How does pursed-lips breathing work?
By intentionally creating an opening of the mouth, which is too small [stenosis] the air can escape more slowly. The air is even stowed a little. Thus, down to the smallest airways a pressure/back log is increased "from the inside" against the airways and prevents them from collapsing ("cutting off the air", interrupting the stream, shortness of breath). Thus, the air can also stream out through the smallest airways in a controlled manner. In general, breathing becomes deeper ("deflation of stowed air") or stays deep (controlled deep breathing).
Operating mechanism of pursed-lips breathing
A good way to find out how wide your mouth needs to be opened is to cut a straw into different lengths. Try one straw after another. Eventually, you will find out with which length the air flows well and allows you to exhale deeply/completely. Once you get a hang of how the air should flow, try to "imitate" an air flow similar to this without a straw.
How to use pursed-lips breathing:
- Breathe calmly, through your nose, if possible.
- Wait until your cheeks inflate a little and an air buffer develops between lips and teeth; while doing so, lips are loosely closed.
- Wait until the air finds its way by itself through your loosely closed lips and streams out steadily. Avoid pressing and exhaling for too long (risk of coughing, among other things). As soon as one actively reinforces created pressure too strongly is transferred from the rib cage to the airways and compresses them: the stabilization of the airways fades and wheezing might
| Right | Wrong | Wrong |
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| Pursed-lips breathing: correct | Faulty pattern pursed-lips breathing: inflating too much |
Faulty pattern pursed-lips breathing: pressing: |
