Breathing is a powerful tool in our recovery toolbox! Breathing is one of only a few ways we can control the homeostasis (balance) of our bodies. The way we breathe can affect our stress level, recovery, mental state, mood, athletic performance and fatigue levels. Yet somehow it’s also one of the most understated and least practiced skills we have!

But breathing is automatic… Why do I need to think about it?

Although we are all born with the skill, our modern day life has a huge effect on the quality of our breathing. Stress, rushing, exertion, pain and muscle tightness are some of the things that can negatively affect on breathing.

To understand how breathing affects recovery, we need to think our body’s mechanisms for recovery and stress. During stress, exercise, fear or other strenuous activities our body’s sympathetic “fight or flight” nervous system (NS) is activated. When the sympathetic nervous system is activated it causes reactions in our body, such as increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure, blood rushing to limbs and digestion slowing down. This ensures that we are able to focus on what’s most important: surviving! When we are resting and recovering our body’s parasympathetic “rest and digest” NS is active. This in turn slows down our heart rate, lowers blood pressure, increases digestion and supports recovery of depleted energy stores.

Ideally, the sympathetic NS is only dominant at times of acute stress (for example: exercise, coming face-to-face with a bear etc.). At all other times the parasympathetic NS should be most dominant. Unfortunately our body finds it difficult to differentiate between work-related stress and bear-attack related stress. Today’s world is far less dangerous than our ancestors, yet significantly more stimulating. The day-to-day rush, overstimulation, poor quality of sleep and high quantity of strenuous exercise keeps our fight or flight mode unnecessarily active, meaning we don’t get the recovery we need.

So how does breathing come into this mix?

Breathing can help you control “the switch” between sympathetic NS (“flight or fight”) and parasympathetic NS (“rest and digest”) dominance, helping you to kickstart your body’s recovery mode. Unfortunately these days with life being so hectic, it’s far too common to “lose” the ability to breathe deeply and default into shallow breathing. Although we need a quicker, shallow breathing during exercise, it’s not a particularly effective way to breathe throughout the day. Shallow breathing primarily recruits the higher parts of your respiratory system, which means you can feel it more in your chest and shoulder areas. In shallow breathing the assistive breathing muscles around your neck and shoulders are more activated, which can cause unnecessary feelings of tightness (tightness can also be a cause for shallow breathing). Shallow breathing keeps your sympathetic NS working, keeping you overly stimulated and can even affect your ability to fall or stay asleep. Slow, deep breathing can be a powerful tool, helping you to switch back from “hurry” to “don’t worry” mode. In slow, deep breathing we aim to use our primary breathing muscle (the diaphragm) which is located in our belly region, under the lowest ribs. Switching to more diaphragmatically focussed breathing helps you to unlock the full capacity of your respiratory system.

Optimal breathing – Good for the brain and the body

In addition to recovery, deep breathing can also affect other aspects of your holistic wellbeing. Deep breathing has been found to reduce cortisol (stress hormone) levels, improve mood and mental wellbeing, and (last but definitely not the least) it can help you fall asleep and improve quality of sleep. For example, deep breathing with an extra slow outbreath can have an immediate relaxing effect and can even help you feel sleepy! What an amazing remedy for us sleep deprived and overly stressed souls of this hectic world!

An exercise to try at home

You can check which of your breathing muscles are most active by placing your right hand to belly and left hand to heart. Close your eyes and feel your breathing underneath your hands. Which hand can you feel rising more during inhalation? As discussed earlier, if you’re breathing more into to the higher parts of your lungs your left hand (chest) will rise more during inhalation. If you’re using your diaphragm more, your right hand (belly) will be move more. During deep breathing your belly and ribs will push out during inhalation and lower down during exhalation. Your shoulders should stay relaxed during the whole cycle. If you have problems starting your deep breathing try the following technique.

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CHILD'S POSE – Recovery for the nervous system and stress --- Our breath is a powerful tool in our recovery toolbox! Although we are all born with the skill, our modern day life has a huge effect on the quality of our breathing. Stress, rushing, exertion, pain and muscle tightness are some of the things that can negatively affect breathing. . TRY THIS SIMPLE EXERCISE to take back control of your breath, and Improve recovery! . From all-fours, move into child’s pose by pushing your hips back towards your heels. You can open your knees wide or keep them together (do what feels most comfortable). Bring your hands under your forehead, hands on top of each other. Open your elbows wide and make sure your shoulders are relaxed. When breathing in focus on pushing your stomach out towards your thighs and feeling your lower back expand. Imagine that the breath is filling up your whole stomach and back, pushing it out from the inside. Breathe out slowly in a steady pace. Try to relax your whole body during exhalation, like your sinking deeper into the position each time. . BREATH TEMPO: Try to keep your exhales longer than your inhales – this will stimulate your rest and digest nervous system, release stress from the body, and reduce feelings of anxiety. You can start by breathing in slowly for 4 counts and out for 6 counts. When you have practiced this for a while you can do 6 counts in and 8 counts out and so on. The aim is to really deepen your breath, but not to exert yourself... so try to still stay relaxed during breathing without pushing too hard. . MODIFYING POSITION FOR COMFORT: If your hips don’t reach your heels or this position feels uncomfortable here’s a few tips: Try putting a pillow under your hips or under your ankles if your ankle mobility is challenged in this pose. You can also put a block, book or similar under your head. . This is a great exercise to do after work days, exercise, before bed (helps falling a sleep) or if you need some help to get into your holiday mode!

A post shared by MovementMatters (@movementmattersft) on Dec 21, 2018 at 7:27am PST

References

Perciavalle, V., Blandini, M., Fecarotta, P., Buscemi, A., Di Corrado, D., Bertolo, L., ... & Coco, M. (2017). The role of deep breathing on stress. Neurological Sciences, 38(3), 451-458.

Szabo, A., & Kocsis, Á. (2017). Psychological effects of deep-breathing: the impact of expectancy-priming. Psychology, health & medicine, 22(5), 564-569.