Breathing is likely something that you don’t think about too much throughout your day. However, the way you breathe can change your activities and overall function considerably. There are 3 different areas that contribute to a full breath: 1) belly/diaphragm 2) lateral ribs 3) upper chest.
Rib breathing involves focusing the breath laterally into the rib cage while keeping the stomach and upper chest relatively quiet. Rib breathing is the preferred way to breathe when focusing on active pelvic floor and core strengthening. If you continue with belly breathing when performing pelvic floor or core strengthening exercises, you will find yourself losing the contraction on the inhalation and regain the contraction on the exhalation. This impacts your ability to apply good pelvic floor and core muscle activation into functional tasks, as ideally we are breathing through activity and not holding the breath.
Chest breathing should be included only in activities that require maximal effort such as sprinting, when you need to get in every last sip of air. Think of getting breath into your chest as the last stop after you have maximally filled your belly and rib breath capacity. When chest breathing is used as a primary breathing strategy, you will notice excessive movement at the sternum and shoulder girdle with minimal movement happening at the abdomen. As discussed earlier, this is problematic for increasing neck, and shoulder tension. Headaches are also a common issue among chronic chest breathers.
Placing a light band around your ribs is a nice way to work on rib breathing
Physical therapy sessions will often include some education and instruction on how to improve your breathing strategy to help facilitate your unique goals. Pelvic floor physical therapy often begins with breath before anything else! We have many tools and tricks up our sleeves to help you learn how to breathe optimally both during your exercises as well as all of the other minutes in your day. Remember to take breath training slowly and don’t be too hard on yourself. It can be very challenging to change an unconscious strategy that you have practiced all day long for many years. With a little bit of practice you will find your breath gradually making changes that will impact you in a positive way for many years to come.