Breathing Exercises

The Ins and Outs of breathing.

Did you know that on average you should take around day 20,000 breaths per day (approximately 17,280 – 23,040)? By the time you turn 50 that’s around 400 million breaths! What might also surprise you is that most people do not breathe correctly, and this can contribute to a range of injuries we see in the clinic here at City Physio.

Physiotherapist, and breathing coach Emma Ferris says that as high as 80% of the population has some form of breathing dysfunction and have developed altered breathing techniques to
accommodate for this. These altered breathing patterns can range from increased breath frequency to mouth breathing, or shallow breathing using upper chest and neck muscles. Right now, reading this blog you have already changed how you breathe and are probably now questioning what the correct way is.

Doing it wrong

Dysfunctional breathing is more than just strained, rapid shallow breathing. This may be the most obvious example but there are many other presentations, and they are just as harmful to the body.
Big sighs, yawning, breath holding, or the need to infrequently take an extra-large breath are all signs of dysfunctional breath and are actions taken by the body to correct the balance of oxygen andcarbon dioxide in the blood. Across the minutes, hours, and days of breathing poorly, imbalances in your oxygen and carbon dioxide levels can lead to significant changes. Symptoms can include dizziness and blurred vision, chest pain or tension, anxiety, neck pain, back pain, and the feeling of being overwhelmed or constantly on edge.
When your body is not getting the oxygen it needs, it tries to tell you about it!

Doing it right

“But I breath automatically!” you say. How could this be incorrect and how do I control it? From birth, humans know how to breath and do so instinctually. The problems associated with altered breathing mechanics don’t come from normal breathing, they come from the learnt behaviours we teach ourselves, and from the environments we find ourselves in that challenge regular breathing. If you have ever seen a sleeping baby or your pet curled up on the couch, you would notice the rise and fall of their abdomen and that they breathe through their noses. This is the most normal unadulterated way of breathing.

The biggest culprit: your posture

Most workers spend hours sitting, hunched toward one kind of screen or another. In this setup:

 the shoulders round forward, collapsing the chest and rib cage.
 The neck juts forward.
 the muscles in the front of the upper torso and upper back/neck – i.e., your pecs and
upper traps are now working harder and start to get tight.
 the muscles you need for good posture in the middle back stretch start to get weak.
 your hip flexors tighten while the glutes and hamstrings weaken. The tight hip flexors
pull on the lower spine and tighten the muscles in the lower back. This then causes
the abdominal muscles to stretch and weaken whilst also pulling on your diaphragm.
The result is often tight upper back and neck muscles, compressed chest and lungs and a posteriorly tilted pelvis that puts pressure on your lower back.

The fix

Correcting posture and re-learning how to breathe correctly are the most effective way to alleviate the array of shoulder, back and rib injuries associated with dysfunctional breathing.

This physiotherapist’s top three recommendations are:

1. Change your posture – Whether you are slouched in your chair or looking down at your
   phone, the shear act of moving out of that posture into another will change the way you
   breath and give those muscles a great.
2. Practice abdominal breathing – take the time to lie down on your back or sit upright in a
   chair and conscious practice breathing through you nose and allowing your belly to expand
   as you breathe deeply.
3. Get moving – when you walk, without thinking you adopt a posture that is supportive good quality breathing. Your back extends, shoulder back and chin up looking where you are going; all the things we associate with correct breath posture.
   If you have resonated with any of the topics in this blog, I encourage you to take the time to implement some of our strategies. If you are wanting a more trained eye to help you out then get in contact with one of our physiotherapy team at City Physio!