Arrhythmias or irregular heartbeats can cause chest pain and feelings of anxiety. To overcome this, you can do the following three breathing exercises.
Arrhythmia is a heart rhythm disorder that causes your heart to beat irregularly. This condition occurs because the electrical impulses in charge of coordinating the heartbeat do not work properly. As a result, your heart beats too fast, or too slow.
According to MedlinePlus, normally, the heart beats between 60 and 100 seconds per minute. However, the heart rate of a person experiencing an arrhythmia can be less or higher than this normal rate.
An irregular heartbeat can cause you to experience a number of symptoms, such as chest pain, shortness of breath, anxiety, fatigue, lightheadedness, sweating, and loss of consciousness.
To overcome this, you can do breathing exercises for the heart. Citing Discovery Health, breathing exercises by taking deep breaths can deliver more oxygen throughout the body, and reduce stress.
Breathing exercises for palpitations are also useful in improving overstimulation of the sympathetic nervous system and reducing the rhythm of a fast beating heart. Here are some of the methods.
1. Complete Breathing
Breathing fast and short, according to the University of Missouri-Kansas City in the United States, can increase the risk of heart disease. This condition can make your arrhythmia symptoms worse.
Therefore, try to do complete breathing by inhaling deeply and fully.
Breathing exercises for the heart are beneficial for slowing the heart rate and improving overall heart health.
Here’s how to do it:
- Sit up straight and relax.
- Exhale, then inhale while relaxing your abdominal muscles. You will feel the sensation of air filling your stomach.
- Breathe in until you feel your chest expand, then hold your breath for a few seconds.
- While relaxing your muscles, exhale as slowly as possible.
- Tighten your stomach muscles while exhaling your last breath. Do it while closing your eyes for 5 minutes.
2. Abdominal Breathing
According to the American Medical Student Association, abdominal breathing is beneficial in increasing stamina and blood flow, thus making the body more relaxed.
In addition, this exercise can also make breathing deeper. Here are the steps for doing belly breathing:
- Place one hand on your chest and one hand on your stomach.
- Then inhale deeply through the nose while feeling the abdominal muscles lift. Later, the hand on the stomach feels higher than the hand on the chest.
- After that, exhale slowly through your mouth.
“This breathing exercise can be done for 5 minutes,” suggested dr. Ariana.
3. Chinese Breathing
Chinese breathing exercises are beneficial for reducing anxiety and increasing energy. Indirectly, this exercise is useful to help regulate your heart rate. You can follow these steps:
- Sit up straight.
- Take a short breath without exhaling three times through your nose.
- On the first inhale, stretch your arms straight out in front of you.
- On the second inhale, stretch your arms out to your sides.
- On the third inhale, raise your arms straight above your head.
- Exhale completely while lowering your arms to the starting position.
- Do 10 repetitions.
Arrhythmias can make you feel uncomfortable. To reduce the symptoms, try doing the three methods of breathing exercises for the heart above.