Breathing...you do it ALL THE TIME! If you’re reading this...you’re breathing. In fact, the average resting person takes somewhere between 20,000-30,000 breaths a day! This process is so ingrained in us, most of us are not even aware we’re doing it. Let alone how we’re doing it. Here’s the thing...HOW you breathe matters. It matters for how you feel and how you function.

There are three main strategies people adopt for breathing. Deep (or diaphragmatic) breathing, belly breathing, and shallow breathing. Let’s take a look at these strategies and then you can take the Thera band test to see which you use.

Deep breathing - when you take a deep breath in using this pattern, your ribs will expand out because your lungs, which sit under your ribs, are taking air in. As your ribs expand, your diaphragm (which sits in the lower rib cage) expands down to draw air into the body to help you get a good deep breath. The action of the diaphragm dropping down increases the intra-abdominal pressure in your trunk and your trunk should expand outwards...all around...belly, back, and sides. Think 360-degree rib expansion. This increase in pressure should continue its journey down, all the way to your pelvic floor. Creating a channel of dynamic stability between the diaphragm and the pelvic floor. This connection of the diaphragm and pelvic floor through breath is FUNDAMENTAL to developing an efficient stability strategy and helping you get strong. (more on the pelvic floor and breathing in a later post and in the upcoming workshop). The action of breathing down stimulates your parasympathetic nervous system. The parasympathetic nervous system is in charge of rest, digestion, elimination, and your sex drive. It helps bring you to a relaxed place of calm. This is also the state where your nervous system learns new movement patterns. This restful state of learning is a place you want to nurture. A place that your bodies should be versed in and your days full of.

Belly breathing is different than deep diaphragmatic breathing.

In belly breathing, although the air goes down, it only expands your belly. Your breath will take the path of least resistance…for most of us that is our bellies. We allow the softest part to move, and nothing else.

There isn’t any expansion of the ribs and core canister. So there isn’t a full increase in intra-abdominal pressure and your deep stability system isn’t accessed.

Shallow breathing - when you take a deep breath in using this pattern, the air comes in, but it doesn’t go down. Instead, the breath moves up into the top lobes of your lungs and into your neck and shoulders. It’s like you’re doing a mini shoulder shrug with every breath. In this pattern, you’re asking the neck and chest muscles to do a mini shrug 30,000 times a day! Those muscles are gonna get tight and tired! A shallow breathing pattern stimulates the sympathetic nervous system, the “fight, flight, or freeze” system. This system puts you in a stressed state to respond to threats. This is fine when there is an actual threat, but we don’t nourish our bodies by staying there once the threat is removed. Stuck in this breathing pattern we end up feeling stressed and anxious all the time.

So, here is a fun little test you can do at home to see which kind of breathing pattern you’re in.

Thera band breathing assessment

If you found your ribcage wasn’t moving or was moving in one part and not another, no worries. It’s just knowledge...and knowledge about your body is your SUPER POWER! Because now you have a place to start from and something concrete to work on.

Tension in the ribs, belly, shoulders, and back all contribute to a stiff trunk and ribcage, and a center of the body that is unable to move. If your ribs and trunk aren’t moving, then you are not able to get that deep 360-degree diaphragmatic breath and your channel of stability is unable to work to support you as it was designed.

There are many somatic movements that release tension in the center of the body, so you can move and breathe better. Here are two simple ones you can try.

15-minute somatic rib mobility practice

If your ribs are moving with your breath while lying on the floor, you can try taking it up a level by taking this test into movement and even exercises. Can you move throughout your day and keep the deep breathing pattern? Be mindful not to have your core strength override your breathing pattern. When something becomes challenging, we tend to over-brace with our abs ( or shoulders, ribs and neck, or all of the above). This over-bracing restricts our breath and our dynamic channel of stability.

Starting to become aware of how you’re breathing, what you are holding and what is moving can go a long way to helping you release overall tension, move easier and more freely, and get stronger atop an integrated center.