The Most Common Breathing Dysfunction and How to Correct It

Core Health Mini Series

Part One: The Most Common Postural Dysfunction and How to Correct It

Part Two: The Most Common Breathing Dysfunction and How to Correct It

In this mini series, we’re covering two foundational elements of core health: breathing and posture. While often overlooked, these both play a key role in maintaining a strong and functional core. In part one of this series, we discussed the most common postural dysfunction. In part two, we’re covering the most common breathing dysfunction. By understanding how breathing and posture impact your core health, you'll be empowered to make simple yet effective changes that can dramatically improve the health of your core! 

The Role of Breathing in Core Health

Breathing is an essential aspect of core health, particularly when it comes to stabilizing the spine and supporting the pelvic organs. The way you breathe has a profound impact on your entire core system, affecting everything from muscle activation to organ function. Proper breathing patterns can significantly improve core strength and spine health, reduce the risk of pelvic floor disorders, improve circulation and enhance the oxygen saturation of your cells.

Conversely, poor breathing habits can contribute to a host of issues, including muscle weakness, increased intra-abdominal pressure, pelvic floor dysfunction, digestive issues, decreased blood flow to your organs, pain and postural problems. Understanding and optimizing your breathing mechanics is a crucial step in maintaining a healthy core and preventing conditions like prolapse, diastasis and spine pain.

Here's how breathing affects your core health:

• Core Muscle Activation: Since your core muscles are reflexively activated by your breathing patterns, how you breathe will either turn your core muscles on or off, impacting their strength and functionality.
• Intra-abdominal Pressure: The diaphragm is the main modulator of the pressure in your abdomen. So how your diaphragm moves when you breath will significantly impact the the pressure in your abdomen. Optimal breathing mechanics and a strong flexible diaphragm will reduce unnecessary pressure in the abdomen, protecting against prolapse, pelvic floor dysfunction, incontinence, and back pain.
• Organ Position and Circulation: Since the movement diaphragm as you breathe impacts the pressure in the abdomen, this will also impact the position of your organs. When the pressure increases in your abdomen, the organs move down. When the pressure decreases, the organs are lifted. Proper breathing mechanics ensures that your organs stay in their optimal lifted and centered position and therefore can receive adequate blood flow and oxygen.
• Fascial Integrity: The abdominal and pelvic floor muscles are actually more fascia than they are muscle. Since breathing is what reflexively activates these muscles all day long, your breathing mechanics will significantly impact the health of your core fascia. Optimal breathing mechanics will unload the abdominal and pelvic fascia, by reducing the pressure in the abdomen. This will in turn prevent overstretching and help maintain stability.
• Spinal Alignment: Breathing mechanics are a huge factor impacting spine health. The movement of the diaphragm during breathing will either create spinal compression or it can increase the space between the vertebrae- leading to spinal decompression. Optimal breathing mechanics can help reduce spine pain and improve posture.

Belly Breathing: The Most Common Breathing Dysfunction

One of the most common breathing dysfunctions is belly breathing. While beneficial in certain contexts, it can lead to a host of problems when practiced incorrectly or during the wrong activities. Belly breathing, involves expanding the abdomen as you inhale. This technique can be quite beneficial to reduce tension in your core when practiced in a relaxed, supine position (lying on your back), as it promotes relaxation of the abdominal, pelvic and spinal muscles.

However, when you are upright and active, belly breathing leads to inhibition of the core muscles, stretching of the abdominal fascia, lowering of the organs and loss of spinal stability. This can lead to issues like weak core muscles, a distended waistline, poor posture, spine pain, and even the descent of the pelvic organs (prolapse). When you breathe primarily into your belly while standing or moving, your core muscles are inhibited, leading to:

1. Decreased organ support: Since belly breathing turns OFF the core muscles, this in turn reduces the support of the organs, and they will move downward- which will reduce their blood, lymph and nerve flow. 
2. Stretching of the Abdominal and Pelvic Fascia: Belly breathing while upright will stretch the core fascia, a connective tissue that supports the core muscles and organs. This leads to the "lower belly pooch", a distended waistline, core weakness, and pelvic floor dysfunction. 
3. Loss of Spinal Stability: When the core muscles turn off during belly breathing, this leads to decreased spinal support, increasing the risk of injury and back pain.

How to Breathe Properly

To counteract the issues associated with belly breathing, it's crucial to focus on 360 rib breathing, especially when upright. 360 rib breathing involves expanding the rib cage three-dimensionally while keeping the abdomen relatively still. This method reflexively activates the core muscles, tightens the core fascia, stabilizes the spine, and supports the pelvic organs.

Key Benefits of 360 Rib Breathing:

There are four key benefits to practicing 360 rib breathing, each contributing significantly to your overall core health:

• Improved Core Muscle Activation: Expanding your rib cage with breathing will reflexively activate your core muscles, providing support and stability to your spine and organs, while strengthening your core muscles.
• Improved Organ Function: When the rib cage expands fully with breathing, the organs will lift and this in turn increases their circulation. When the organs get optimal blood and lymph flow, their function automatically improves. 
• Spinal Decompression: When the rib cage expands and the diaphragm lifts, the space between the vertabrae increases and the spine will receive a nice decompression. This also helps maintain the ideal alignment of the spine, reducing pain and discomfort.
• Enhanced Pelvic Floor Function: Since 360 rib breathing lifts the organs and reduces the pressure in the abdomen, it provides more space and capacity for the pelvic floor muscles to operate, improving their strength, flexibility and function.

How to Practice Rib Cage Breathing

360 rib breathing involves deep, controlled breaths that fully engage the lungs and diaphragm. Here’s how to do it:

1. Imagine your lungs as a glass: When you inhale, think of filling the glass from the bottom to the top. This means your lower lungs fill first, followed the middle lungs, and last the the upper lungs fill.
2. Exhale from top to bottom: As you exhale, imagine pouring water out of the glass, emptying your lungs from the top to the bottom.

This visualization helps ensure full lung capacity is used, promoting better core muscle activation and leading to improved oxygen delivery to your cells. With practice, 360 rib breathing can become a natural part of your daily activities, improving your core, pelvic and spine health.

Transform Your Breathing for Better Health

Incorporating proper breathing mechanics into your daily life, particularly 360 rib breathing, can transform your core health. It stabilizes and decompresses your spine, supports your organs and improves their function, improves pelvic floor muscle health, and strengthens your core muscles with each breath you take! If you're dealing with core, pelvic or spinal issues, the first step towards healing could be as simple as changing how you breathe. 

Here are a few practical tips to start improving your breathing today:

1. Avoid Belly Breathing During Activity: Save belly breathing for relaxation periods, such as during a cool-down after exercise, or when lying down before sleep.
2. Focus on 360 Rib Breathing: Make 360 rib breathing your default during daily activities, exercises, and especially during any upright activity.
3. Practice Regularly: Like any other skill, improving your breathing takes practice. The more you focus on 360 rib breathing, the more natural it will become.

In addition to simple mindful awareness of your daily breathing patterns, adding in a targeted breath work practice into your exercise routine—like hypopressive breathing—can train the subconscious nervous system, so that you automatically use 360 rib breathing without even thinking about it. 

To learn more about supporting your core health through proper breathing, The Core Recovery Method® is a comprehensive program that is centered around optimizing breathing mechanics and offers practical solutions for improving your core, spine and pelvic health. By training yourself to automatically use optimal breathing patterns, you can strengthen your core muscles, trim your waistline, prevent pelvic floor dysfunction, heal diastasis, support your spine, lift your pelvic organs, improve digestion and enhance whole body circulation. 

If you're ready to learn breathing techniques that will transform your core and pelvic floor, join The Core Recovery Method®.