Breathing Gym

[Luke S.]

I use it, a lot, along with the Brass Gym, which is also awesome.

[Baridon09]

Blue Stars use it.

[Armyscout]

Madison uses it.

[corpsband]

Breathing Gym is excellent. We used it when I taught Teal Sound, and I use it with my bands. It makes a HUGE difference, and it's also highly modifiable. I use it mixed up with some stuff we did at Suncoast and Blue Devils. Breathing should be part of every brass line's daily routine.

It's being used by a lot more ensembles than just brass players. It's really interesting that ballet (Alvin Ailey Co. at that) was the starting point for the entire thing.

[ayesha3]

Phantom Regiment uses it.

[Steve Knob]

We do still use breathing gym at Teal.

[TallAZEuph]

Essentially, the goal of the Breathing Gym is to enable you to become a more efficient breather by using as much of your lung capacity as possible, in the most relaxed manner. That is accomplished by a series of stretches, therapies (exercises to improve your inhale/exhale), and flow exercises to simulate musical phrases or work on endurance in high intensity breathing situations.

It is a pedagogy that is extremely beneficial when used multiple times a day to remind your body how to breathe in this abnormal way. I feel most people miss the ball when they don't apply the same technique on the horn.

Anyway, there's my two cents for this thread.

[spirit7698]

When I was Suncoast Sound and Spirit the whole corps did it when we ran in the morning. Talk about a workout.

[kaplac]

I know Cascades do it.

I also know troop used to do it in 08 I don't know about now though.

[BrittRasetra]

Mandarins use it