Breathing

*This post may contain affiliate links. See the disclosure policy for more information.

This month we are going to re-teach you how to breath correctly.  Yes, re-teach you because as baby’s and toddlers you used to breath correctly.  I bet the majority of you now breath incorrectly and its time to change you back to the right way.

So to remind you of what I am talking about, place a hand on your stomach while you read this and take a deep breath in!!!!!!!!!

Now exhale slowly.

When you breathed in, your stomach should have pushed your hand outwards and away from the centre of your body.  If it didn’t and your chest rose and expanded, then you weren’t diaphragmatically breathing.

You might be interested in : It’s Ok To Look Fat When Breathing

The process of breathing is related to Boyles Law and if any of you have the time, do a Google search on “Boyle’s law” and you will find lots of articles on the subject.  Basically, Boyle discovered back in the 1700’s the science behind particles of air moving from an area of increased pressure to an area of decreased pressure.

This basic principle is behind the mechanism of correct breathing.  When a person breathes in, the diaphragm should lower, reducing the pressure in the thoracic cavity (and pushing out your vital organs such as your stomach).  This forms a vacuum effect in the lungs (due to the reduction in pressure) causing air to rush in to equalize the pressure.  On exhalation, the diaphragm raises, increasing the pressure in the lungs so that it is greater than the pressure outside the lungs, causing the air to be drawn out of the lungs.

Breathing is an automatic mechanism of the body.  It occurs involuntarily.  However, during exercise, a number of muscles aid breathing and this is often referred to as forced breathing.  During forced breathing, the intercostals muscles and the obliques aid by lifting and lowering the rib cage.

From infancy, we naturally breathe using our diaphragm.  However, environmental pressures as we aged, such as not wanting to let our stomach hang over our belts, have forced us to hold our stomach in when we breathe, causing a number of flow on effects.  We breath more shallower and as a result, more often.  In order to breathe with our stomach being held in, we then have to raise and expand the chest cavity.

Society’s growing obesity rates have caused us to hold our stomachs in to look thinner than we really are.  A woman squeezing into tight clothing is another cause.  If you watch a baby or a toddler, they naturally breathe correctly as they aren’t so concerned with their belly sticking out.

We can take a lesson or two from children as they all have good posture with excellent bending and lifting technique.  It isn’t until adults have corrupted them that their posture, breathing and lifting techniques all go out the window.  They imitate you and stop bending their knees to pick something up off the floor and there goes their good lifting technique.

There are a number of benefits to diaphragmatically breathing.  You breathe slower and deeper.  The downside is that if this method is new to you, then you may feel dizzy as you are getting more oxygen than you are used to.  So take it easy and practice this technique at home first, to get used to it, then introduce it gradually until you do it naturally, without thought and it occurs voluntarily.