Normal Breathing

We take breathing for granted, until we experience a breathing difficulty. But some people breathe improperly and don’t even realize it, while many others could improve their breathing to further help their endurance and overall health, especially through controlling stress. Normal breathing is associated with proper muscle movement—the most important being the abdominal muscles in the front and sides of our abdomen and the diaphragm muscle. These muscles work together allowing us to efficiently breathe in and out. Without normal breathing, the abdominal and diaphragm muscles may work improperly, and even cause other muscles to not work. In this scenario, body movement—posture and gait, for example—can become impaired, oxygen can be reduced, and other problems can occur.

The abdominals also help physically support our body structure—the spine, the low back, pelvis, shoulders, and even the neck. The abdominal muscles help us run, bike, and swim more efficiently. In some cases, improper breathing is the beginning of a complex set of imbalances causing an injury to the low or middle back, hip, shoulder, or almost any other areas.

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Given the importance of the abdominal and diaphragm muscles, let’s look more closely at the two components of normal breathing—inhalation and exhalation.

During inhalation the abdominal muscles relax and extend outward, while the diaphragm muscle moves downward. This movement allows air to enter the lungs more easily and is accompanied by a slight whole-body backward extension, especially of the spine.

During exhalation the abdominal muscles contract and tighten, and are gently pulled inward; the diaphragm muscle “relaxes” with an upward movement. This helps push air out of the lungs, with a slight whole-body flexion.

By watching another person’s breathing, especially the belly moving out on inhalation and in on exhalation, one can often tell if it’s correct. You can also evaluate your own breathing by feeling the muscles move. So try this quick experiment:

 

 

 
  • Place the palm of one or two of your hands on the abdomen (over your belly button).
  • Slowly breathe in and feel the abdominal muscles expand outward. Your belly should get bigger during inhalation.
  • Slowly exhale and feel the abdominal muscles tighten and be pulled inward. The belly is more flat on exhalation.
  • During normal breathing, most movement occurs in the abdominal areas, and only slightly in the chest, which expands more with much deeper breathing.

Those who breathe improperly often move their muscles opposite that of normal. In other cases, the chest is quickly and fully expanded and the abdominal area doesn’t get a chance to move properly. These poor patterns of breathing can be caused from stress, the stigma of not showing a big belly, and yes, even over-exercising the abdominal muscles—typically with sit-ups or crunches—making them too tight to relax.

One important note: Be aware of your breathing during times of stress, which is often when normal breathing can switch to abnormal breathing as we hold more tension in our abdominal and pelvic muscles. This can even occur during training and especially during competition, when mental stress is high. In particular, I have seen many athletes not breathing as well: not inhaling fully, exhaling fully, or both.