Where Does It Come From? — Standing Deep Breathing

Over the years, we have written about the history of various postures and practices in modern yoga. We have talked about how the postures change over the decades or centuries, and to the best of our knowledge where they come from.

​Now we would like to continue that work but in a more systematic fashion. Because Bikram's class of 26 postures is so well-known, and so deeply systematized, it is an obvious place to begin. So we will be going through the postures in Bikram's class and discussing where they come from and how they've developed. Of course, there are many other practices in yoga. Please let us know which postures and practices you might like us to investigate and explore. 

Let's start with Standing Deep Breathing. This is a deep breathing exercise that sometimes gets called pranayama. The name pranayama makes this seem like an old yogic practice, which it is not. Pre-modern yogic breathing is intended to slow and stop the breath. This Standing Deep Breathing is better understood as a breathing exercise, meant to improve our ability to breathe, to breathe deeply, to improve the health of the lungs and importantly to get more oxygen into the body. (We wrote about the Oxygenation Myth here: the-oxygenation-myth.html.)

Yogic breathing practices were never concerned with oxygenation per se, since oxygen was not discovered as such until 1774. They were also not interested in increasing the vital capacity of the lungs or tissues by breathing in the air. To the contrary, yogic pranayama is primarily interested in stopping the breath so that we can illuminate and witness the eternal spirit within. In other words, this Standing Deep Breathing practice reflects modern concerns with physical health. This is similar to many modern postures. In this case, it reflects the tuberculosis epidemic that plagued Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries. Tuberculosis and other air-borne diseases were known to affect the lungs, so certain techniques developed to strengthen the lungs and improve their health. ​

At the turn of the 20th century, an important proponent of deep breathing was Eustace Miles. He "presents a full and deep breath as one of the pillars of ‘better breathing’: the ability to ‘take in more oxygen and vitality at each inward breath, and to get rid of more carbonic acid, more fatigue stuff, at each outward breath’" (Addinall 2024).

Eustace Miles

Miles and other health leaders emphasized the importance of taking big breaths, full breaths, and breathing fresh clean air. They also differentiated between the lower, middle and upper areas of the lungs in order to keep every area circulating to prevent bacteria from settling in a stagnant, unused part. 

So the central elements of Standing Deep Breathing (according to Bikram Choudhury) — taking big breaths, moving lots of air, strengthening the lungs, oxygenating the body — come from turn of the century health practices that were developed in response to tuberculosis.

From JP Muller

What about the neck bending parts of Standing Deep Breathing? The neck bends forward and backward with each breath, the knuckles pressing against the chin. 

It is difficult to find a precedent for this practice in premodern sources. Even in modern yoga, with its thousands of postures, this neck-pressing exercise is unique. The only example we have seen comes from early 20th century physical culturist JP Muller. 

Muller is well known to yoga historians. His practices, developed from his military training and evolved to aid the health of the masses, were influential on modern yoga teachers, from Yogendra to Ghosh to Krishnamacharya. In one of his manuals, pictured here, he instructs exercises that move the neck in many directions. This includes neck extension (backwards) with the knuckles against the bottom of the chin. 

Admittedly, this is not part of a deep breathing exercise. And Muller actually instructs it opposite to Choudhury. Muller says to drop the chin down while resisting with the knuckles, while Choudhury drops the head back, assisting by pushing with the hands. But the resemblance is undeniable, especially considering the rarity of this kind of body position.

CONCLUSION
What can we understand about Standing Deep Breathing, then? The combination of deep breathing with knuckle-aided neck extension seems to be an innovation of Choudhury. (We have seen no evidence of Ghosh or his other students instructing or practicing like this.) Both elements of the practice seem to come directly from turn of the century physical culture.