Diaphragmatic (Deep) Breathing

This month's post will build on October’s post. I mentioned before, that the pelvic floor muscles are involved in breathing and breath coordination is integral in coordinating the core. I want to spend some time focusing on the mechanics of a deep breath and the benefits of diaphragmatic breathing, also known as deep breathing.

Before we get into deep breathing, let’s review the anatomy and purpose of the lungs and breathing. Breathing is the foundation of life. You have two lungs, one on each side of your chest and they serve as a ‘house’ for air exchange. The lungs exchange air by taking carbon dioxide (CO2) from your blood and replacing it with oxygen (O2). Once your blood is rid of CO2 and is filled with O2, the blood takes the oxygen around the body where it is used for energy by the cells. With each inhale, oxygen is brought to the body and with each exhale, carbon dioxide leaves the body. This exchange of air is vital to survival.

As previously mentioned, the deep core consists of 4 parts: the transverse abdominis which is the front of the core; the multifidus muscle, the back of the core; the diaphragm, the muscle underneath the lungs at the top of the core; and the pelvic floor muscles, at the bottom of the core.  These four muscles oscillate naturally as we breath, specifically, as we deep breath.  Deep breathing involves inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth.  As you inhale, your lungs fill with air and your diaphragm moves downwards, your abdomen and back expand outwards, and your pelvic floor expands down and out.  As we exhale and air leaves our lungs, the diaphragm moves upwards, and the abdomen, sides, and back fall inwards, and our pelvic floor moves upwards. 

During our day, this is how we should be naturally breathing, however, most of us do not breathe this way. Instead, we breathe in a pattern called paradoxical breathing.  Paradoxical breathing involves inhaling through our mouth in which our chest expands and belly draws inwards and then as we exhale through our mouth our chest falls and abdomen bulges outwards.  When we breathe this way, we do not use our full lung capacity and this can make us feel short of breath. This also uses muscles in our neck and upper chest which can contribute to pain or tightness in this area.  When we paradoxically breathe, we are not coordinating our core muscles properly and we are not allowing our chest and neck muscles to relax.

The natural oscillation of muscles during diaphragmatic breathing allows for the abdomen to accommodate for pressure when breathing in and breathing out.  Through use of breathing, we can then facilitate contraction and coordination of the core.  On the inhale, this is the time the core “relaxes” and on the exhale, is when the core will contract with physical activity.  When we work together, you know I am very particular about educating and having you demonstrate proper contraction of the core muscles for stability of the low back, pelvis, and hips.

The deep core muscles

In addition to the exchange of gas and it’s coordination with the core, diaphragmatic breathing acts positively on the nervous system. The nervous system can act in two different ways: the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system kicks in when we are stressed and acts as our “fight or flight” mode. Our eyes dilate, our heart rate increases, and we release cortisol, a stress hormone. The parasympathetic nervous system is the calming side of the nervous systems and is known as the “rest and digest.” It helps to decrease stress and is activated when we feel calm, safe, and rested. Diaphragmatic breathing facilitates the parasympathetic system and allows for our bodies to unwind from any stressors and decrease our levels of cortisol. Neither system is better nor worse than the other, as they both have a purpose in our day to day life. Instead, we want to strike a balance between the two and make sure we are not in one state for too long, otherwise this can cause other health deficits.

Diaphragmatic breathing has several other benefits such as improving sleep and decreasing inflammation, pain, stress, and anxiety. It has a multifactorial effect on the body and “downregulates” the nervous system to become more calm and to be able to heal. All of these factors influence each other and as they individually improve, the body as a whole continues to feel better, heal, and become less stressed.  

Impact of diaphragmatic (deep) breathing on other factors of health.

I challenge each of you after reading this, to practice deep breathing before falling asleep. This can be difficult at first but with patience and practice it will get much easier, I promise!