Just Breathe!

Obviously, we all breathe otherwise we would not be living, but HOW you breathe makes a difference.  I have been told by patients, “you have taught me how to breathe again!” As crazy as it sounds, stress, pain, and just life, changes how we breathe, which influences how our bodies function.  Unfortunately, a lot of us hold stress and tension in our bodies and often it results in a paradoxical breathing pattern. Normal respiration, involves an inhale where your lungs fill with air, your ribcage expands in a 360-degree fashion and your diaphragm descends. Normal exhale results in expelling air, narrowing of your ribcage and ascending of your diaphragm. With paradoxical breathing, the opposite happens. Think about what happens when you’re stressed, your shoulders elevate, your neck tenses.  The same things happen with the paradoxical breathing pattern, over activating the fight or flight response or sympathetic nervous system response.  You end up using accessory muscles of respiration vs primary muscles of respiration and it can lead to pain, muscle tightness, and dysfunction.  Restoring normal breathing activates the parasympathetic response, i.e. the rest and digest response.  I would say 99.9% of my patients need retraining in how to breathe better for optimal function.  

 What are the benefits of proper breathing, deep breathing, and just breathing period? 

·      Calming effect – increases the parasympathetic response, allows you to be more relaxed, reduces stress, improves digestion

·      Reduces inflammation in the body 

·      Decreases muscle tone / muscle guarding 

·      Helps to facilitate movement

·      Increases joint nutrition 

·      Decreases pain

·      Improves oxygen intake 

·      Deep breathing massages the internal organs

If you get confused on how to breathe with an exercise or a movement, the best thing you can do is just breathe! Do not hold your breath, you would be surprised how much people hold their breath when they are stressed, working, exercising (especially when it is something new!), etc.  We are not perfect; surprise!  Change takes time. Try not to have judgment.  It took a while for your breath pattern to change and it will take a while to restore it.  To make changes you have to put conscious effort into it initially and eventually, it will become second nature.  I always encourage patients to coordinate their inhale and exhale with movement.  Think, your breath is what moves you.  Your body and mind will thank you!

 Certain types of exercises / practices focus on breath work and can be helpful in restoring normal breathing patterns, including: meditation, yoga, and Pilates.

Am I breathing correctly?

 After reading this, are you wondering, am I breathing correctly?  Below are a couple things you can try to see if you are, but remember these are generalizations. 

1.  Place one hand on your chest and one on your abdomen. Take a nice inhale, inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth, like you’re blowing out a candle in the distance.  Does one hand move more than the other? Does one not move at all?  Does your inhale only go up into your chest?  Are your shoulders elevating towards your ears?

·      If your chest is raising more than your abdomen, you likely have a paradoxical breathing pattern.

·      If your shoulders are elevating towards your ears, you likely have head and neck tension, hold your stress in your shoulders and have limited mobility in your ribcage.

 2.  If you create “C” shapes with your hands and place them around the sides of your ribcage, do you get movement in the front, sides and back? (i.e. 360-degree expansion)

·      If the answer is no, we need to improve your ribcage and diaphragm mobility and focus on improving your breath.  I commonly see the sides and back more restricted than the front. This tightness can perpetuate back tightness and pain. 

 3.  If you place your hands on your abdomen, with your fingertips facing towards midline and take an inhale, do your fingertips get farther away from one another as you inhale and return closer together as you exhale? 

·      If the answer is no, you are tight and you have some work to do!

 Do you teach breath work?

I incorporate breath work not only when I am teaching Pilates, but when I am doing physical therapy with my patients. Improper movement of your ribcage and diaphragm can lead to dysfunction and pain throughout your body.  If you were to ask me what breathing helps with, my answer would be EVERYTHING! 

 Our body is connected by fascia and therefore everything is linked to everything else.  Think about a sweater, if you pull on one thread, it can ruin the whole sweater.  Or still using the sweater analogy, if you loosen one thread, it can unravel the whole sweater.  The same is true for your body.  If you find the area of restriction and loosen it, it can unwind your whole system.  

 If your ribcage is not expanding, how could you NOT have pain in your back? There will likely be restrictions in your mid-spine (thoracic), as your ribs have attachments to the thoracic spine.  I find that the thoracic spine often experiences less pain then the neck or low back, but is often the driver.  One very important thing to remember is, the location of the pain, is not always the source.

 A lot of patients think that they cannot control their breath, but you can! I promise! It just takes some awareness and once you are aware of a problem, you can work on fixing it! 

 What are some of the conditions that breath work helps with?

·      Neck pain

·      Tension headaches

·      Thoracic outlet syndrome 

·      Shoulder pain

·      Rotator cuff tear

·      Rib pain

·      Thoracic pain

·      Low back pain

·      Sacroiliac pain

·      Pelvic floor pain / dysfunction

Just to name a few!