I’m not a physical therapist, osteo, or any type of doctor, however I’ve been lucky enough to spend some time with those that are very knowledgeable with diaphragm breathing and breathing in general. On a side note, if you’re truly interested in breathing patterns, I’d read anything by Dr. Leon Chaitow. Now thanks to Drew Dillion, my weightlifting coach, and Connor Ryan, my physical therapist, I believe I’m finally on my way back to a healthy back.
Before we move on, just to give you a little back story, I have asthma and herniated discs in my lower back. In my opinion, had I worked on proper breathing patterns I would have had less of an asthma issue and more than likely would not have herniated my discs.
Alignment
I was improperly taught how to squat, it was the old “big chest, back arch, sit back” method. For some this maybe fine, however I over arched my back and went into lordosis (example pic above).
You can see by the above diagram that your posture matters. So what does that have to do with breathing? Everything! Say if you breath through your chest, you’ll more than likely flare your rib cage and that can potentially place you in an stronger anterior pelvic tilt. While stretching and doing soft tissue work is great for you, it may not be treating the cause of the issue. In this example, it will be your breathing compensation pattern.
Everyone will have there own natural muscular compensation patterns, but we want to minimize this as much as possible by placing our body into better alignment. For myself, while my breathing training is still a work in progress, I can feel more aligned and less of a “tug and pull” between my hips and back when I do the belly breathing exercises. It’s amazing how these breathing drills has freed up my shoulders and hips, which in turn cut down my warm up time, and places me in a stronger and safer position to lift.
Why Is This Important?
Coaches and athletes value strength and power, we discuss this all the time but what does strength mean without proper positioning? If you can place yourself in a stronger position to fully utilize all the strength that you have, why wouldn’t you do so?
In this case, taking in a full 360 belly breathe will allow you to create stronger intra-abdominal pressure so that you can fully utilize your legs and trunk. Only focusing on a big chest breath, doesn’t place your diaphragm in a stronger position to fully engage your “core” muscles. Also if used correctly, you’ll not only have a stronger trunk/core but you’ll place yourself in a better alignment to squat, pull, and/or press.
2 Breathing Exercise Techniques
Drew Dillion, with Project Lift, does a great job here giving the views a very quick assessment to see if you’re a belly breather or a chest breather and shows a very simple tool breathing exercise you can do at home with stages.
The 90/90 with the balloon is something that I’ve been doing a lot of. While it looks SUPER simple, it’s actually not. Learning to engage your hamstring, breathe through your diaphragm/lungs at all points, keep the air in the balloon, and yet stay relaxed is quite a task. In fact, if you can see a PT or a trainer that has been properly taught this movement, I’d suggest to spend a few bucks to learn it correctly. I wasted valuable time doing it completely wrong and thanks to Connor, I learned it the right way.
Conclusion
By no means is a this a detailed explanation about belly breathing but I hope it gives you some insight on the benefits of PROPER belly breathing. Without it, you may not be fully reaching your potential.
Train smart,
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