I have been holding the poses for as long as I could hold my breath...today I tried just holding them for a while, but not until I was blue in the face, and I also increased to 5 repititions of all but the spinning. I am going to continue to try them this way, they go much quicker and with much less straining...I take only one breath in between the exercises this way, then hold my breath and do the next repitition...