Did you know that each time you breathe in and breathe out, there’s an entire wave across your spine? When you breathe in your whole body is supposed to go in a little bit in flexion. So the spinal column is lengthening, and when you breathe out there’s supposed to be an extension in your spinal column (is shortening).
Breathing With the Diaphragm
It helps a lot of people to show them how to properly breathe through the upper belly, just underneath the rib cage. It’s a good relief treatment for stress and for people who are not breathing enough with the diaphragm. We find that most people breathe with their chest instead of their diaphragm.
If you’re not breathing enough with the diaphragm, it’s a lot harder to get a good level of oxygen. As a result, you feel tired. You should be feeling a lateral expansion of the ribcage when you breathe in. Any time you breathe out, you should be tucking in your belly button; that also can help with your stress level.
When you breathe too much with your chest, there are other reactions. For example, the muscles in the neck will be overused. When those muscles become tight, they trigger neck pain, headaches or tightness of the jaw.
What We Look at During an Appointment
To determine if a person is breathing correctly, we look at them to see where the movement is happening. Those who don’t breathe enough with the diaphragm will experience tightness around the diaphragm. The more they use the diaphragm, the more it’s able to relax. Also, people will have tension all along the thoracic spine just at the junction of the ribcage.
The ribs go back to your spine so when you breathe there’s supposed to be a little bit of motion there. During chest breathing, there is no motion in the ribs close to the spine. The muscles around the spine get congested, and they get tight for a long time, and then you experience pain. As a consequence, you will start to slump forward.
The more your shoulders are forward, the harder it is to breathe with your diaphragm because you’re doing the opposite motion. Specific tightness in muscles is a pattern you can find over and over again. Some muscles, like the trapezius or scalenes, will be really tight. That tightness shows people are using those muscles too much to breathe instead of using the diaphragm.