Breathe your way to a great core

Ok, now we've looked a little at state, I'll move onto breathing. That said, I will come back to state as it is incredible how much it controls.

Working in this industry for a few years, I have had more strange looks when I tell clients we're going to get them breathing properly than anything else.

There are a number of things I'd like to go over with breathing, initially the function of it within most adults and also, ideal application of breathing within exercise.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, as babies, we all breathe from our stomachs, this is the natural habit as trends go, we unlearn through adolesence into adulthood. The problem being that as we breathe higher in the lungs, the usual recruitment of the lower abdominal area becomes completely redundant. In an area that, due to prolonged periods of sitting down is already very dysfunctional, this almost completely confirms the need not to engage within low trunk (inner core units - transverse abdominus, mulitifidus, pelvic floor, diaphragm) and subsequently, the upper stomach, thorax, chest and shoulder areas become overly involved in respiration. Again, these areas, due to postural dysfunction are highly overactive and become more and more tonic leading to further postural issues.

It's probably about time that I gave some ideas on how you can improve breathing. Well, before I mention an exercise, it is worth knowing that when embedding a new pattern of movement or habit to the body, it can take around 2,000 repetitions. However, when trying to correct a faulty pattern or habit, it can take in excess of 5,000. Needless to say, practice makes permanent and is very necessary to achieve automacy (unconscious competency).

1. Lying on your back, knees bent and feet flat, relax all shoulder, neck and back muscles.
2. Inhale through nose and simultaneously inflate the stomach.
3. Once stomach inflated, draw stomach by pulling naval back towards spine
4. Expire breath through the mouth and look to achieve a stronger abdominal contraction through expiration
5. Look to encourage the lower abdominals doing the work throughout steps and return to step 1. Repeat for 3-5 minutes

A really simple exercise that is designed to encourage this habit within function and movement and not just isolation. It is crucial initially to isolate this pattern as attempting into movement immediately involves a huge number of stressors and deomands.

Finally, what I'm going to mention is awareness of breathing. We all develop habits of breathing which are usually done at a subconscious level. One is specific to running. Many runners at some point come into contact with niggles and small injuries that can be tough to shake off. Many that are associated with impact but difficult to accurately pin down. As we have already illuded, expiration is a contraction and when breathing out whilst running, a certain amount of pressure is created. Most runners breathe out whilst stepping onto one side only during running and over time, this increased pressure can cause significant problems within the musculoskeletal system. If you want something to occupy your grey matter in your next run, try alternating the side that you breathe out on whilst running.

That's probably enough to take in for now

Phill