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Nearly all of us nowadays chronically forget to breathe. Constantly barraged with stress from family, relationships and work, we fail to do our most basic biological function…breathe.
We forget, yet we all know how important breath is for our cardiovascular, digestive, neurological and mental health. What follows are some of my favorite tips for loosening the breath as well as some breathing exercises if you find yourself unable to sleep or going about your daily activities.
Releasing the breath:
Diaphragm Release
Laying down on your back, place four fingers of one hand underneath your rib cage on the same side near your sternum. You’ll gently lift your rib cage, then take your fingers of the opposite hand and lightly slide the skin away from your ribs. Then, walk the fingers under the rib cage a little bit further down and pull with the other hand again. You’ll do this all the way down until you hit the side of your body. Take a few breaths after releasing the first side and feel how much easier it is to breathe on that side. If you stand in front of a mirror, you will actually see your rib cage expand more on that side of your body versus the side you have yet to release. Essentially you are loosening the surface connective tissues around your rib cage and diaphragm.
Chair position
Another great way to make it easier to breathe while you are seated is to be sure that your hips are slightly higher than your knees. Nearly all chairs and car seats automatically place our bodies in a position where our hips are lower than our knees. This creates a tilt in our pelvis and makes it harder for us to breathe. If you can at least adjust the height setting on your chair and/or put a towel or pillow in the chair to lift your hips, you will find that breath flows more easily.
Remembering to breathe:
Visual object
Sometimes it just helps to have a picture, object, song or poem to remind us to breathe. A friend once gifted me a beautiful, rose quartz stone that I used to keep in my line of sight when I worked a desk job. That serene color and reminder of the outdoors often reminded me to take a moment to check in with my breath. A calming picture as wallpaper on your computer or phone as well as a favorite song (my favorite here) or saying to remind you to smile and breathe can all be helpful cues.
Count breath
This is my favorite technique to give my clients because it can be done anywhere and it is my go-to when I cannot sleep.
Take an inhale and an exhale and notice the quality of each. Is the inhale longer than the exhale? Is it difficult to take a breath in? Do you feel like you have to yawn or sigh to exhale? Begin to count how long it takes you to do each and try to make them equal in duration. You may find that at first observance you have a 3 count inhale and exhale. With each next breath, attempt to add on one count. There is no ultimate goal or number of breaths to take, but notice how your heartbeat inevitably slows as you extend each inhalation and exhalation.
Full body breath
Take and inhale–notice how far the breath travels down your body. Does your chest move? Do your shoulders rise? Does your belly inflate with air? To encourage the breath to fill my whole torso, I think of my body as an empty vessel and the breath filling each crevice starting with my throat, then ribs, back, belly, hips, thighs…all the way down to my feet. When I exhale, I go back up toe to head and visualize the exhale coming from the feet. During this exhale, I will also contract my tummy muscles and relax my jaw to expel the air.
Back breath
Before learning Pilates, I had never heard of the concept of lateral or intercostal breathing. I never realized that we had muscles in between our ribs (intercostals) and never thought about how the ribs span the back as well. Obvious, I know, but just not something I ever considered when consciously breathing. It took me a while to loosen the tension in my mid back and shoulders so that I could expand my ribs and breath there. Laying face down over a fitness or exercise ball, release your weight into the ball and think about absorbing the ball when exhaling and then inhaling into your back. It’s a wonderful breath opener during and at the end of a workday, and it helps to relieve back and shoulder tension.
There are many books and videos out to help us rediscover and remind us to breathe. My favorite is The Breathing Book by Donna Farhi. Not only is it a fantastic pre-bed or weekend read, it also makes a wonderful gift for a loved one. Remember…you’re alive!
Happy breathing.
Shannon Rashap, CPT, M.A. Ed.
Helping you find effort with ease…
Several years ago I began experiencing a sharp pain deep in my left gluteal muscle that was made worse after sitting or even laying down. After many fruitless trips to various doctors and practitioners, I discovered the problem muscle when looking at a poster of the muscles of the human body–the piriformis! As I did some Internet searches, it seemed that I fit the bill of someone who suffers from piriformis pain: desk worker who also likes to run long distances on the weekend. Ever since this ah-ha moment, I have sought out exercises that I can do to relieve this pain and how to prevent future episodes of my piriformis acting up.
The piriformis is a deep deep muscle that connects the low back to your hip. It helps the leg rotate and is a hip stabilizer. When my pain was at its worst, my low back felt locked and going up and down stairs was excruciating. Chiropractic care as well as these exercises helped me to rehabilitate so that I’m now focusing on preventative care.
Piriformis pressure point release.
Piriformis muscle release with tennis ball.
A tennis ball of all things became my best friend and helped me release some of the tension in my piriformis. There is a trigger point right in the middle of the butt to release tension in the piriformis. Lay on your back and put the tennis ball in that pressure point. You’ll know you’re on the right muscle if you bend your knee with feet flat and let the knee relax out to the side (making a 4 with your legs). This is a great hip release for anyone who sits for long periods. From there, make circles each direction by sliding your foot straight out with the knee to the ceiling and then open the knee from the hip and slide into your figure 4 position. Take your time and try to release your weight on the tennis ball–don’t fight it.
Foam roller fascia in butt.
Using a foam roller on my glutes after the tennis ball release helped to relieve tension in that area as well. Sit on a foam roller and rock your weight onto one cheek, then cross the same ankle over the opposite knee. Roll back and forth.
Yoga pigeon pose
Runner stretch
For stretching, pigeon pose and the runners stretch were the most helpful stretches for at home or in the office.
These are fantastic exercises for anyone who sits for long periods. They help to get blood moving to your bottom that usually interfaces with a chair. When establishing a preventative program for myself, I believe one of the reasons for my initial pain was having weak butt muscles from sitting all day at work and then attempting physically strenuous activities that necessitated a strong backside. Because of chairs nowadays, we sit and our butt muscles atrophy over time, yet they are so important for posture and walking. I have found that strengthening my gluteal muscles, particularly the gluteus medius, has been the best thing for keeping me out of pain long-term. Piriformis flare ups also tend to happen more frequently to those of us who pronate (when the ankle falls in to the midline of the body). Piriformis issues can also play a role in sciatica. If you feel any shooting pain in your back or leg, please see a qualified chiropractor, physician and/or physical therapist for care.
Shannon Rashap, CPT, M.A. Ed.
Helping you find effort with ease…
Have you ever been standing or taken a step and felt a little off balance or unstable? Have you ever walked or ran on an uneven surface and felt a little wobbly on your ankles or knees? Proprioception, or knowing where we are in space, is one of the most important skills in injury prevention as well as rehabilitation. Receptors in your muscles and tendons are constantly evaluating your physical position and communicating those coordinates to your nervous system. This lets your brain know where your joints are in relation to one another during your daily activities, helping you feel more stable as you move. After we experience an injury, we compensate for pain in our movement patterns, so these receptors need to be recalibrated with the body. As we heal from an injury, intentionally connecting with where we are in space can help us to recover effectively and prevent future mishaps.
Basic exercises for proprioception:
Standing single leg balance exercise for proprioception.
The most basic exercises for balance include balancing on one leg with eyes open or closed, to provide a greater challenge. Ideally, you will keep your hips level, use your core, and not put all of your weight on the standing leg. This is deceivingly difficult, so be aware of how your weight is distributed and maybe do a few repetitions without holding on to anything and then try a few where you hold on to something–feel how you are able to move more of your weight to the opposite hip.
Standing leg balance exercise to improve proprioception.
You can also reverse the exercise by pressing your foot into a ball and maintaining stability. Find your best level hips and gently press your foot into the ball maintaining balance and keeping hips on the same line. Pay attention to other areas of the body, like the shoulders, that may act to help you to balance. If you do tense in another area, these muscles may be helping you balance rather than your core.
Single leg seated balance exercise on physio ball.
To practice proprioception while sitting, you can sit on a fitness/balance ball and slowly lift one knee in the air. It is easier if you lightly press the opposite foot into the floor as you lift the target knee. Once these exercises take less effort, you can practice a variety of stability exercises on a BOSU ball or stability disc.
How we can help.
Chiropractic restores proper sensation and engagement of your nervous system which enhances proprioception, enabling the body to move fluidly and flexibly. Learning proprioception can be particularly difficult without any outside physical feedback for your muscles to receive. Pilates uses equipment with springs to not only support you so you don’t feel like you will fall while learning balance, but to also give your joints feedback and resistance to learn proprioception more quickly. We also use Ki Hara, an active stretching technique, that improves proprioceptive activity by constantly engaging a muscle group as it is being stretched. All of these approaches teach your body to not only understand where it is in space, but know where it is with respect to your core. When you have good alignment with core engagement, you are more agile when experiencing an outside force that could render you unstable. This means that when you encounter an uneven surface while walking or running, you will more quickly and dynamically react, leaving you less prone to injury!
Shannon
Helping you find effort with ease…
