Viloma, the interrupted breath

How to do it

1. Lie on your back with a folded blanket under your head, or sit with your back long and supported. Close your mouth: everything goes through the nose.
2. Let your breath out through your nose, without pushing, so you start from the bottom.
3. Breathe in for 2 seconds, roughly a third of a breath, and hold for 2 seconds. Keep your throat loose.
4. Breathe in for another 2 seconds, up to two thirds, and hold for 2 seconds.
5. Breathe in for 2 more seconds, until you have enough air without being packed full, and hold for 2 seconds.
6. Breathe out through your nose for 8 seconds, in one go, slow and even.
7. That's one 20-second cycle. Repeat for 4 minutes, which is 12 cycles.
8. To finish, breathe at your own pace for a minute, without counting, before you move.

What viloma is

It's nasal breathing with the inhale split into three 2-second segments. After each one there's a 2-second pause, holding whatever air you've taken in so far. Then you breathe out for 8 seconds with no interruptions. Each cycle lasts 20 seconds: three breaths a minute.

It resembles three-part breath, which also rises in zones, but there the air never stops. And it resembles triangle breathing, which also holds with air in, but only once, at the top. In viloma the pauses sit inside the inhale, like landings on a staircase.

Where it comes from

The version practiced today is B. K. S. Iyengar's, and he gave it a chapter in Light on Pranayama. The book came out in Great Britain in 1981, with an introduction by the violinist Yehudi Menuhin. In a piece he wrote about the practice, Iyengar explains that viloma means against the natural order of things: the breath, which normally flows, is interrupted.

Iyengar lays it out in stages. The first is the inhale with pauses, which he presents as an introduction, done lying down. The second flips it: you breathe in smoothly and the exhale is interrupted. Schools that follow his method talk about eight early stages, the first ones reclining and the later ones seated.

We didn't find viloma under that name in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, which lists eight breathing practices and doesn't include it. Whether Iyengar received it from his teacher or shaped it himself is something we couldn't confirm. What's documented is that his book brought it to the public.

What people use it for

Iyengar presents its first stages as an introduction. Practicing it teaches you to control how much air comes in and to stay still with air inside, briefly, before trying longer holds. The pauses are short enough that hardly anyone experiences them as effort.

Outside yoga classes, many people use it to focus. Keeping track of three steps and three pauses takes up your whole attention. It's also a way to notice how much room there is in your torso: each step is felt in a different place.

What the studies say

On viloma, the interrupted breath, we found no published trials. If you search, you'll see plenty of studies on anuloma viloma: that's a different practice, alternate nostril breathing, and its results don't carry over to this one.

The closest thing is research on breathing slowly, and viloma is slow: three breaths a minute. A 2018 systematic review gathered 15 studies of breathing at fewer than ten breaths a minute in healthy people. It found higher heart rate variability and more reported calm. It also warned that none of the studies was a randomized trial and that several were very small. None used interrupted inhales.

Iyengar wrote that the first stage suits people with low blood pressure and the second suits people with high blood pressure. That's a teacher's instruction, not a study result, and it's reported here as such.

What it feels like and what to notice

In the first few cycles the hard part is rationing the air. It's common to fill almost completely on the first step and have nowhere to go on the third. Take less than you think on each segment. By the fourth or fifth cycle the steps even out.

You don't need to close your throat during the pauses: the air stays because you stop breathing in, with your belly steady and your face soft. If you feel pressure in your head, dizziness, tingling or an urgent need to let the air go, drop the pattern and breathe normally. Iyengar himself says to slip in normal breaths and stop at the first sign of tiredness.

Variations

• Easier (two-step variation): breathe in for 3 seconds, hold for 2, breathe in for 3, hold for 2, and breathe out for 8.
• Iyengar's way (traditional variation, stage I): lying down, segments of 2 to 3 seconds with pauses of the same length, four or five pauses until you're full, and a slow exhale. Between cycles, two or three normal breaths. He mentions 7 to 10 minutes, or less if you tire.
• Interrupted exhale (traditional variation, stage II): breathe in smoothly and breathe out in segments of 2 to 3 seconds with pauses of the same length.
• Longer (6-minute variation): the same three-step pattern for 18 cycles.

Common mistakes

• Taking too much air early. Each segment is a third, not a full inhale.
• Closing your throat in the pauses. A pause means you stop breathing in, not that you clamp down.
• Leaking air between steps. If your chest drops during the pause, the next segment starts from behind.
• Lifting your shoulders on the third segment. The last step widens the chest; the neck doesn't help.
• Rushing the exhale. After three pauses you'll want to let it all go. The way out takes its full 8 seconds.
• Pushing through tiredness. This practice ends at the first sign of fatigue.

How often and how long

One 4-minute session, a few times a week, is a good start. The first few times, do it lying down, as Iyengar suggests for beginners, and move to sitting once the steps happen without thinking.

It isn't a practice for rushed moments, or for right before bed if the pauses wake you up. It works best in a quiet stretch of time, when you can give it your full attention.

Before you start

• Practice sitting or lying down. If you feel dizzy, tingly, pressure in your head or short of breath, stop and breathe normally.
• Never do it in water or while driving.
• If you're pregnant or have a heart, lung or blood pressure condition, or a history of fainting or panic attacks, check with your care provider first.
• This is a practice for adults. The pauses should take no effort: if you have to fight for them, take less air on each step or come back another day.