Nerd Moment: The diaphragm is your main breathing muscle.
The big picture from the Symmetry newsletter - LV’s Midweek Memo:
So What?
Tightness in your neck and shoulders? You may not be properly using your diaphragm.
Unstable hips or low back? You may not be properly using your diaphragm.
Pelvic floor issues? You guessed it. 👆
Keep reading to dig deeper! (A ~1 ½ minute read.)
Hopefully by now you understand that there is a “right way to breathe” on a daily basis.
And you get that a key component of that is the diaphragm.
See the umbrella looking muscle in the middle? That’s our gal! She’s big and has a big job to do!
Yeah… and?
Keeps you calmer more often. (Said otherwise: you’ll be less reactive more of the time - who doesn’t want that? Keep your blood pressure down!)
More stability throughout the body - no loosey-goosey low backs or hips!
Alleviate tightness/pain in the neck and shoulders.
Check out the picture above:
See how it’s connected to the psoas and the QL (quadratus lumborum)? Proper breathing with the diaphragm is directly tied to the stability of the low back and even hips!
Helps also with core stability and strength, which is important for everyone, but athletes can take advantage of this in particular.
Athletes! Weekend warriors! Anyone who engages in athletic endeavors or works out at all!
Use proper diaphragmatic breathing to brace, support stability in your body, create more force on a punch/swing/hit/lift/push… the list goes on!!
Check out how we like to use the Corgeous ball for diaphragm mobility = better/easier breathing.
Ok, how does it work?
When you inhale the diaphragm flattens down and the ribs expand as the lungs inflate. (Extra: heart rate also picks up ever so slightly on an inhale - inhales are more energizing.)
As you exhale the ribs draw in and the diaphragm moves up to its domed, resting position. (Extra: heart rate slows down ever so slightly on an exhale - longer exhales in particular are more calming.)
Bonus: Pelvic Floor
Works with the pelvic floor muscles like a wave - when the diaphragm flattens down on the inhale, pelvic floor relaxes. You can’t just kegel all the time - you have to be able to relax those muscles as well.
Imagine trying to walk around with a flexed bicep all day… and then trying to relax your arm down at the end of the day… probably not going to go very well, right?
On the exhale, as the diaphragm domes up, the pelvic floor engages/lifts.
