How Does Diaphragmatic Breathing Apply To Exercise And Training?
Controlling Intra-Abdominal Pressure
Greetings!
In the previous article, we spoke about the origins of deep breathing and the role of the diaphragm in our health. Needless to say that, practicing intentional breathing should be a part of your daily activities, should you choose to be a healthy person.
Given the circumstances and current technological trends, I strongly believe that the importance of breathing exercises are yet more important than ever.
Now, for us athletes and intentional movers who would like to improve our game in whichever activity that we do. How does breathing apply?
First of all, from a physiological standpoint, oxygen is necessary to carry nutrients and to make aerobic exercise sustainable. Depending on the load being used, breathing will avoid the onset of fatigue.
As mentioned before, breathing practice should progress gradually along with motor development. Progressions and regressions can be implemented through variations in:
- Changing the length of the body
- Changing the presence of mechanical/tactile feedback
- Changing the demand for mid-section activity
- Changing between a static (easier) or dynamic (harder) situation
The bottom line is quite simple: if there is unintentional apnea during a given exercise, it is not sustainable, therefore should be regressed.
Now, under considerable stress or heavy load, there are several breathing techniques according to what type of movement you will perform. Each category and each tool you use will ask for a different method of controlling the breath. For this reason, I will not expand into each of the tools and its’ breathing techniques. Also because I do not know all of them.
My advice is: stick to the basics and learn to control breathing through every major movement pattern. However, before going into the full-on exercises with weights, make sure that you are proficient in stages along the way. I will demonstrate a few of them.
Controlling intra-abdominal pressure
This is where breathing ties into force production and efficiency of movement. The more you use your diaphragm, the more stimulus you create in the deep abdominal muscles. Diaphragmatic activity during exercise increases intra-abdominal pressure, which protects the spine during heavy lifts. Do you know that belt that you use when squatting and deadlifting in the gym? Your mid-section should do that job. Lifting belts should only be used in cases of extreme load, generally in a competition. But for us, wanting to maintain health. It should be a task for our body structure to control.
To finish this article, I will show a few exercises to practice diaphragmatic breathing on top of.
Rolling
Rolling movements are one of these fundamental patterns that we neglect or forget along the course of life. They are crucial stimulators of the somatosensory system. Combining breathing and rolling has a potent effect on brain stimulation, calming the system, and returning the body to a state of hormonal balance. Also, rolling exercises help to stimulate coordination in the body, and it feels good.
Quadrupedal
It is another fundamental movement pattern that we abandon after we grow up. There are dozens of different exercises in crawling position, both static and dynamic (remember that I mentioned a way of manipulating difficulty). Crawling is the birth of walking and the shaping of the spine. It is during crawling that we start to practice contra-lateral movement. Therefore, it is always a good idea to revisit this stimulus. Once again, combining crawling exercises and breathing dramatically increases body awareness and control, as well as strengthens the structural part of the body.
Check the video for more details:
Hopefully, by now, you understood the importance of being able to breathe intentionally. By practicing these exercises, we can positively affect the health of our brains, our joints, and the body as a whole. Practice them and tell me how you feel after a month of consistency.
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Strength to you!
