A recent study published in the IJSMPT showed that people who breathe with their chests only are more likely to score poorly on movement tests. Why should we care about that? If you score lower on these tests, you are up to 50% more likely to suffer injury with exercise or recreational activity.
Breathing style effects our efficiency. We need to breathe to get oxygen (O2) to our cells. The better the breathing efficiency, the better the O2 supply to the entire body right? The better the O2 supply, the better the function of our cells, tissues, muscles, organs, etc. Poor body alignment with exercise, pain, faulty posture and stress can hinder breathing style and actually cause us to be less efficient limiting things like recovery from injury.
When we breathe, our chest cavity and lungs move up and down, front to back and side to side but we often neglect the muscles we use to breathe side to side. When we use these side to side muscles, the abdominals can support our back better. We also create less compression on the neck. For people with back and neck problems, just changing their breathing can make a big difference in back and neck strain! It also makes breathing more efficient to help oxygenate the injured areas of the body.
Try these simple steps to breathe better:
1. Lay on your back with your knees bent. Make sure you are in good postural alignment. Remember alignment is unique to every person. Rebalance offers postural assessments to help you understand your own body better. If you think you need some guidance on this, give us a call!
2. Inhale with control then follow it up by a longer exhale. (Inhale 2 secs; Exhale 3 sec) Repeat 3 times.
3. Inhale again bringing the the air down into the sides and the backs of your lower ribs so spread apart slightly. (Inhale 2 sec; Exhale 3 sec) Repeat 3-10 times.
If you still feel like you could use help with this, call us! Let’s set up a time to teach you so you can recover faster or avoid injury!
