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In the Getting Started post, I made mention of breathing exercises when talking about nourishing your body. I want to spend a little bit of time talking about breathing, how it works, how it affects us, and what we can do to breathe well.
But I Breathe Constantly, Iâm Practically an Expert
We all do it, all the time, since the day we were born. But just because we do something well enough to survive doesnât mean weâre doing it well enough to thrive. The parts of our lives spent sitting around, not putting stress on our lungs, reduces what they can do.
When you breathe well, more oxygen makes it into your blood, which in turn works to reduce heart rate and blood pressure; it also increases core stability and strength by working the diaphragm; and it can help engage the parasympathetic nervous system, helping you to relax and relieve stress.
But most of us donât breathe optimally. A regular seated posture locks a lot of the motion of the diaphragm in place, teaching us to breathe mainly with the upper portion of the lungs. Because of this, we donât use our lung capacity to its fullest. Whatâs more, shallowly breathing into the upper lungs is a trigger for the sympathetic nervous system that can put you into a constant fight-or-flight state.
Fine, How Do I Breathe Better?
The most important thing is to include regular conditioning in your training week. One or two days a week is fully sufficient for regular improvements, just make sure youâre including both âgrindâ and âintensity" work.
Aside from that, there are many breathing exercises and techniques in the world that can help improve how you breathe. Some of the ones I like followâŚ
Crocodile breathing is probably my favorite technique of all of them. It not only teaches you how to deeply breathe using your diaphragm, but also helps strengthen the diaphragm by using the floor as resistance. You can accomplish the same thing with the American Lung Associationâs belly breathing techniques, using your hands to resist diaphragm expansion.
Pursed lip breathing is sort of the opposite side of the coin to crocodile breathing. You will use your lips to add resistance to your exhale. In fact, you can use them one after the other. When you exhale in the crocodile position, just purse your lips to resist the exhilation.
The 4-7-8 breathing technique can be used to really lock in and encourage diaphragmatic breathing. Iâd count this as more of a meditative technique, using deep breathing and a focus on counting to relax you. But I like to couple this with what is known as ujjayi breathing, from yoga. The idea is simple: you restrict your airway on inhale and exhale to make a load rasping/wooshing sound. Like the ocean. Or Darth Vader.
The final technique doesnât have a name that I'm aware of. All deep breathing exercises can stimulate the vagus nerve but one of the better techniques is the valsalva maneuver - that is, pinching your nose and closing your mouth and trying to breath out hard against it. I like to perform a modified valsalva maneuver like so: when seated, take as deep a belly breath as you can and hold it; with this held breath, forcefully expand and stretch chest forward, not letting any air escape through your throat; return to a normal posture and exhale after a few seconds. Be sure to do this seated, as it has a tendency to make you feel light headed.
Try some or all of these techniques, or discover your own. Adding dedicated breathing exercise into your day takes no time at all, and it will pay off in a lot of ways.