Take a deep breath. Inhale. Exhale. Did your chest puff up as you breathed in? Or did your belly push out as your lungs filled with air? If you answered “yes” to the first question, you’re not breathing the way you should. In fact, about one-third of all adults don’t breathe properly. Most of us access only 10% to 20% of our full breathing capacity, according to the National Institute on Aging.

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Looking for a new approach to better breathing? Try facing East. Yoga, the traditional breathing technique of India, has become almost as common as aerobics at U.S. health clubs. More Americans are exploring complementary care (40% have tried some form of it, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association), and a lot of them are focusing on breathing as the key to better health. Breathing exercises may even help manage asthma. Here’s why everyone from Madonna to your mother is breathing like a yogi.

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