The Smith's Bellows

Bhastrika, the bellows, takes its name directly from the blacksmith's bellows its rhythm is meant to evoke, and it is among the more physically vigorous of the classical pranayamas, driving both inhalation and exhalation forcefully rather than leaving inhalation passive as kapalabhati does, a full, active bellows action through the whole breath cycle rather than a series of sharp exhalations alone.

The Hatha Yoga Pradipika counts bhastrika among the principal pranayamas proper, crediting it with generating considerable internal heat and, in the classical text's own account, with helping to pierce or open the granthis, the psychic or energetic knots the hatha tradition holds obstruct the free rise of kundalini energy along the central channel, a claim situating bhastrika within the tradition's broader subtle body and kundalini oriented physiology rather than treating it as physical exercise alone. Classical practice generally has bhastrika followed by kumbhaka, breath retention, the pairing of forceful bellows breathing with a subsequent held breath a recurring structural pattern across several of the more advanced classical pranayamas, in which the retention phase is treated as carrying particular significance for the practice's deeper effects.