As a human being, we all take on many roles. Wife, physical therapist, laundress, IT tech, chef, dog whisperer, and janitor to name a few. But, at the end of the day, our brains only care about one thing—in the words of the legendary Bee Gee’s—stayin’ alive.

That’s it. Your body’s one job…don’t die. We come programmed with countless subconscious activities all designed to just keep us going. One crucial component of survival is breathing which, in case you haven’t noticed, your body takes care of for you all by itself. But let’s not call that breathing. Instead, let’s give this its proper physiological name, respiration. Because that type of subconscious breathing that occurs without our two cents is just a program running on autopilot to keep oxygen coming in and carbon dioxide going out. That’s it.

What happens when we consciously respirate, or breathe, is a whole different story. Taking deep inhales and slow exhales as we move gracefully(ish) through a calming yoga class or count to ten after getting cut off by some ass hat on the way home both profoundly influence our body’s functions. Likewise, the steady ins and outs of breath during an intense sweat sesh as well as the purposefully held breath during a max effort deadlift all serve important roles. These examples are all clearly different, so how do you know what to do when? Aren’t you never supposed to hold your breath? And what does it matter anyway? You can’t honestly be “bad” at breathing… can you?

Much attention has been given to breathing as of late and typically when we think about breathing we think of the zen benefits we are promised by mindfulness gurus and the like. One of the biggest benefits of spending some time performing slow, diaphragmatic breathing is the ability to “downshift” us into recovery mode, or a parasympathetic state aiding in recovery, digestion, and more helping us get out of a stressful sympathetic state. Aside from shifting our mindset, altering our nervous system, and beyond, breathing plays a key role in our bodies’ biomechanics.

For part one, we are going to look at resting, ideal breathing. Here’s what happens.

Your diaphragm descends down toward your abdomen, squishes your guts extending your belly (hence belly breathing), and increases intra-abdominal pressure as a result.
As this is happening, air floods into your lungs thanks to the vacuum your diaphragm created and your ribs also subsequently expand out and up as your lungs inflate.
As you exhale, pretty much everything goes into reverse with some help from abdominal muscles to help push the last bit of air out of our lungs.*

*It’s a bit more complicated but this is the gist.

Sounds simple right? Look around. Watch someone breathe as they talk to you, especially if they are excited about what they are telling you. Odds are you will see the neck straining, serious shoulder hiking, and the rib cage elevating quite a bit on each inhale. All of this is fine. In fact, when you chase down the mailman with your mortgage payment, return to the gym for the first time after vacation, or do whatever it is that might get you breathing kinda heavy, you will probably feel like your breath pattern is moving in a similar way.

You may be familiar with the idea that your brain cannot distinguish different types of stress. For example, going for a swim and noticing a fin surrounded by thrashing water coming your way lead by a full set of razor sharp teeth will register much the same way as standing up in front of TV sharks to pitch your amazing product will, even though only one scenario is actually life threatening. In both of these stressful scenarios, you might find yourself breathing in the same way described above. Given that this pattern is typical of high adrenaline situations, let’s call this “stress breathing”.

During stress breathing, instead of the smooth cycle of inhales and exhales outlined above, we call in a back up plan to help get the job done. Accessory respiratory muscles kick in and now we get assistance from muscles like the scalenes, pec minors, paraspinals, and more. These muscles help lift the rib cage to make it easier to get air in. Like stress, this type of breathing pattern is necessary and helpful in the short term, but detrimental and often undetected as a chronic presence if it becomes our default form of respiration in the long term. What you may not realize, is that all too commonly we get stuck breathing in a stressful pattern without any awareness causing these signals from the body to trick the brain into believing it is actually stressed. More importantly (for the sake of this post) our biomechanics that depend on the successful operation of our respiratory system—pretty much every movement—are also in big trouble.

When employing a stressed breathing pattern chronically, neck and shoulder muscles assume the primary role in respiration, building tension in these areas and compromising their contribution to their “real jobs”—stability and movement of the neck and shoulder girdle. Additionally, with high, shallow breaths, it becomes difficult for the diaphragm to lower into the abdomen, decreasing the ability to create intra-abdominal pressure—a key source of core stability and a requisite to force production.

People stuck in a stressed breathing pattern often demonstrate lots of “in” and a little less “out”, creating a really shallow breath and actually making it harder to get more air in—you gotta get enough out to get more in—which further increases the strain from our accessory inhale muscles. To help the neck and shoulder muscles lift the rib cage the, back extensors or paraspinals chip in to tip you back and lift the ribcage to help get air in. Everyone knows that just like crossing your eyes, if you keep moving in that posture you just might get stuck like that, in this case in an overextended or arched position of the spine.

Overextension leads to two common adaptations of the abs.

A flared rib cage and a compromised capacity to fully exhale because the abs are not elastically expanding on the inhale (they are already expanded) or contracting on the exhale to help push air out, leaving those flared ribs high and dry.
“Overbraced” abs commonly from being cued or perhaps in a last ditch effort to look svelte in athleisure causing a reduction in the ability to inhale—remember the belly has to let go to make room for the diaphragm and the abdominal contents—feeding into the cycle of overusing accessory inhale muscles as described above.

In both patterns the core muscles are dysfunctional as muscles are designed to both lengthen and shorten, not get stuck in one position. In short, rib flare people will have a difficulty time emptying on an exhale and creating tension throughout the abdomen while ab squeezers will have a hard time filling their abdomen and creating sufficient intra-abdominal pressure. Neither situation is good.

So what now? First, have you ever thought about the way you breathe? That’s a good place to start. Take note of inhales and exhales. Is it easier to get air in or out? Does your breath pattern change from sitting to standing? Because our diaphragm contributes to postural stability it is likely that you will find certain positions easier to maintain a good, quality breath while other postures challenge your ability to maintain the same pattern or maybe cause you to resort to breath holding. Additionally, although stress breathing can lead to changes in posture, conversely changes in posture can result in stress breathing. The alignment of your rib cage, pelvis, and spine will greatly impact where you are able to expand and contract.

Most people have an incredibly hard time feeling, learning, and changing their breath patterns. I know I did. Remember that although we want to optimize your biomechanics, breathing is part of your survival so it can be challenging to convince your brain to stop running on the program it selected which has been working well so far. My favorite way to start is to first feel what a “good breath” feels like. I like two drills for this.

1. Crocodile Breathing

2. Breathing with a straw

Some trouble shooting tips:

Each breath should fill the abdomen, ribs, AND chest (up to the collarbones) from front to back as well as out to the sides.
Make sure your abs are relaxed during your inhales.
Take very slow inhales “allowing” the air in instead of rapidly forcing air in.
Draw out your exhales to a length that might feel a bit exaggerated to help engage abdominal muscles at the end of your exhale and ensure a full empty
Change your posture by feeling more slouched (gasp!) especially if air feels stuck up high or neck and shoulder muscles continue to “pull” air in.

Now that you know what a “good” breath feels like, spend a minute here or there throughout your day to consciously work on making this your new default. Notice which positions are a little harder and spend the most time breathing in positions that are easy at first. In part two we will look at “working breathing” and how mastering this will make you strong like bull.

#LBS