360 Degree Breathing (IMPORTANT!)

DO YOU BREATHE WRONG?

Mastering breathing is crucial for a strong foundation in any fitness journey. But it seems so lame and people don't want to work on breathing. So I ask,

• Do you have any tightness in your neck or the front of your chest or mid back?
• Do your shoulders round forward
• Do you ever get numbness in your hands, especially sleeping at night?
• Do you suffer from urinary incontinence?
• Do you suffer from back pain and hip tightness?
• Do you have an anterior pelvic tilt and/or rib flare?
• Do you have a lower belly pooch? Or a diastasis recti? Or pelvic organ prolapse?

If you answered yes to any of these, then you need a breathing intervention.

If you have pelvic floor issues, you need a serious breathing intervention. Why? Because Breathing impacts pressure on the pelvic floor.

If you overlook breathing and advance with your exercises, this can lead to pain, pelvic floor issues, and diastasis.

WHAT IS UPPER AB DOMINANCE?

• This refers to over-gripping with the upper abs and it can put tremendous downward pressure on the pelvic floor.
• This can come from dysfunctional breathing patterns and from not recruiting the TVA correctly.
• It can cause head and neck tension, back pain, difficulty taking full/deep breaths and pelvic floor issues.

Does upper ab dominance cause a tummy pooch? Yes.

• This occurs when there's a lack of emphasis on engaging the pelvic floor and TVA, and instead there's upper abdominal engagement.
• Initiating the core engagement from below can prevent dominance of upper ab muscles and downward pressure.
• So you want to engage the pelvic floor first, then the low abs. That’s why you often hear the cue, “zip up” your core.

Watch the video:

360 DEGREE BREATHING PATTERN (IMPORTANT!)

This is important information. If you were only to learn 1 thing from me, I would want it to be 360 breathing. I've prepared both a video and written notes to help you learn. Do the exercises with me in the video.

Breathing:

• isn't just having air travel in and out of your nose. Breathing isn't just about filling your belly with air. You were probably taught to belly breathe. I’m not a fan of purposely trying to distend the belly a lot.
• Is about achieving a balanced 360-degree expansion, which means you’re also inhaling into your back and sides, not just your belly. The diaphragm goes all the way to the back, so just focusing on the front isn’t getting back diaphragm expansion.

DO IT WITH ME:

• Take a big nasal inhale down for me.
  • Connect to what your diaphragm is doing. Feel it push out on your fingers. It contracts and moves down when you inhale so your lungs will fill up with air (this is active).
• Now exhale for me:
  • The diaphragm moves up when you exhale and the air moves out of your lungs (this is passive). So the goal is to use the recoil the diaphragm back to its resting position for a natural, relaxed exhale.
  • Don’t contract your upper abs. Contracting the upper 6 pack and external obliques can be a big issue for generating too much pressure down on the pelvic floor. It can contribute to tightness, leaking and prolapse symptoms. Plus it creates the lower belly pooch. It doesn’t create a great environment for diastasis healing. It typically creates a lot of neck tension as well.
  • Don’t cut your exhalations short. Fully exhale the air out of your lungs. Failure to do this will keep you in a hyper-inflated state, and this can lead to issues, such as rib flare, anterior tilt, and a lower belly pooch. Furthermore, the full exhale sets the stage for a proper inhalation

Pressure:

• When you inhale, your lungs fill with air and that creates PRESSURE.
• Not all pressure is bad. Pressure down is what makes the pelvic floor stronger. BUT pressure down is a prominent factor in tightness, leaking and prolapse symptoms.
• Pressure management starts with how we breathe. Breath can be used to help relax the pelvic floor muscles. I'll teach you this in the pelvic floor clinic.

What does great breathing look like? It looks like 360 Breathing.

• Great breathing is balanced: you get some belly movement but you also get pressure expansion to the sides and back. So the goal is to get a great 360 expansion of the diaphragm.
• Inhale DOWN, the external intercostals contract and the diaphragm pulls down to expand the rib cage 360 degrees. Pressure moves in a 360 degree fashion into the belly, back and sides.
• Exhale: this is a natural recoil of the inhale. The ribs come back in as the diaphragm lifts up, no tension in the upper abs.
• The goal with breath work is getting air moving down, the ribs moving out and pressure moving in a 360 degree fashion into the belly, back and sides.

DO IT WITH ME: Belly Breathing

• Take a big belly breath where you don't let your rib cage move at all. Send that air and pressure down to the front.
• Take a moment to feel how much pressure is directed down into your pelvic floor
• All of the air going to the belly will limit back and side expansion. This can contribute to back tightness and back pelvic floor tightness.
• If you have diastasis recti, belly breathing creates downward pressure and that doesn’t create a great environment for diastasis recti healing.

• Belly breathing not a great choice for women with posterior pelvic floor tightness (and this is what most women have). Belly breathing reinforces that posterior back tightness instead of helping the back of the pelvic floor let go.

DO IT WITH ME: Shallow Breathing (Paradoxical Breathing)

• Take a shallow breath. Breathe up into your neck and shoulders, letting your rib cage slide up. So the inhale goes up.
• Notice how this limits the pressure that goes down on your inhale. The diaphragm doesn’t move down on the inhale like it should.
• The more we breathe up into our neck and shoulders, the more pressure we're likely to put down on the exhale. This contributes to bearing down as well as neck and chest tightness.
• Paradoxical breathing: inhale goes up, exhale goes down.
• Women are significantly more likely to be in a shallow breathing pattern and send more pressure to their pelvic floor with a forced exhale.
• Paradoxical breathing leads to using accessory breathing muscles (your pec minor and scalenes) instead of the diaphragm pulling down. This causes neck tension. 360 Breathing is great for decreasing neck tension because it facilitates rib cage expansion and decreases pec minor and scalene overactivity. This also helps improve chest tightness, rounded shoulders and numbness in the hands.

What is bearing down?

• Bearing down refers to applying excessive pressure and it can lead to issues like leakage and prolapse.
• The pressure is coming from gripping or clenching the upper abs.
• Over-griping the upper abs can put tremendous downward pressure on the pelvic floor and may also create a lower belly pooch.
• It's essential to recognize that pressure isn't inherently harmful; in fact, it contributes to building strength and spinal stability. The key is learning to manage pressure effectively. This involves being mindful of when you're gripping your upper abs, especially during your daily activities.
• The goal is not to fear pressure but to develop the skill of managing it.

Rib Cage

• Our rib cage is meant to move when we breathe. If it doesn’t move with every single breath, you probably have chest, neck and mid back tightness and pain.
• Fun visual: When you inhale, pretend you are a plastic water bottle that has been dented. The only way to fix these dents is from the inside by inhaling and expanding. Fixing tight muscles …it’s an inside job and it boils down to your breathing mechanics.
• You should feel nice side and back expansion when you inhale. It's a nice stretch.
• Getting the ribs to expand like that really helps loosen up the QL and the psoas.
  • The psoas is a large hip flexor muscle, it often causes back pain and tightness.
  • The psoas inserts up into the diaphragm.
  • If we inhale into our back with every breath, then the diaphragm descends down effectively giving the psoas a little massage. It leaves the back feeling so much looser.

If you have pelvic floor issues, you need a breathing intervention!

In the next section, I have provided you with exercises to help with upper ab dominance and lower belly pooching, as well as exercises to promote 360 breathing!

Reference: Pelvic Floor & Diastasis Course. December 2023. Dr. Sarah Duvall, PT, DPT.