Stop using your belly to breathe and start using your ribs
How many times have you heard the cue ‘breathe into your belly’?
The breath is a hot topic at the moment, and with Asthma Awareness Day this month, increasing reports of long Covid breathing difficulties, hayfever season upon us and numerous breathing apps, coaching and techniques popping up, I wanted to voice my thoughts on an overused and misdirected cue.
Our body has a primary muscle for respiration, the diaphragm, not the belly!
Optimal breathing pattern:
· On inhalation, the lungs fill
· The diaphragm descends
· The rib cage expands to the front and back, and to both sides
· The pelvic floor descends
· On exhalation, the lungs empty
· The diaphragm rises
· The rib cage moves in
· The pelvic floor rises
However, what I see most often in clinic and on my Womo courses is people doing the reverse of this. As they breathe in they pull in their stomach and lift their shoulders. The breathing motion becomes an up-down movement of the rib cage, rather than an in-out.
This is called paradoxical breathing, because the rib cage is actually being squeezed, while the lungs and diaphragm are trying to expand.
This type of breathing is most often seen in people who are frequently in stress mode, chronic asthma sufferers (noted as ‘barrel or high chested’), or people who have been conditioned to hold their stomachs in.
And this is where the corrective cue to direct the breath into the belly has evolved from. Coaches are trying to help people let go of the tension they are holding in their stomachs and stop them from sucking it inwards on an inhale.
It is a well-intentioned cue, but it is not helpful in redirecting the breath to the right parts!
When the breath is redirected into the belly, all the movement is focused to abdominal motion and not the ribs or diaphragm. The abdominal muscles are disengaged and the pressure is directed more forwards into the front abdominal wall which adversely affects the engagement of the pelvic floor, and exacerbates hernias, pelvic floor and diastasis recti (tummy gap) issues.
So what is the best way to correct the breath? How do you know you even need to correct it in the first place?
Look out for symptoms of poor breathing patterns, including but not limited to:
· Shoulder and neck tension due to overuse of these muscles to lift the rib cage
· Headaches
· Indigestion, bloating, wind and irritable bowel due to poor diaphragm movement which is necessary for the natural gut massage
· Stress, anxiety and palpitations due to short and shallow breathing making the body think it is in fight/flight mode
· Women’s, and some men’s, health related issues, such as poor pelvic floor health, like leaking, prolapse, hernia and diastasis recti (tummy gap)
· Over breathing, dizziness, sighing, yawning, gasping, breath holding, mouth breathing and sinus congestion
Check how you are breathing:
· Lie or sit comfortably with one hand on your upper chest and one hand on your lower ribs (not on your belly)
· Notice if your top hand is moving as you breathe
· Ideally most movement should be felt in your lower hand and very little, if anything at all, should be felt in the top hand
If you are now aware that you tend to raise your rib cage and suck in your belly as you inhale, and that most of the movement is coming into your upper chest, see if you can redirect the breath into your lower ribs, visualising a 360-degree motion all around your lower rib cage, expanding as you inhale.
For a clear demonstration and a breathing practise to follow along, visit the video guides page
As the breath is absolutely integral to women and their pelvic health I dedicate a whole class on my Womo course to this very topic. If you want to learn more, the next course begins in June and all the details and booking is on the Womo page of the website.
So rather than ‘belly breath’, think ‘360 lower rib breath’. Not quite as catchy a cue, but far more effective!
Emma Wightman
www.the-sop.com