Starting position: squat down. Put your hands on your knees, bend your arms at the elbows. On the count of “one”, take a step back with your left foot and inhale. Then, without stopping, take a step back with your right foot and inhale again. And so on. For each step back, take a short and noisy breath through your nose. The exhalation silently leaves immediately after each inhalation.

Remember: sniff noisily and briefly at each step back and mentally count 8 steps-breaths.

You can rest, depending on how you feel, from 3-5 to 10 seconds and after 8, 16 or 32 breaths. The norm for this exercise is 96 steps-breaths (“hundred”).

Alexandra Severovna Strelnikova was very fond of this exercise. She called it “Back-heels” and often gave it to singers in order to eliminate voice problems.