Three Breathing Techniques for Relaxation

When practicing circle breathing techniques for mental and physical relaxation, it is important to breath in through the nose and out through the mouth, to pause slightly between each breath, and to exhale longer than the inhale. Use these breathing techniques to regain focus with advice from a sport psychologist in this video on horseback riding techniques.

Hi I'm Tonya Johnston. I'm a Sport Psychology Consultant and it's my job to help riders be psychologically prepared and mentally tough. In this segment we're going to look at circle breathing for relaxation. Obviously we need energy to ride but too much can be distracting, can create tension in our muscles and can be something that really inhibits our performance. By having some techniques that help you get relaxed to let off some steam whether it's at home or at a horse show, you can really be more prepared and equipped to get your energy where it needs to be for you to ride your best. Circle breathing is one of these. This is a basic fundamental technique that can be used for many other things as well but we'll talk about how you can help regulate your energy. There are three basics when circle breathing. Number one, you want to be breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth so we are creating a circle, in through your nose and out through your mouth. There's also a small pause between the inhale and the exhale. Now this doesn't mean we inhale and then hold our breath. It should be gentle, patient and relaxed. The third key is exhaling for longer than you inhaled. So let's take a circle breath together. Sit in a position where your body is even in your chair. You want to breath in slowly through your mouth and inhale, one, two, three and pause, one, two and exhale, two, three, four. Good. This breathing technique is something that you would do at the walk perhaps on your horse or at the halt like waiting at the back gait before you went in the show ring or certainly any time you're on the ground and feeling like you have too much energy and need to let some steam off. This is not the kind of thing that you would do on course or at the trot and canter because it takes your awareness to internal. Use circle breathing to get your energy where it needs to be. It's a quick and effective tool and the more you use it the better off you will be as far as the success you will have with it. Try and find times in your everyday life to manage your energy and you'll be that much more skilled when you're on your horse as well.