How we breathe normally varies almost from moment to moment, according to what we are doing, our stress levels and body position. We do have a choice about how we are breathing, and so our habitual breathing patterns can be changed with awareness and persistence.
Generally, the most efficient type of breathing involves the diaphragm moving downwards or outwards on the in breath. But depending upon how energetic we are at any particular moment, other muscles will have to get involved as well.
Breathing that uses the diaphragm has many advantages: we will be stronger, quicker, our lymph gets moving – the lymph: my friend, Ildi, likens it to the sewer system of the body; we want that moving – we’ll be less stressed, our organs get a swooshing massage with each breath and finally our brain works better. In the brain stem, there are oxygen receptors and the better we breathe, the better the brain stem works. The brain stem is the oldest part of the brain. If the older parts of the brain are not working as well as possible, they cannot send clear signals to the modern brain, so nothing works as well as it might.
A key to developing efficient breathing is to find out how we breathe normally. Extraordinarily difficult to do. I find I have to sneak up on my breath and catch it in the act. If we can find out what we normally do, a useful exercise is to do exactly the opposite. So even if we do sing or play a wind instrument, which will have developed a breathing technique that dramatically slows down the out breath, after singing or playing, spending a minute or so doing reverse breathing – lifting the breastbone to breathe in, which will suck in the abs – will help relax the breathing muscles that have just worked so hard. And stop them getting over tight. Ditto after a hard cardio/weights session.
Breathing involves many muscles and how we breathe should change according to activity. And, yes, it certainly should be worked on and developed. After a cardio session with me, my clients complain of stiff abs the next day – and yet apparently we did no ab work in the workout at all. The breathing muscles that lead to appropriate and efficient breathing need strengthening, like any other muscle.
To describe how best to breathe is nearly impossible, given the huge variation in spinal curves and temperament between us all.
But there are a couple of things that should not be happening.
The shoulders stay still. On the in-breath, they should not be lifting. The upper chest may well rise – and if a great amplitude of breath is needed, it certainly should rise. So we need to be clear in our brain the difference in feel between the chest rising and the shoulders rising.
Be careful about drawing the waist inwards on the out breath. Place the hands on the low abs and breathe out, drawing the waist inwards. If not very careful, the low abs will expand on the out breath, which pushes downwards on the pelvic floor. This is what we do to take a dump. If not careful, when using a diaphragmatic breathing technique, we can inadvertently be bearing down as we breathe out.
To breathe efficiently, as a general rule the waist/ribs should expand on the in breath – ie the diaphragm gets involved. Although it has its uses, reverse breathing is best kept as an exercise, a deliberate way of breathing rather than a normal way of breathing.
Which brings me to the final general rule: the movement of the spinal curves should be subtle. As we breathe in, the spine slightly lengthens.
Diaphragmatic breathing comes in four overall styles. The simplest is pure diaphramatic breathing as gone into in the previous blog – as can be used in meditation or deep relaxation. The second style is when the abdominal area expands and contracts with the breath, the third where the ribcage expands and contracts and the fourth, which is a mixture of both ribcage and abs moving.
As listed above, there are great health and fitness benefits to developing diaphragmatic breathing. I have found that to successfully change breathing style requires one to one help. Followed by courage and persistence! It all sounds so easy, but in practice to change how we have breathed for years and years is no mean undertaking.