How breathing can make you stronger
In this blog I cover concepts that I teach clients during physical therapy and wellness sessions to improve stability and body mechanics.
Breathing is the keystone to the body’s stability because of its connection to the core. When you think about the core, of the first things that probably comes to mind is your “six-pack” muscle, also known as your rectus abdominis. But there is more to the core than just that one muscle.
Anatomy of the core
I like to think of the core as a canister. It has a top, bottom, and sides 360 degrees around. The top is the diaphragm, the muscle that helps fill and empty air from the lungs. The bottom is your pelvic floor, the sling of muscles at the bottom of your pelvis that keep all of the organs from falling out the bottom of you. The pelvic floor also plays a roll in bowel, bladder, and sexual function. The sides of the core canister are the four layers of abdominal muscles (yes, you have that many abs!) and the multiple layers of muscles around your low back.
Breathing coordination
All of the muscles in the core need to coordinate together to properly stabilize our body. During an inhale all of the muscles around the sides of the core should expand, and the diaphragm should descend with the pelvic floor. On the exhale, the opposite should happen- the sides compress while the pelvic floor and diaphragm ascend. Breathing with proper mechanics like this pressurizes the body to give support with any movement.
Pressurization of the core
Our core gets stability from pressurization.
I’ll use the soda can analogy to explain pressurization:
When you reach for a can of soda from the refrigerator and it is unopened, you can give the can a pretty hard squeeze without denting it. That can is pressurized. When you open the can, it loses pressurization and you can easily crush it by squeezing it.
Pressurization is important for our core so that movement patterns don’t brake down and cause problems. We lose pressurization of our core when we hold our breath, we brace or bear down to lift something heavy, or we don’t properly coordinate breathing like explained above. Our body uses these techniques to compensate for weakness.
If our body uses these compensations, over time, we can develop problems such as:
Hernias
Pelvic floor dysfunction
Leaking
Pelvic pain
Prolapse
Muscle strains
Overuse injuries
This is why working on breathing mechanics are important, even if you don’t have an injury!
How breathing helps with injury
If you are experiencing problems with any of the injuries above, don’t worry, breathing exercises can help! In addition to the list above, breathing can be helpful for many other issues such as back pain, plantar fasciitis, rotator cuff injury, TMD (jaw pain), and more.
By learning proper breathing mechanics, you give your body more support and stability offloading the muscles that have been overworked and compensating. The body will always work smarter, not harder. So if the muscle with the job title “squat helper” isn’t strong enough, then it will recruit other workers, even if they don’t have the proper training for that position. That can lead to overuse and injury.
By strengthening the core and utilizing optimal mechanics we can offload over worked and injured tissue to return back to a healthy state.
How you can work with me
I am a mobile physical therapist in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. I offer one-on-one physical therapy and wellness services. I have a special interest in treating active individuals, jaw pain, and women with pelvic floor dysfunction. If you are in the Lakes Region and are looking for treatment, schedule a free discovery call through the link below. I look forward to connecting!