Breathing: A Deeply Overlooked Matter
February 10th, 2009
Although we take millions of breaths without even a single thought, breathing is something that’s critical to our health and often goes overlooked. Each and every one of the trillions of cells that we’re made of requires a steady supply of oxygen to function properly. In fact, going without it for longer than just a few minutes will result in death!
Because we can breathe without thinking, it’s easy to take for granted. To give yourself a quick reminder of why breathing deserves more attention, hold your breath for as long as you can and closely observe how it feels.
The Significance of Each Breath
Breathing is probably much more involved than you may realize. We take about 20,000 breaths each day and use up to nearly 20 different muscles during each one. The manner in which these muscles are used can restrict oxygen intake, and as a result, cause cell malfunction and possibly lead to disease.
Trillions of cells are depending on every breath for the oxygen they need to not only function properly, but also survive. That’s quite a responsibility! 20,000 repetitions of improper breathing repeated day after day can significantly impact your health. As such, it’s important to be mindful of your breathing and make an effort to reinforce good technique.
Diaphragm Breathing
The diaphragm is a sheet of muscle located at the base of the rib cage that plays a significant role in proper breathing technique. When contracted, it expands the thoracic cavity, creates negative pressure to draw air into the lungs, and provides the additional space needed for the lungs to expand for a full breath of air. If this function is compromised or underutilized, the effective capacity of the lungs will decrease and less oxygen will be taken in.
Chest Breathing
With or without the use of the diaphragm, chest expansion is another form of breathing that will draw air into the lungs. However, from an evolutionary perspective, this capability is intended only for situations that require additional oxygen consumption, such as strenuous physical activity.
Due to the influences of modern society, many people fall into the habit of taking quick shallow breaths through the chest rather than slow deep breaths through the diaphragm.
Chest expansion occurs through the contraction of multiple small accessory muscles that lift and expand the ribcage. Because this form of breathing is only intended to be supplemental, these small muscles are easily overworked when used on a regular basis. In contrast, the diaphragm is a durable muscle that has evolved to easily handle the constant repetition of breathing.
Causes of Poor Breathing Technique
As part of the “fight or flight” stress response, any type of stressful stimulus will promote chest expansion to help us inhale the additional oxygen the body thinks it needs to flee from danger. Because the body doesn’t differentiate life threatening danger from the common stresses of modern fast paced living, simple forms of daily stress can provoke a long term habit of breathing through the chest instead of the diaphragm.
Furthermore, many of us spend most of the day sitting. This promotes a hunched posture that restricts the diaphragm from functioning properly and further encourages chest expansion. As a result, the small accessory muscles associated with chest expansion become become tight and promote forward head posture. In turn, this worsens the hunched posture that was already restricting diaphragm function. The resulting downward spiral of improper breathing and poor posture can lead to painful muscle and joint problems in addition to the oxygen deprivation.
Finally, poor nutrition can have an effect on your breathing as well. Food sensitivities and unhealthy processed foods provoke intestinal inflammation which can signal the nervous system in a way that’s believed to interfere with proper diaphragm function. Once again, this promotes the use of chest expansion to compensate.
Practice Proper Breathing
Because breathing is such a vital requirement for life, and because it’s so easy to do, there’s no excuse to not practice and reinforce proper technique.
Assessing proper breathing technique is very easy to do. Simply lie on your back with a light object rested on your stomach. With proper diaphragm function, the object should rise as you inhale and lower as you exhale. You should also be able to take in a full breath without expanding your chest.
This test can also be done on a regular basis as an exercise to reinforce proper diaphragmatic breathing. Once you’re comfortable with it, you can do the exercise anywhere without having to lie down and without resting an object on your stomach.
Double Your Time With Stress Relief
As I indicated in my article about stress, deep breathing is an excellent way to relieve it. Since we all have stress, breathing exercises are something we can all benefit from. By focusing on proper use of the diaphragm during these breathing exercises, you’ll be making two significant contributions to your health at the same time. Furthermore, your focus on breathing technique will distract you from your worries and will make it even easier to dissipate your stress.
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When I broke 9 ribs 8 years ago, I stopped breathing properly. 2 years on from my accident, my ribs were healed but I became stressed through lack of oxygen and I developed pins and needles in my legs. Thankfully I got refered to an amazing consultant who told me I needed to learn to breathe. I thought he was mad and was furious at being brushed off onto a physio who specialised in breathing. 2 weeks later, the pins and needles had gone and my stress levels were significantly reduced.
Breathing is SO critical and the majority of us don’t breathe properly. Whenever I find myself getting stressed or my shoulders going up, I count my breathing and spend 2 minutes bringing it back to 10 breaths a minute from the diaphragm.
Great story Jude, thanks for sharing!