Breathing Exercises for Asthma : Evidence and Practice

Video interventionActive video teaching hypoventilation, prolonged expirationand nasal breathing techniques• Nasal route of breathing (“gentle breathing”)• Hypoventilation (“awareness of reduced breath”)• Breath hold at FRC (“breath check”) Control video teaching non-specific exercises :• Forward curl, arm raise, good posture and relaxation Each video included a demonstrated exercise session of 20minutes which subjects watched daily and performed theexercises for 20 minutes twice daily during the wholetreatment period (weeks 0 to 30) Advised to use the exercises as needed for the relief ofsymptoms in place of reliever medication. If the exercises didnot relieve symptoms, reliever medication was to be used