Just Breathe!

How the Breath Impacts Your Core, Pelvic Floor, and More

Okay how many of you think about how you breathe?

Chances are probably very few, but do you realize the average human takes around 22,000 breaths in a day? That’s a huge part of your day! 

Did you know that the way we breathe impacts our ability to stabilize our spine, regulate our nervous system, control our bowels/bladder, and manage our heart rate/blood pressure? 

Since breathing has such a huge role in our body it makes sense to learn how to best utilize it for its full potential! That starts with learning how to properly use your diaphragm! 

Quick anatomy review (I won’t bore you with too many details): The lungs are protected by our ribcage and supported by our diaphragm. The diaphragm is a large dome-shaped muscle that is located at the base of our ribcage. When we take a breath in our diaphragm contracts and flattens down so that our lungs can expand, then when we blow that air out it retracts as our lungs recoil. We can make that retraction active by forcing our air out (like blowing out birthday candles) or we can let it happen passively (like in resting breathing). We also have several muscles that help us to breathe and those include our abdominals and back muscles, intercostals (little muscles between the ribs), our pecs, and our neck muscles. 

Okay…so back to the diaphragm. Let’s chat about how to optimize our diaphragm function to its full potential. 

Let’s give this a try: 

Step 1: Lay on your back or side with the hips and knees bent to 90 degrees 

Step 2: Slowly take a breath in and notice where you feel the ribs expand. Do they move up towards the head? Do they move out to the sides and the back? The goal is to feel a little movement in all planes…aka 360 breathing because the ribs expand in the front, sides, and back. 

Step 3: Now do that again and notice what happens at the belly when you inhale and exhale. Does your belly go out as you inhale or suck in? The goal is for the belly to expand with the inhale then gently fall in with the exhale. 

Step 4: Once you’ve mastered step 3 and the belly expands with inhale and falls in with exhale, try to exhale fully until you have no breath left. Do you feel your abs contract a little with that? If so, awesome - you’re catching on quick! 

Step 5: Okay let’s connect it with your pelvic floor - that’s at the bottom of the pelvis, between the sits bones, and is what contracts and relaxes to allow you to pee, poop, and pass gas! So now I want you to take a breath in and see if you can feel the sit bones open and pelvic floor lengthen. 

**Having a hard time finding your pelvic floor - try this step in child’s pose, a deep supported squat or in laying over a bolster. 

Step 6: Repeat step 4 by exhaling fully and this time notice what happens at the pelvic floor. You should feel it gently lift and contract with your ab muscles at the end of your exhale. 

Now let’s put it all together: 

Got it?

Okay now that you’ve become a breathing pro…give this a try next time you do a workout and see how much stronger and more efficient you can be! 

Having a little trouble? Give us a call to schedule a free consultation and we can help troubleshoot to get you breathing like a pro in no time! 

Written by: Kelsey Karnes PT, DPT