Breathwork For Beginners: Where To Start With Yoga Breathing

Breathwork for beginners: the short answer

If you are new to breathwork, start lying down, with slow, quiet breathing, and add the other breaths one at a time. In Iyengar yoga, breathwork is called pranayama (yoga breathing practice). You learn calm breaths first: lying down, then sitting with a chair and belt, then a few small pauses. The strong, fast breaths and long holds come last, with a teacher. You can learn in a Darwin studio or in a LIVE online class from home.

• Step 1: lie down on a flat blanket and watch the normal breath.
• Step 2: learn ujjayi, a slow, smooth breath with a soft sound, the foundation of the rest.
• Step 3: sit tall with help from a chair, belt or bolster.
• Step 4: add viloma, bhramari and nadi shodhana, one at a time.
• Last: fast breaths and long holds, with a teacher.
• Where: a Darwin studio or LIVE online, with props supplied.
• The deal: 12 beginner classes for $59.50.

Last updated: 25 October 2026

New to Flametree? Get 12 beginner yoga classes for $59.50 (10 at half price plus 2 free). Use them in a Darwin studio or LIVE online. You are eligible if you are new to Flametree, or away for three months or more. Props are supplied, no discount code is needed, and there is a 14-day money-back guarantee. Studio classes are for permanent NT residents, and online is open from anywhere. See the beginner deal or look at the beginner timetable for your first class.

What does it feel like to start breathwork?

Richard Rosen is an American yoga teacher who began in 1983 with a beginners’ course at the Iyengar Yoga Institute in San Francisco. He lay on folded blankets and took his first slow, full breath in. It felt, he wrote, “as if I had a ton of bricks stacked on my chest.”

He kept practising for four or five years. Then one morning, lying on his blankets, his teacher asked the class to let the spine lift up into the back on the next breath in. “Whoosh, my chest exploded, and this flood of air effortlessly surged into my lungs.”

That is a good picture of what a first breath class can be. It can feel heavy, short or strange, and that is normal. It is not a sign you are doing it wrong. Rosen calls the Iyengar way slow and steady, and says it “emphasizes how things are done and not so much what is done.”

What is breathwork, in plain words?

Breathwork means breathing on purpose. You change the pace, the depth or the shape of the breath to change how you feel.

In yoga it has a long history and a name, pranayama. Mr BKS Iyengar was the twentieth-century teacher who collected and passed on traditional Indian yoga, and his style is the one Flametree teaches. He wrote that in pranayama nothing can be forced, and that is why it teaches humility.

The Iyengar way is slow, with props and clear steps. That suits beginners well, because each step makes the next one easier.

Why does breathwork start lying down?

For most people, sitting still and upright is hard work. The back tires, the chest sinks and the breath gets squashed. Then your mind is busy with your body, not your breath.

Lying down fixes that. Your back is supported, so you can let go. The head sits on a folded blanket, which softens the throat and makes the soft sound of ujjayi easy to hear. A quiet body makes a quiet breath.

Be careful with blankets. If you are new, or your back is sore, lie on one flat blanket with a folded blanket under your head, so the head tilts slightly forward. Raised, folded blanket set-ups are for more experienced students. Your teacher will tell you when to add more.

What are the first breaths to learn?

These are the yoga breathing techniques you will meet, in the order most people learn them.

• Watching the normal breath. No change at all. Just notice. Most classes spend a long time here, and it is the most important part.
• Ujjayi, the ocean breath. A slow, smooth breath through the nose, with a soft sound at the back of the throat, like distant waves. It is the foundation of the others.
• Viloma, the staircase breath. The breath taken in steps, with tiny pauses. It teaches you to lengthen the out-breath.
• Bhramari, the humming bee breath. A normal breath in and a soft hum on the way out. It quietens the mind quickly.
• Nadi shodhana, alternate nostril breathing. One nostril, then the other, with a light touch of the fingers.
• The strong breaths. Kapalabhati and bhastrika are fast and energising, and they come last.

Not all of these are for day one. Your teacher decides what you do and when.

How do you sit for breathwork?

Sitting comes after the lying practice. At Flametree you sit on a chair with a belt round the chair back and your chest, like a harness. The belt holds the chest up, so the breath can move. You can also sit on a bolster.

Why so many props? Because the chest has to open. Most of us have a contracted chest from years of sitting, desks and screens. Extending the chest is the key to breathing well, and the props do much of that work for you.

What happens in a breathwork class?

A breath class is not a pose class. There is no sequence of poses to learn. Here is the usual shape of it:

1. Set up. You arrange the blankets, with help.
2. Watch the normal breath. You lie in Corpse Pose (Savasana, the lying rest), often for ten minutes.
3. Lying practices. Ujjayi and viloma.
4. Sitting practices. Bhramari, nadi shodhana and breaths with a count.
5. Rest. A final Savasana, without judging how it went.

Then you roll to the right and come up slowly. There is no one-size-fits-all. Every class is adapted to the people in it, with a different blanket height, a chair instead of the floor, a shorter count, or a rest while others carry on.

It works well online too. The teacher can check your set-up on the screen. That makes it easy to try breathwork classes online from home, from anywhere in the world. For Darwin classes in person, see breathwork classes near me.

What does the research say about breathwork?

Here is what two big reviews found, according to PubMed.

Stress and mood. A 2023 review from the University of Sussex pooled 12 trials with 785 adults. Breathwork was linked with lower stress than control conditions, with a small to medium effect. Anxiety and low mood eased too. The authors said breathwork may be effective, and asked for careful, well-designed trials to keep hype in check. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-27247-y

Slow breathing and the heart. A 2022 review pooled 223 studies of voluntary slow breathing. Heart rate variability (a sign of a flexible nervous system) rose during practice, right after it, and after weeks of practice. The authors said slow breathing could be advised as a low-tech, low-cost technique, with few adverse effects expected. DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104711

Both reviews are about slow, calm breathing, which is where a beginner starts. A 2023 Stanford trial also found that five minutes a day was enough for a lift in mood. Read about it in our post on cyclic sighing.

How do you keep breathwork going?

A little, often, is better than a lot, rarely. Five to ten minutes is a well-tested amount. Every Flametree class opens and closes with five to ten minutes of breath focus: lying quietly, watching the breath, and coming back each time the mind drifts. So any class is already training the breath.

A regular class helps. You see others at the same stage, with the same ups and downs, and nobody feels they are the only one who finds it hard. A class on the timetable keeps you going until the habit forms.

Some days will be wonderful and some not so good. That is true for every practitioner. Quality matters more than length. Mr Iyengar said a beginner may reach perfection if the breath is very short but soft and fine.

What should beginners avoid?

• Forcing the breath. Do not fight with it. If the breath sounds rough, you panic, or your face and jaw tighten, stop, take a few normal breaths and do less.
• Fast breathing and breath holds from a video. These come last and need a teacher watching.
• Breathing practice in or near water, in the bath, or while driving.
• Practising straight after a meal. Wait two hours or more.

If you have a heart condition, high or low blood pressure, eye trouble, epilepsy, a lung condition, or you are pregnant, you are welcome to tell your teacher so we can look after you. It is not required, but it helps. Read more in our post on whether pranayama is safe.

Where to go next

When you are ready for more, read about bhastrika pranayama and why the strong breath waits, or about breathing exercises for sleep. For the wider picture, see our guide to the benefits of breathwork.

Our free ebook, the Breathworks Original Toolkit, explains the five breaths and the safe order in plain words. It explains yoga. It does not teach it, because breath is best learned with a teacher.

Ready to start? Get 12 beginner classes for $59.50, in a Darwin studio or LIVE online.

Breathwork for beginners questions

What is breathwork for beginners?

It is slow, calm breathing, learnt lying down first. In yoga it is called pranayama. You add one breath at a time, and the strong, fast breaths come last, with a teacher.

Where do I start with yoga breathing?

Lie down on one flat blanket, with a folded blanket under your head, and watch your normal breath. Then your teacher will show you ujjayi, a slow, smooth breath with a soft sound. Sitting with a chair and belt comes after that.

What are the main yoga breathing techniques?

Ujjayi (ocean breath), viloma (staircase breath), bhramari (humming bee breath), nadi shodhana (alternate nostril breathing) and kapalabhati (shining skull breath). Kapalabhati is learnt last.

Can I do breathwork classes online?

Yes. Flametree teaches breathwork LIVE online, and it works well because the teacher can check your set-up on the screen. You can join from anywhere.

Is breathwork safe for beginners?

Slow, gentle breathing is very safe, and it is open to nearly everyone. Fast breathing and long breath holds are not for beginners. Never force the breath, and stop if you feel dizzy, panicky or get a headache.

Does breathwork work?

A 2023 review of 12 trials with 785 adults linked breathwork with lower stress, anxiety and low mood. The effects were small to medium, and the authors asked for more careful trials. A 2022 review of 223 studies found slow breathing raised heart rate variability.

Sources

• Fincham GW, Strauss C, Montero-Marin J, Cavanagh K. Effect of breathwork on stress and mental health: a meta-analysis of randomised-controlled trials. Sci Rep 2023. PubMed, DOI
• Laborde S, et al. Effects of voluntary slow breathing on heart rate and heart rate variability: a systematic review and a meta-analysis. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2022. PubMed, DOI
• Rosen R. Quoted in the Flametree Breathworks ebook, sections 3.2 and 3.3. Iyengar BKS. Light on Pranayama and Light on Life.

This post is general information about yoga. Flametree Yoga Studio, Darwin, Northern Territory.