Breath gives us life, Breath gives us health
Healthy lungs are the key to our mental health, moods, and our energy. Being aerobically active on a regular basis through exercise keeps the lungs healthy and strong. When life changes our activity level and exercise is limited or gone. Breath work should be added to your stretch routine to maintain your health and wellness.
Good Posture Is the First Step To Healthy Breathing.
How do I know if I have good posture, you ask?
Start by standing in front of a mirror to check your posture. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and your shoulders relaxed. What do you see? Do your shoulders roll forward? Do you feel the weight of your head forward? To check this you can turn side way find your comfortable neutral and take a peak side ways to see where your head is. For most of us, computers, couches, and video games have given us a pretty rounded chest area with our head carriage forward like a turtle.
Finding your best posture will open up your rib cage and allow for a deeper more full lung breath.
How to Begin
Again, standing in front of the mirror, this time, lift your rib cage, or sternum and at the same time pull your shoulders back (I like to envision a set of wings that I want to touch behind me). This is a relaxed military posture. Chin tucked, shoulders back, ear-tip of shoulder and femur head (the top of your leg bone) lined up with your outside ankle bone.
This is not easy for most of us. Spinal curvatures and bad postural habits lead to head and chin forward, slumped shoulders and our behind sticking out or tucked in. If you do not know what good neutral posture is for you this exercise will help you find it:
Stand with you back against a wall: your heels, the back of your calves, your behind, shoulder blades and the back of your head, should all be touching the wall. The first time you try this it will feel awkward and stiff. Step away from the wall and try to hold that posture. Take a deep breath and relax. This is your neutral point. When correcting posture, I recommend people do this exercise 1-2 times a day until they build the muscle memory to find it with out a wall.
Now that you are standing in good posture, on to your breathing.
We spend a lot of time sitting and slumped forward working on the computer. This collapsed chest posture, means a compressed lung breath. In general, we take very small breaths, never fully expanding the lungs or filling all of the lung tissue (called alveolar). Air in the bottom, back part of the lung rarely gets moved around. Think of a dusty, dank old air space under the stairs. We need good air circulation inside and out. Remember: learning to breath correctly will increase your mental clarity, mood, and energy. It will also improve your overall lung health and digestion.
Diaphragmatic Breathing
What is Diaphragmatic breathing you ask?
The mechanics are:
On the inhale, you should be thinking two things: Lower- body Breath and expand, this means your abdomen (belly) is moving out.
On the exhale think: Lower body Breath and squeeze/contract. Remind yourself: “Inhale . . . expand. Exhale . . . squeeze.”
The Breath Pattern or exercise
Breath inhale: Breath in through the nose for 2 seconds remember to fully expand the lungs your abdomen (below the ribs to your pubic bone) needs to go out. It is the expanding muscle of the abdomen that pulls air into the bottom of your lungs.
Breath out: Exhale slowly (taking up to 5 seconds) through the mouth. Best if done through pursed lips to create a little resistance. You can also do raspberries (those pursed lip exhales we do on baby bellies to make them laugh).
Repeat set 10 times
Rib Stretch
This is another way to exercise your lungs.
Place hands on either side of your rib cage about mid-way down.
Inhale slowly 10 seconds (feel the ribs expand under your hands.)
Exhale slowly 10 seconds (feel your hands come closer together and your abdomen squeeze in.
Because of the times we live in:
I am including a breathing exercise developed by Sue Elliot, a respiratory therapist and is used with individuals suffering with COPD, Emphysema, and Asthma.
Step 1 is the full breath or lung expansion and contraction we have been practicing.
Step 2 is the Breath sequence.
Take a deep breath in and hold for 5 seconds, release slowly.
Repeat the deep breath 5 times
On Breath 6 deep breath followed by a strong cough.
Repeat the above cycle 2 times
Practice these four exercises in a sequence. This whole sequence should take from three to ten minutes.
Do Rock and Roll 20 times (seated on the floor or on a chair). Hip rock forward-arching back, hip rock backward rolling the spine out like a bug.
Roll over, lying on your back now, and do Diaphragm Extensions 20 times with a stack of books or with a weight. Place books on your diaphragm (that space in the notch right below your sternum between the ribs). Using the diaphragmatic breathing I have described above you should see the books rise on inhale and drop on the exhale.
Roll over and push up onto all fours. Do Cat and Cow 20 times. Sit back on your feet momentarily (or come back onto a chair) and do 20 Rock and Roll Breaths again.
Stand up and do the Perfect Standing Breath 20 times.
In closing
Exercise especially aerobic exercise will improve your lung health and breath capacity.
Laughing and singing will also increase you’re lung capacity and your lung health.
In the time we are living in, having strong healthy lungs may make a difference on how you recover from a lung infection.