Have you ever caught yourself holding your breath during exercise? Or when lifting something heavy? When you’re feeling stressed or anxious? If the answer is a resounding YES then read on…
We all know that breathing during exercise is so important (for obvious reasons!), but how can we tailor our breathing to advantage our performance? There are ways that you can use your breath to enhance your pilates practice, or any exercise for that matter!
Breath holding
We’ve all done it. You’re squatting, doing sit-ups or helping a friend to lift a piece of heavy furniture and you realise that you haven’t taken a breath in seconds! Instructors prompt their classes to breathe (the good ones, anyway) as a reminder to check that your lungs are filling up as you’re concentrating hard on your side planks, but why is this so important?
When you hold your breath during exercise, called the Valsalva Manoeuvre, this is a natural way of bracing your abdomen and your spine to give you rigidity and stability. Air is trapped in the lungs which increases abdominal pressure. While this doesn’t sound like such a bad thing, it can be dangerous! Not only does this teach your muscles to remain continually tightened during exercise, disallowing movement flow, you are increasing your blood pressure, which can cause some scary adverse effects! Think: dizziness, lightheadedness, fainting and potentially even stroke. These risks are further increased if you’re deconditioned (not used to exercise) and your blood pressure is already high.
Here's another great reason not to brace and exercise: if you’re holding your abdominal, spinal and quite possibly neck muscles still, how can you teach them to function smoothly through the movement that you’re performing? With great difficulty! Think about your squat. If you hold your breath and squat down, your back and abdominal muscles are already in a tight position that will restrict natural movement!
You’ll find that as soon as breathing becomes a focus, your movement will become easier and far more natural.
‘Out with Effort’
Traditionally, instructors say to breathe out with the hardest part of the movement, which will help to prevent bracing. If this works for you, fantastic, but I usually say that as long as you’re breathing, I don’t mind! Schools of thought have changed of late and there’s some debate about which time is the best to breathe. Take jumping for example. Find a solid step that you’re comfortable landing safely onto and jump up! Notice how you breathe. We actually take a deep breath IN as we jump up! And this is the effortful part of the movement. Can you see now why I don’t mind when you breathe?
Stress and breathing
When we are under stress, whether it be at the office trying to meet a deadline or completing a tough final set, we can use muscles that are not actually meant to help us breathe. Normal quiet breathing uses mainly the diaphragm, which is a large sheet of muscle that contracts to pull downwards, pressing the abdominal contents down and giving the lungs space to expand. We also have muscles between our ribs (intercostals), with the outside layer helping to bring the ribcage outwards and upwards as you breathe in. Clever, huh? To help these muscles work when we are under strain, neck and shoulder muscles can kick in, which is known as ‘upper chest breathing’. During my Pilates classes, I teach diaphragm breathing to encourage relaxation of your neck and shoulders and to use the correct breathing muscles. If you practice this enough, deep breathing will become more natural in everyday life and you will be able to correct your upper chest breathing pattern!
Practice diaphragmatic breathing like this:
Ly on you back or side, whichever is the most relaxing for you (see below);
Relax and let your tummy muscles go;
Place your hands (or top hand if you’re lying on your side) on your upper abdomen (just below your lower ribs) and feel your head relax deeply onto the pillow;
I want you to focus on your hands and your lower lungs and when you’ve mentally pictured this, take a slow deep breath in through your mouth and send the air to your hands (stomach);
Your hands should rise as you breathe in. Hold momentarily then relax as you exhale through your mouth.
You can practice different combinations of breathing eg. in through nose, out through mouth, in and out through nose, etc.
NOTES:
Take care as you can become lightheaded if you take in too much oxygen, so take no more than 5 deep breaths at a time. Have a break for a couple of minutes then return to it.
Keep your head and neck relaxed and heavy. If you tend to breathe through your upper chest (looking at you stressors and office workers!) this is super important to switch those neck muscles off!
I hope that helps you to understand why fitness pro's can be sticklers for breathing!
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