Belly breathing

Have you thought about your breathing lately?

Are you breathing from your chest?

Let’s change that.

Today we're diving into the basics of diaphragmatic breathing, aka belly breathing. Though it may sound boring, training yourself to breath correctly is key for proper functioning of the body every single day! In our office, belly breathing is one of the first things we tackle - that's how important this stuff is!!
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Focusing on creating intra-abdominal pressure in your stomach is the goal. Creating this pressure with your breath will activate deep stabilizing muscles around the spine, thus, strengthening and stabilizing our backs. Normal "at rest" breathing should look like the opposite of sucking in - aka, your stomach should expand or get bigger with each breath in. If your shoulders/chest are moving up and down with each breath in and your stomach is staying sucked in, you are breathing incorrectly!! But why do we do this? Stress can be a cause, as well as trying to keep our stomachs sucked in all day. Spoiler alert: sucking in to look skinnier is contributing to incorrect functioning of the body, and pain will most likely follow sooner or later.

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This video will show you a way to practice the correct way to breathe - while seated with good posture, place one hand on your chest and one hand on your stomach. Will each breathe in, the top hand should never move, and the bottom hand should move away from your body. If this seems hard, try practicing while laying on your back. Taking gravity out of it makes it a little bit easier for some of us. If you can become conscious of your breathing, the more you'll practice correct breathing, and the faster you'll train yourself to do so unconsciously!

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