic breathing

Set-Up: Begin face down, so that your stomach is on the floor and place an ankle weight on the upper back and the lower back.  Place your forehead on your hands, both palms down, one covering the other. Make sure the chest and arms are relaxed, and you are as "flat" as you can get; your neck should be relaxed and comfortable.  You should feel that you are on your chest not on the edge of your ribs.

Action: Breathe in through the nose and feel the air move down past the chest into the "stomach". When this happens, you will feel the abdomen push out against the ground, this should happen naturally without you forcing your stomach out. You should feel the air “hit” the ankle weight on the lower back first avoiding the ankle weight on the upper back until the end of the inhale.

1. Take a nasal inhalation and exhalation. 
2. Nasal inhalation should be a low, slow 3 seconds  
3. Then a brief pause 
4. Nasal exhalation should be slow and full 4-6 seconds  
5. Then a longer pause (2-3 seconds) 
6. Then the next breath cycle 
7. The air should expand in a 360-degree fashion filling the “cylinder” of the abdomen.