Ujjayi, the ocean breath

How to do it

1. Sit tall, with your shoulders relaxed and your face soft.
2. Find the sound first. Open your mouth and breathe out as if you were fogging up a window: a soft haaa that comes from the throat, not the lips.
3. Close your mouth and breathe out again with your throat the same way. Now you hear that same hush on the inside, as the air leaves through your nose.
4. Breathe in through your nose for 5 seconds with the same hush, a little lighter. The air comes in slowly because the passage is narrow.
5. Breathe out through your nose for 7 seconds, with an even sound from start to finish, like a wave pulling back.
6. Keep the sound low: you hear it, the person across the room doesn't. If it rasps or makes you cough, loosen your throat.
7. Each breath takes 12 seconds. Keep going for 5 minutes, which is 25 breaths. To finish, release your throat and breathe silently for half a minute.

What ujjayi is

It's a breath through the nose with a small resistance in the throat. When you slightly narrow the glottis, the opening between the vocal cords, the air moves more slowly and makes a continuous whisper. That sound is what sets it apart: in every other slow breath the air passes in silence.

The count on this page is a 5-second inhale and a 7-second exhale, with no pauses: five breaths a minute. The slightly longer exhale puts it close to the calming breaths. The sound puts it close to bhramari, the bee breath, although there the vocal cords hum and here the air just brushes past.

Where it comes from

Ujjayi appears in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the hatha yoga manual Svatmarama composed in the 15th century, as one of its breath retentions. Verses 2.51 to 2.53 say to close off the throat passage and draw the air in so that it brushes from the throat to the chest and makes a noise. Then you hold it and let it out through the left nostril. The text adds that it can be done in any condition, even while walking or sitting.

The name is usually translated as the victorious one. B. K. S. Iyengar explains it in Light on Yoga (1966) with the prefix ud, which conveys superiority, and jaya, victory. The ocean part is a modern nickname, for the sound.

The form most people know today, with no hold and both nostrils, comes from 20th-century yoga. Tirumalai Krishnamacharya taught both Iyengar and K. Pattabhi Jois, who founded his ashtanga yoga institute in Mysore in 1948, and in that style the audible breath goes with every movement. The scholar Andrea Jain notes that before the 20th century the practice was marginal in the most widely cited sources.

There's also a debate about the name. Manju Jois said in 2005 that ashtanga uses ujjayi. Sharath Jois, Pattabhi Jois's grandson, said in 2013 that ujjayi is a formal pranayama and that the postures call only for normal breathing with sound.

What people use it for

The sound is an anchor. Because you make it and hear it the whole time, you notice right away when your breathing speeds up, catches or turns rough. That's why it's so common in movement-based yoga classes: the sound keeps the rhythm.

Sitting down, many people use it to focus before meditating or working, and to calm down with something more active than counting alone.

What the studies say

There's little research on ujjayi by itself. The most direct study was published in 2013 and measured 17 healthy young adults who had never done yoga. They breathed at six breaths a minute with and without ujjayi, after about ten minutes of learning it with a teacher.

Slow breathing improved baroreflex sensitivity, a mechanism that adjusts heart rate to blood pressure, and nudged oxygen saturation up. Adding ujjayi didn't increase the baroreflex effect: it reduced it. Slow, even breathing with no sound lowered blood pressure the most during the exercise. The authors attribute that to the extra effort ujjayi demands of a beginner.

It's a small study of beginners that only measured what happened during the breathing itself. It says nothing about experienced practitioners or long-term effects. The benefits that yoga manuals attribute to ujjayi, from the classical text to modern ones, are claims of the tradition, not measured results.

What it feels like and what to notice

The first few times the sound comes out uneven: loud on the exhale and barely there on the inhale. That's typical, because the inhale is the hard part. Over the days the hush evens out and gets quieter, which is the right direction.

Your throat may get a little dry. If it burns, rasps or makes you cough, you're closing it too much. If you feel dizzy or short of breath, drop the sound and breathe normally.

Variations

• Easier (exhale only): breathe in silently and make the sound only on the exhale, with the same count of 5 and 7. It's the best way to start.
• Even (5-5 variation): the same breath with equal inhale and exhale, counted by yourself.
• In motion: in ashtanga and other flowing styles of yoga, the audible breath goes with each posture and each transition, with no fixed count.
• The classical one: the Hatha Yoga Pradipika version holds the air after the inhale and lets it out through the left nostril. That's a different practice, to learn from someone who teaches it.

Common mistakes

• Making too much noise. It isn't a snore or a whistle. If it carries across the room, you're using too much force.
• Squeezing your throat. The resistance is minimal, about that of a whisper. If breathing gets hard, loosen up.
• Making the sound in your nose. The hush starts in the throat. If you're snorting through your nostrils, go back to fogging the window with your mouth open.
• Pushing on with an irritated throat. With a cough, hoarseness or a sore throat, a silent breath is the better choice that day.

How often and how long

Five minutes a day is enough to learn the sound. It doesn't have to come out right on the first day.

Once you have it, you can use it in short bursts: a few breaths before a task that needs your attention. No studies point to a dose, so the measure is your throat. It should end as comfortable as it started.

Before you start

• If you feel dizzy or short of breath, drop the sound and breathe normally.
• Don't force your throat. If it burns, rasps or makes you cough, ease off or stop.
• With a sore throat, hoarseness or a bad cold, save it for another day.
• If you have a lung, heart or blood pressure condition, or you're pregnant, check with your care provider first.