I can breathe through my nose. And my mouth! Discounting seasonal allergies I’m great at respiration, generally speaking.
At some point, I learned how to inflate a balloon with my mouth. That is, I can consciously restrict the outflow of air through my nose and instead, opt to pressurize the air in my mouth for a productive purpose. Which is cool, but kind of confusing to me. How can this be!? Am I plugging that airway with my tongue? Am I constricting some magical nose sphincter?
I’m sitting here trying to consciously close my nasal passages and I can’t do it. Fishing around with my tongue, I can find no hole to plug. I’m trying to squeeze various muscles in my throat to no effect. And yet, all I need do is imagine myself inflating a balloon- keeping my mouth closed- and, voila, air pressure!
…But I’ll be damned if I can feel any aspect of my physical being effecting this miracle. What’s up with that?
Cool question actually. I’m not great at blowing up balloons, but I can manage it. I think, experimenting with blowing in different way with a finger in front of my nose, that it has something to do with stiffening the muscles in the upper lip and mustache area. When I stick out my upper lip and tense those muscles, there’s little to no airflow through the nostrils, either in or out.
I hope this helps, and I’d love to hear from someone who’s got more book-learning about this part of the body.
Not always unconsciously. Singers and wind-instrument players develop a good deal of control over it (it’s a technique you can use to “color” your sound).
Heck, I don’t even have to say “ahhh” at the doctor’s. I just move everything out of the way.
The air doesn’t come out of your nose because you’re instinctively separating your nose from your mouth when you exhale, using your soft palate. There are three kinds of breaths which can all be achieved by involving different parts of your nasal passages. You can either breathe from your nose, breathe from your mouth, or breathe from both at the same time. I played saxophone for the better part of a decade. This means I had to develop conscious breath control, as eastcheap mentioned. You can consciously control your soft palate, it just takes practice. If you want to try and “feel” this a little more, practice this exercise while paying attention to how your tongue and soft palate interact:
Say the word “dung.” Feel how the “ng” sound closes your throat? Now breathe without opening your throat. Even if your mouth stays open, the breath will only go through your nose. Practice alternating the “ng” sound (closed throat) with “ah” (open throat) while humming, inhaling, humming, inhaling (etc). This will really help you get a feel for moving your soft palate up and down.
After you master this, you can try an advanced technique. Close your throat (say ng!). Now inhale and exhale through your nose. After a few breaths, concentrate on keeping the breath going. Now purse your lips and puff up your cheeks with air. Hold it there with your cheek muscles while you keep breathing through your nose. Now open your mouth just a crack and use your cheek muscles to push out the air. You can do this while still breathing in and out of your nose. This is the first step of a technique called “circular breathing,” which is what Kenny G did to play the longest note ever recorded on a saxophone.
And the didgeridoo! (Um, not Kenny G, I mean in general, circular breathing is what didgeridoo players do to sustain those gorgeous tones almost indefinitely.)
Yes, I didn’t mean that one cannot consciously control the upper palate, just that the OP when blowing up a balloon is doing it unconsciously. Sorry for the confusion.
I don’t need to imagine inflating a balloon to do that. If I choose to breathe through my nose, that’s where the air flows. If I choose to breathe through my mouth, that’s where the air goes. In and out. In fact I find it harder to let air flow freely through both.
But as you said, it doesn’t feel like there’s much feedback from the muscles and flesh involved.
I am amazed at how many adults I know who still pinch their noses closed in order to swim under water. In fact, my mother and at least one of my sisters still do it.
It never occurred to me that they actually didn’t know how, or couldn’t, consciously raise their soft palate. Then again, I’m amazed that some people actually need a tongue depressor so the doctor can look at their tonsils. Maybe it’s because I was prone to strep as a child but dropping the back of my tongue and raising my soft palate at the same time or individually are completely natural movements for me.
What I want to know is how do these people breathe through only their mouths when someone farts next to them if they can’t close off their noses. After this past week, I’d have probably had a dog fart induced nervous breakdown if I hadn’t been able to shut off my nose.
Excellent! Thank you. And now that you mention it, maybe I can somewhat feel… something happening as I attempt these exercises of yours. It’s rather subtle, but still. Something.
that it has something to do with stiffening the muscles in the upper lip and mustache area. When I stick out my upper lip and tense those muscles, there’s little to no airflow through the nostrils, either in or out.
