Topic: The Action Of Breathing
One of the things we learned about in the IRC sessions was Lateral Thoracic Breathing which is a breathing technique that involves, to put it simply, directing the breath so that the ribcage expands laterally which allows one to breathe while maintaining optimal “core” stability.
Learning about this technique was eye-opening for me because even though I have done various breathing exercises before (for things like meditation, anxiety mitigation, etc.), I have never given much thought to exactly what the action of breathing is or how I am able to control it. For this report, I wanted to explore in more detail exactly what goes into the Action of Breathing and learn more about how that action changes, if at all, to best support different types of movement.
It is well known even to someone with 0 curiosity about the human body that the diaphragm exists, and that it probably has something to do with breathing. But over the course of this research it became clear to me that most likely your average person doesn’t know exactly how the diaphragm works or what “diaphragmatic breathing” actually means.
My first encounter with the idea of “breathing from your diaphragm” was in choir, to create breath support for your singing by “stabilizing your core”. But while I believe this got me to tense my abs more while singing, I did not find that the way it was explained “breath from you belly, but keep your belly tight” gave me a deeper understanding of how to breathe optimally for any activity, much less singing and I continued through life having little to no understanding of how the Action of breathing works.
Thinking back on this and now knowing how truly Bad At Breathing I have been for a large portion of my life, made me believe that bringing at least a basic understanding of how our breath functions into our classes as coaches and movement facilitators can have a huge impact on our client’s quality of life, both in movement and in the day to day.
I took to the internet looking for anything I could find on breathing for dance, breathing for exercise in general and also breathing for powerlifting as I thought they would have more specific methods for breathing. I also looked into the work of Patrick Mceown and James Nestor as they both have books on the subject and seem to give similar advice. Both men talk extensively about breathing through the nose being the optimal way to breath and trying to prevent over-breathing. I found myself a little bit put off by the language they used and the claims they made with only anecdotal research, e.g. “Breathing for weight loss”, but overall I found their general points to be helpful.
I also did a deeper dive into the more specific anatomy of how the diaphragm actually works, and how it connects to the rest of the body. We talked about this briefly in IRC but I was curious as I found more discussion about diaphragmatic breath as it pertains to mobility.
When I started this project, I expected to find a lot of conflicting opinions, or at least differences in technique when I dug into how various disciplines coached breathing, but what I found instead was that most of the videos I could find on the subject actually agreed with each other about how best to breathe for optimal stability.
By and large these videos (see links section below) encourage mostly breathing from the nose and breathing into the back and sides of the ribcage to best utilize the muscular action of the diaphragm and allow for spinal support and abdominal stability.
I also found a very interesting essay about a man named Carl Stough, who was a choir conductor, musician and vocal coach in the 50s and 60s. Stough’s work focused largely on emphasizing the exhale and USING the diaphragm to push air out while more or less letting the inhale take care of itself.
This was quite revolutionary at the time and through his success as a conductor and singer, Carl Stough wound up working with everyone from emphysema patients all the way to Olympic runners.
My biggest takeaway from all of this is that breathing is both simpler and more complicated than I thought it was at the start of this journey.
It is simpler because there is actually more or less one agreed upon optimal way to breathe, although there are many ways of teaching it.
It is more complicated because our breath is connected to every part of how we think, move, sleep and live. We can utilize our breath and spinal positioning to make large strides in strength and mobility work, and if we’re breathing suboptimally it can have a massive impact on our mental and physical health.
This is a huge topic and I’ve definitely only just scratched the surface, but even that much has given me so much. As I have been practicing some of what I learned in researching this report (Mostly breathing through the nose, “efforting” the exhale instead of the inhale, finding 360 expansion of the trunk when breathing), I have found a greater sense of connection to my body, greater stability in my core, and more ability to calm myself when I start to feel anxious.
I intend to bring more breath-based instruction into my classes, but I think it is important that it be specific. Because just saying “Remember to breathe” or “take a few breaths here” can be a bit vague and doesn’t necessarily lead to breathing in an optimal way. Just like any other instruction, giving a specific action or external cue will almost always yield more comprehension than a vague one. I am currently experimenting with exactly what this is going to look like, but I am excited by the process!
Links section below! >>>
Links:
Inspiration of Breath - Jean McClelland on Carl Stough
Physio Therapist talking about breathing for dance-
Dana Santas on breathing patterns -
https://youtu.be/f7blmN8G2Fk
Anatomy explanation that I found helpful -
Another video on ribcage position while breathing and “overbreathing”-