Breathing Basics
Breathing, is well accepted as the sole most crucial life preserving mechanism in western medicine and likewise in eastern medicine - a life giving energy (or Prāna प्राण).
We take between 17 000 and 24 000 breaths daily, but how much attention do we actually pay to our breathing and the ways it influences our daily life?
Position and Posture
Can breathing affect your posture? And can posture affect your breathing?
One thing these both have in common is - like breathing, every single person will perform several postural corrections in all activities, each and every day.
Not only does our physical position change based on our breathing patterns, but this will very often reflect our emotional state too.
Take a giant breath and sigh out – naturally the response is to expand the chest and sit up tall/shrug the shoulders, followed by a slumping and drooping of the body as the air leaves our body. The well energised, oxygenated posture of enthusiasm and vibrance sitting upright and tall vs. the lethargic, unexcited posture of low motivation and focus.
It’s also easier to breath in certain positions – think about the last time you were gasping for air after a strenuous physical task like exercise and propped your hands on your knees while leaning over because standing upright just didn’t feel like you’re getting enough oxygen.
This basically gives our ‘respiratory muscles’ some assistance so they aren’t working overtime to pull air into the lungs.
The diaphragm is a large, dome-shaped muscle located at the base of the lungs and is responsible for drawing air down into the lungs particularly when we are at rest. This muscle acts like a lid to maintain the pressure creating by drawing air into a tightly packed intra-abdominal space.
The muscles around the abdomen, chest wall and neck usually get recruited for assistance when the diaphragm can’t pull enough air onto the lungs on its own.
This is a pretty useful strategy when we really need it like after or during strenuous activity.
The problem arises when these muscles are used excessively and at inappropriate times (such as at rest), resulting in tightness and overactivity.
Most commonly, we see this present as neck pain/tension/headaches, midback/shoulder blade pain and for some lower back pain secondary to poor control of the spine.
A key role the diaphragm plays is in spinal stability and core strength,acting with the deeper core muscles to increase intrabdominal pressure and form a stable midsection.
To simplify what is a complex organisation of structures – the diaphragm works in the background along with the deeper core muscles (Transverse Abdominus/TvA/T-Zone/inner abdominals, etc) and the pelvic floor muscles to maintain background stability of the mid-section and spine.
In fact, many sports requiring core stability such as powerlifting, weightlifting, athletics and gymnastics will be utilising the diaphragm along with their core muscles without even knowing it.
The problem here arises when an athlete is unable to effectively use the diaphragm to its maximum capacity and subsequently misses out on the additional abdominal pressure support offered by the diaphragmin combination with the other muscle of the core and spine.
Nervous System
What’s more interesting about the diaphragm is its role in slow, resting breathing and regulating what’s known as “Vagal Tone”.
This is essentially the amount of activity in one of the nerves (Vagus Nerve/10th Cranial Nerve) that is responsible for a lot of the automatic ‘rest and digest’ (parasympathetic) functioning of many organs in the body.
As this nerve runs behind the diaphragm, movement of the diaphragm (such as with slow deep abdominal breathing) stimulates the nerve/increases Vagal Tone to slow the nervous system down and enhance the so called “Rest and Digest/Parasympathetic” restorative process of the body.
With roots in ancient Ayurvedic & Eastern Medicine controlled breathing techniques (or Prānayāmā प्राणायाम) and can be an effective way to enhance recovery both during and after exercise as well as throughout the day.
Specifically, slow breathing techniques have been shown to regulate stress hormones and combat the physiological response to the demands of daily life.
During exercise and after, incorporating deeper, slower abdominal/diaphragm breathing can assist in improving ventilation of air into your lungs which may help you catch your breath faster and delay shortness of breath.
Outside of this, performing dedicated slowed breathing with an emphasis on timing the exhale to last >6 seconds can improve a range of health outcomes, specifically related to regulating the nervous system to reduce ‘fight or flight’ (sympathetic) activity, modulate stress hormones, increase venous return and the slow the cardiac cycle.
Check out how your heart rate/pulse starts to drop while following a 4 sec inhale : 6 sec exhale. This ratio is one I prefer as it’s not too difficult to control for beginners and nicely fits into the rate of 6 breaths/min (0.1Hz) which has been shown in research to be one of the most effective timing ratios to elicit physiological changes.
To further facilitate this “Vagal Tone” - focusing on directing the breath into your abdomen, allowing yourself to feel the air get drawn into the lowest/deepest parts of the lungs and gently expand the abdomen/diaphragm.
Feel where the breath is going with your hands on the lower sides of your abdomen, trying not to lift the chest or tense the neck.
For some people this is a natural pattern, while for others it may feel awkward – although with practice and time this can be improved with greater control of the diaphragm.
Performance
If more efficient breath control can improve oxygen uptake – surely there must be a benefit to performance, right?
While there is a lot of research that has been done around training the respiratory muscles to enhance aerobic performance, less is known about the effects of slow diaphragmic breathing.
Theoretically, greater capacity to utilise the diaphragm might stave off fatigue in the accessory muscles that help with respiration around the chest neck and abdomen – preserving energy for later on during an endurance activity, like running or other prolonged exercise, when we really need the assistance to draw more air into the lungs.
Ensuring breaths taken early on are still deep and full (maximising the amount of air drawn into the lower lungs) could also allow better oxygen uptake to the heart and working muscles, which alone can improve fatigue tolerance and endurance performance.
In chronic lung conditions such as Emphysema and other varieties of COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), we often see shallow breathing patterns as the lungs are pathologically affected and greater reliance is placed on the accessory breathing muscles around the neck and chest.
Along with many other physiological changes – this is one of the factors contributing to poor exercise tolerance and reduced oxygenation of these individuals’ muscles and other tissue, as air(and therefore oxygen) is not being drawn deep down into the lower lungs.
Deep breathing exercise are actually a key component in keeping airways clear in these individuals and is one of the most important parts of prescribing exercise to improve lung/respiratory health.
Integrating deep abdominal breathing into your day can be as simple as performing a few breaths in the morning as you get ready for your day or before getting ready to go to sleep at night.
But to really get the most out of the benefits of deep breathing and diaphragm control – you may want to try the following drills before or after you exercise or take a few minutes out of your daily routine to perform on its own.
Diaphragmic/’Vagal’ Breathing
-Lie on your back on a flat surface or in bed, with knees bent and your head supported. You can use a pillow/foam roller under your knees to support your legs.
-Place one hand on your upper chest and the other just below your rib cage on your abdomen to feel your diaphragm move as you breathe (while your chest stays relatively still)
-Breathe In through the nose, drawing air down to the Lower Back > Stomach > Lower Ribs
-Breathe Out through the mouth slowly
-Try to follow a 4 sec inhale > 6 sec exhale cycle for 10 to 15 Breaths
2. Thoracic Expansion/Lateral Costal Breathing
- Lie on your back on a flat surface as above
-Place your hands gently around the sides of your abdomen to feel your lower ribs expand
-Breathe In through the nose, drawing air down to the Lower Back > Lower Ribs >Chest
-Breathe Out through the mouth slowly
-Try to follow a 4 sec inhale > 6 sec exhale cycle for 10 to 15 Breaths
*You can progress this by adding short holds for 3-5 seconds at the end of each inhale or exhale.
3. 90/90 Breathing
-Lay on your back with feet flat up against a wall
-Bend the knee and hips to 90’ with your Low Back flush against the floor,
-Place your hands gently around the sides of your abdomen/under the lower ribs
-Breathe In through the nose, drawing air down to the Lower Back > Stomach > Chest
-Hold Air In for 3-5 Count
-Breathe Out through the mouth with a slow, pursed lip exhale like breathing through a straw
-Hold Empty Position for 3-5 Count
- Focus on the direction of air deep down into the diaphragm and perform for 10 to 15 Breaths
*You can progress this by blowing into a balloon in order to increase the difficulty of maintaining diaphragm and core control/intrabdominal pressure while breathing against resistance - which can be useful for higher load abdominal stability.
These are only 3 examples of some of the more basic breathing control exercises -
If you’d like more information on any of the information above or would like a better understanding of how movement can be used as medicine for you, keep an eye out for more content like this or get in touch for a personalised plan of action today.
Pictures:
1.Alverdes, L. (2018). Short-term effects of 90/90 breathing with ball and balloon on core stability.https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Short-term-effects-of-90%2F90-breathing-with-ball-and-Alverdes/5a3b90f803ff857ff730a8f5d273282300a70f7d
2.Kisner, C., & Colby, L.A. (1990). Therapeutic Exercise: Foundations and Techniques.https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Therapeutic-Exercise%3A-Foundations-and-Techniques-Kisner-Colby/4f53de4a081e4edc866ba45a3951972cba87a1a4