Are you breathing properly?
-
You might think yes, air is going in and out of my body and I am alive. But is this happening in the most efficient way to help your overall health and give you the maximum amount of energy for the least amount of effort.
-
Everything in our bodies is connected and that includes our mind that powers everything. So when you have stress at work or home or your knee arthritis is playing up, that has a knock on effect that can lead to a chain events that ends up with you shallow breathing and actually having to exert more effort to take in less breath.
-
So let’s look at what breathing actually is and how it can get out of sync.
-
Our diaphragm is the main muscle that draws our lungs down into our abdomen, creating a vacuum effect in our lungs that draws air in. It’s the way our bodies have evolved to be most mechanically efficient and use the least amount of energy to do the most essential thing we need to survive, Breathe.
-
When we get out of sync due to various factors we will discuss, that whole mechanism doesn’t function as it should and we move over to what’s called upper rib breathing. This is when instead of breathing through our stomachs we use the muscles in our upper back and neck to lift our ribs and expand the lungs to draw in air. So instead of naturally letting our diaphragm and stomach expand, we’re using other muscles that are not designed for this type of long term repetitive action. This results in a smaller breath of air entering the lungs as they get bigger as they descend and upper rib breathing does not allow them to expand to their full potential, so it gives us less air for more effort.