How To Breathe

Who ever thinks about exercising their diaphragm?? Do you even know how to activate your diaphragm? 

For a muscle that is working every minute of every day (without us even noticing), it sure takes the back seat in most peoples exercise programs! 

But there is good reason to give it a bit of love and attention. We touched on this in our last article “Take 10 breaths” is so Cliché. Yes, it’s cliche, but it works. We gave you the spin the role of breathing in calming the autonomic nervous system, and aiding in stress management. 

This time, we wanted to get a little nerdier, about the “biomechanics of breathing” so you can understand what keeps us alive, but is often underrated!

What is the diaphragm?

Our diaphragm is a dome-shaped muscle which separates the lungs from the abdominal organs. It is attached to the front and side of the ribcage, and to our spine at the back.

When the diaphragm contracts, the dome pushes downwards against the organs in the lower abdomen. Doing this pulls the lungs down with it, opening them up and drawing air into them (like a balloon). 

Here’s a little test. Put your hand on your belly and take a biiiiiiig breath in.
Does your belly contract and move inwards, or push out against your hand? 

In an ideal world, we should feel our belly move outwards as we breathe in. This is because as our diaphragm contracts and pushes down, your stomach pushes down and out, making room for the lungs to expand and giving you a nice, round, Buddha belly.

Imperfect Breathing

So, now you understand how we should ideally be breathing, to get in the most air with the most ease.

Unfortunately in today’s society, we’ve learnt to breathe wrong. Well, it’s still working, you’re still alive, but it’s not as efficient or easy as it should be.

Many people are actually breathing in reverse! Sucking in their abdomen when they breathe in, and relaxing the abdomen as they breathe out.

This can be a result of a few things.

Chronic sitting postures compress the belly, meaning that people subconsciously stop drawing the air to the lower parts of the belly (and lungs!).

Tight pants and body insecurities can also limit a tendency towards sucking in the gut as opposed to belly breathing! 

And stressed shoulders bring everything up with it! Seriously, even if you’re stressed, hitch up your shoulders and see how it makes you feel and breathe!

Over time, as poor habits develop, we lose what is our natural breathing pattern. Just watch how a baby breathes, they’re not ashamed of their buddha belly!

Why it matters

Ineffective use of the diaphragm means that the body has to rely more on the other inspiratory muscles to help out. This includes the muscles between the ribs, as well as the pecs, and neck muscles. 

The problem is that while the diaphragm pulls the bottom of the lungs down to create space in the chest, these other respiratory muscles act by pulling the ribcage up (against gravity) to create space. 

Pain

And while the diaphragm is reasonably hardy, fatigue resistant, and well-positioned for it’s role, these other muscles have to work overtime. That means a whooole lot more work to achieve the same thing!

The location of these ‘back up’ breathing muscles at the neck and chest mean that incorrect ‘chest’ breathing can lead to additional muscle tension in these areas. This can then lead to the development of muscle fatigue and potentially pain.

Stress

Our body and brain has a feedback mechanism.,

It’s actually pretty cool.

It’s similar to smiling. When you’re feeling a little bit low, smile, and see what happens. Or now, try to say something angry, but with a smile. It’s hard to keep an angry tone.

So. if you are breathing with a stressed posture (shoulders up high, shorter breaths), you are unconsciously telling your brain that you are stressed. And your brain belives it!

Core Strength

Fun fact: the diaphragm is actually the top muscle of our core, so it plays an important role in core strength, posture, lower back pain and overall strength and fitness!

So, what do we do?

A lot of it comes down to awareness and coordination. 

Be mindful of your breathing. Focus on filling your belly when you breathe in, rather than breathing with your chest. Try the exercise we went through at the beginning (with your hand on your belly).

If you find this challenging to coordinate, you may want to try it laying down. Put one hand on the belly and one hand on the chest, and focus on prioritising belly movement over chest movement.

It may feel unnatural at first, but the more you do it, the easier it becomes - just like any form of exercise training.

Last of all… Loosen the belt a notch, let it all hang out and relax!

Authors: Yolanda van Vaugt, Exercise Physiologist & Biara Webster, Exercise Physiologist