The Ins & Outs of breathing

Breathing is one of the most natural things we are designed to do as humans. Breathing in is our natural resource to keep our vehicle running and breathing out expels what we don’t need to hold onto. Yet, so many of us do it incorrectly. We don’t take full breaths, we hold our breaths, we breathe in to forced cavities, we take our breath for granted and only notice our breath when it falters. As you read this, take note of how you are always somewhere in the cycle of breathing, we are never “not” breathing.

Here’s a little anatomy. We have 2 breathing muscles. The primary muscle is the diaphragm and the secondary muscles are the intercostals.  

When you inhale, the diaphragm moves down which makes the heart bigger. The pressure, in the newly larger space, will shift and blood moves more slowly through it. Your nervous system (aka your brain) sends a message to your heart to speed up. Therefore, when you inhale, your heart rate increases. 

When you exhale, the diaphragm moves up, creating a smaller space in the thoracic cavity. As the pressure shifts, the heart gets smaller. Blood therefore flows more quickly through the smaller volume. The heart sends a neural message to the brain to tell it that the blood flow is faster and the brain then, slows the heart rate down. Therefore when you exhale, your heart rate decreases. (Dr. Huberman)

Poor breathing patterns occur when ventilation exceeds metabolic demands. When stressed for example, we take shorter more sporadic breaths, which results in not fully exhaling. When we don’t fully exhale, it will result in upper chest breathing patterns. Take a second to breathe in a full breath and notice which part of your torso expands. Is it your belly? Is it your ribs? Does your chest expand? Do your shoulders rise up? Does it feel restricted, difficult to take in a full breath?

Since the ribs reside in your torso and are enveloped by a multitude of muscles, when breathing is faulty, movement patterns will likely be faulty. When in periods of stress, we lose mobility in our thoracic space, creating tension and overuse of our breathing muscles. This causes dysfunction in our posture, and exacerbates our diaphragm. 

Zafar and colleagues (2018) established that changes in the neck position (forward head posture; from using too many devices and looking down) influences our respiratory function, which reduces the strength of our diaphragm.

Breath is one of the 6 original principles of Pilates. Our goal is to find freedom of movement in the body through correct breathing techniques. When we learn to breathe better, we learn to move better. The ultimate goal is to move with greater efficiency, power and ease.

Join Ashley Jacusiw on Saturday April 10th at 11:30am for a workshop on the breath. Find out how to improve your breathing techniques through movement and learn ways to maintain a healthy breathing pattern everyday.

https://www.thecornerstonepilates.com/virtual-workshops

Jocelyne Pelchat

Founder & Principal

The Cornerstone Pilates