When you feel foggy and tired - whether from the atmosphere in a smoke-filled room, accumulated carbon dioxide stored during sleep, or tense, sit-down work - you can use these exercises to help clear out your head and wake up your body, as well as to calm down by releasing tension.

Exercise 1

Stand up. Relax your knees and muscles around your anus and genitals. Place your hands on your upper thighs. Bending from the waist strains and stresses the back - instead, use hip-hinging" by bending at the crease between the legs and the torso.

Inhale deeply through your nose.

Exhale forcefully through your mouth while pulling your navel back toward your spine.

Push all the air out of your lungs.

Repeat.

Exercise 2

Stand up. Raise your arms above your head. Begin to jump up and down rhythmically as if you were jumping rope.

As you jump up, inhale quickly.

As you land, expel the air from your mouth with the sound of "hu."

In the beginning, continue for about thirty seconds; increase gradually at each session, up to a five-minute session.

Stop. Allow your breath to come naturally.

Exercise 3

Stand up. Inhale through your mouth as you raise your arms above your head. Pretend that you are trying to grasp the stars. Get up on your tiptoes. Reach even higher, inhaling all the way. Release. Go limp. Exhale vigorously. Bend from the waist and let your head and arms dangle like a rag doll's. Stop. Breathe normally.

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