I want to reintroduce you to breathing. You know, that thing you do all day long every day. Chances are, there’s room for improvement. With two basic techniques for better breathing, you can begin to access the benefits of deep diaphragmatic breathing. You’ll start to inhale more deeply and exhale more fully.
Breathing delivers essential oxygen to our bodies and expels the waste product, carbon dioxide. The process is automatic but posture, stress, and tightness are just a few of the reasons our breathing can become less efficient. It becomes shallow. We take in smaller amounts of oxygen and at times we even hold our breath.
The Benefits of Better Breathing
Deep breathing allows for better oxygen exchange and can alleviate stress and lower your blood pressure. If that’s not enough, here’s compelling evidence for working on your breathing and lung capacity:
In the 1980s, researchers with the Framingham Study, a 70-year longitudinal research program focused on heart disease… gathered two decades of data from 5,200 subjects, crunched the numbers, and discovered that the greatest indicator of life span wasn’t genetics, diet, or the amount of daily exercise, as many had suspected. It was lung capacity.
From Breath by James Nestor
Two Basic Breathing Strategies
Belly breathing is a technique to help you learn to bring your breath into the lower portion of your lungs and fully expand them. Horizontal breathing teaches you to compress through the lower ribs as you exhale and then expand as you inhale. I cover both of these in the video below.
I’ve been using these two techniques for better breathing recently and I’ve been having my fitness participants do them as well. Turns out all of us have some work to do!
Next week, I’ll be covering the muscles involved in breathing and how to stretch and activate them.
