What's the secret? I've tried for years and just cannot do it. I no longer twist balloon animals, however, I really want to do Jeff McBrides INFLATION routine...for which I need to be able to mouth inflate. What tips can y'all pass over in my direction?

It takes one mouthfull of air, and this is sooooo much easer to show in person....
first strech the center of the balloon.(for the trick you nead the bubbel in the midle.)
how I do it is to hold the balloon with both thumbs and both pointer fingers. with the nuckels of both hands on my upper cheeks and fingers up to stop any balloon parts if there is a pop.
The nuckels are there to keep your cheeks from puffing out, if they puf you will lose.
Take a mouth full of air and use your jaw to push the air in to the balloon.

Use your diaphragm and not your cheeks. It's just muscles that people don't usually utilize, and once you have those muscles developed and working, you won't have a problem.

I can mouth inflate 260s and 160s without a problem. Up to 500-600 in a day without a headache.

Steve

Right, the diaphragm (stomach area). Make the stomach tight using the muscles. Take a deep breath also before blowing. Another important thing is to have the balloon stretched far when blowing, it makes the wall of the balloon thinner.

9 years of trumpet lessons did it for me!

I started on the old Ashland A balloons, graduated to the E balloons, and then moved on to Qualatex, sorta like learning to ski by the old GLM, gradulated length method.

Always stretch the loon a few times, exhale from the diaphragm, and try to establish a small bubble. With the small bubble as a beachhead, inhale again and inflate from there.

Do not know the routine you are interested in, but if color is not important, different colors are easier to inflate than others. Stay away from the pearls and metals, and check out the jewel tones.

The trick takes a 1" bubble,
starting the bubble with the diaphragm is way harder to do and is why most people cant mouth inflate. It is however how you get the rest of the air in the balloon when doing a sculptur.
the better you are the less you need to do the jaw trick I discribed. but as you only need a verry small bubble this trick will work for what you need.

If you just want a small bubble down the balloon like in the middle, you can put that part of the balloon in your mouth and suck air into it. You should feel a small bubble inflate a little. now really stretch that area as you inflate the balloon and it should be easier.

When learning to inflate a balloon all the way you should really stretch it out. You are probably using a 260 that means its 2 inches thick by 60 inches long. I stretch my balloons about six feet. (I have been doing a lot of balloons lately so I don't stretch them that much any more) Next you will want to stretch the first inch or two out about a foot as you blow into the balloon. (Don't pinch it to hard or air will not get into the balloon.) Your goal here is to inflate a one inch bubble. That is the hardest part! After that keep stretching the balloon as you inflate it and you should be good to go.

As stated above do not use your cheeks!
Use your diaphragm!
Practice Practice Practice

And if you still cant get it send me a PM and I'll shoot a quick YouTube video of how I do it.

Fitz

Hi,
strange as it may seem if you can play a didgerido, you can inflate form the mouth. The secret is so called "circular" breathing.

You seal off the lungs from the larynx down and use your diaphram and breathe in through your nose.

As everyone else says, really hard to describe.

Good luck,


Kevin Mc Lean.

I practiced with 350s and was doing fine.

I started on 260s and was building up the number of balloons I could inflate.

One night I did something wrong and I thought I was going to pass out. I had to sit down and was extremely light headed for 5min.

I have not tried since, but I did buy a balloon hero and it works great.

Chris, have you blown one up yet?