Breathe Like a Baby

Often times teaching people some of the most basic movements can be the most challenging.  A case in point is breathing.

Movements that are so basic that they were mastered in the early stages of development can become dysfunctional for myriad reasons, including pain, injury, poor posture, and impaired movement.  The diaphragm is part of our core, whose main purpose is to help reflexively stabilize our spines so that we can function well without injury.  When the core isn't performing optimally, you may be setting yourself up for increased risk of injury.  But how do you know if you have issues with your core?  Let's start with the most essential movement, breathing.

Take a look at this clip of my 2 month old son, Bennett:

Notice how his belly flares out while his rib cage doesn't move very much.  Do you breathe like that?  Try this simple move.  Lie on your back and place one hand on your belly, the other on your chest.  Breathe by inhaling through your nose and exhaling through pursed lips, as if blowing up a balloon.  Focus on making your belly hand rise on inhalation while your chest hand remains relatively still.  Seems simple, right?  You'd be amazed at how folks struggle with this in the clinic.  And usually their first reaction is, "I had no idea how I was breathing in the first place!"

Those who come into my clinic with complaints of upper back, neck and shoulder pain often struggle with breathing correctly.  They're the "high anxiety" breathers who use muscles which are not intended to do the heavy lifting of breathing to compensate for their diaphragm.  They have a difficult time "quieting down" their ribcage during the above exercise.  But they are not the only ones who will benefit from re-learning how to breathe correctly.  Everything we do in life benefits from correct breathing.  And while simply breathing correctly isn't the cure-all for pain, it certainly plays a vital role in good functional movement.  In addition, an inability to breathe diaphragmatically can be an indication of impaired core motor control, which carries with it potentially broader implications.

Before you can begin to correct the way you move, you must first become aware of how you are moving in the first place.  So try this simple breathing exercise.  You may find that something "so easy that a baby can do it" is more challenging than you think.