There’s a silent danger that’s causing far-reaching problems and it’s literally right under our noses but most don’t even realise it because it seems far too simple to be that impactful.
The modern world can be a stressful place and our body uses the speed at which we breathe to understand how stressed we are.
The problem is we let the world dictate our breathing rate as we react to it rather than consciously managing it proactively.
This can mean we get a little worried or stressed by something which quickens our breath then our body reacts by releasing stress hormones which quicken our heart, constrict our blood vessels, release lots of glucose, suppress our immune system and get ready for fight or flight which will be a big physical exertion so we need all the above.
What if the physical excursion doesn’t arrive and pass?
Now we’re in a positive feedback loop of quicker breathing and more stress reaction by the body that might not be the best way to deal with what we’re facing and can be hard to escape.
"Learning to control your breath is a superpower that directly controls stress regulation in your body"
The facts...
1. Your chest shouldn’t do all the work
Most breathing should be done using your diaphragm. Breathing in causes your tummy to naturally bulge out. 80% of the time we should be breathing here in your belly.
There are a number of reasons why despite being born as obligate belly breathers many of us adopt an upper chest pattern.
Certain common health conditions such as asthma often cause faster shallow breathing as the constriction of the airways makes our body panic and try to breathe faster as we do healthily in exercise using the upper chest and neck muscles to breathe.
Stress will cause us to breathe quicker and involve the chest and neck muscles. Psychological stress from an evolution perspective had a physical component to it as we had to quite literally fight or run away from the problem. We now get stuck in lots of frequent attacks of psychological stress often without a physical outlet and this can leave us well stressed.
Vanity is a part of the drive to avoid using our diaphragm when breathing, seeing our belly bulge out when breathing isn’t part of the socially enviable aesthetic that a lot of us seek and we care what others think and what we look like in the mirror so we hold our stomach in and restrict our ability to use the diaphragm and naturally use the upper chest and neck more.
2. Breathing through the nose is best
Our nose is full of immune defence against invaders, gently warms the air, helps us slow breathing, improves circulation and face development.
It’s such a simple thing but like a lot frequently repeated actions they compound to a big effect.
For best health breathing through the nose from a young age is best, only using the mouth when we can’t get enough in through the nose.
Nose breathing releases nitric oxide which is a dilator and therefore helps the lungs function better and is one of the many reasons why breathing exercises are taught to asthmatics.
Our immune system expects air to enter mostly through the nose and has evolved as a filtration system with many opportunities to capture and destroy invaders. It does this by forcing the air through small channels lined with sticky mucus with lots of immune cells, isn’t snot great!
Keeping your mouth closed when not in use is a crucial part of face and jaw development. This is a fascinating subject that suggests that with us eating much softer food and not really training our strong jaws they become weaker and encourage more open mouth posture and this can lead to overcrowding of teeth and many other health issues.
There’s a great book that goes through this in far more detail that I really enjoyed reading – Jaws: The Story of a Hidden Epidemic
3. Back pain and breathing
Breathing in the upper chest persistently leaves the diaphragm tight and underused and this tightness can cause the lower back to be tight and painful.
The diaphragm is a large plunger-like muscle that attaches to the lower 6 ribs and moves down when you breathe in, sucking air into your lungs.
If you’re habitually breathing in the upper chest the muscles here are pulling and expanding the ribcage and this is what causes the air to be drawn in rather than the dynamic diaphragm. Of course, in real life, it’s not always black and white but problems can arise when we start living in ways our body is not evolved for.
As we’ve seen in How the Modern World Messes Up Your Movement we are way more sedentary now than we were years ago and spend more time on the toilet than being physically active. Well use it or lose it is real and this can contribute to tension in the back through lack of use.
Physiological breathing helps because if you consider a normal breathing rate for an adult is 12-20 breaths per minute so 17,280 a day.
Contracting and relaxing a big muscle like this so many times a day helps because it is attached along with big muscles around the spine and works in synergy with the abdominal wall and pelvic floor keeping the area working as a team.
This means the area can contract but crucially relax and this ability for the area to relax and move is so powerful when it comes to a healthy flexible back.
Breathing is such a leading cue for the body that learning to relax and move is a valuable part of recovering from ongoing back pain where tension is a large component.
What can you do?
1. In – using the belly
[Re] learning how to breathe again involves breaking social norms and letting your belly be soft and relaxed.
Watch kids they do it right then we start caring too much what others think and vanity tunes a healthy habit out of us. Would you rather be healthy or look trim?
It can take some time to relearn if you habituate towards using the upper chest.
The best way to start is by making it as easy as possible for your body to use the diaphragm such as lying on your back hugging your knees to your chest in the foetal position.
This works because mechanically the closer your chest is to your thighs the easier it is for your diaphragm to move.
Master it in easy positions then make it more and more challenging till you’ve learned how to do it whilst walking around.
2. Slowly
Slow down. This is the superpower!
Slowing down your breathing especially the out-breath will tell the higher centres in the brain that there isn’t a stressor.
The stress response is a primitive one and we have a smart brain so next time you’re feeling anxious or stressed consciously breathe slower and into your relaxed tummy and know you are reducing the cortisol and adrenaline release so your body can feel calmer.
I like to frame stress as useful because it is bringing my attention to something in a way I can’t ignore. Once my attention is on it I either do something physical to solve it, which is what our primitive response is set up for, or quiet this response by using breathing so I can deal with it in a calm manner.
As is often the case in our modern world I usually want to think clearly and solve the stressor which doesn’t involve a physically demanding aspect.
This is when the breathing becomes so powerful and if you listen to most people who have to make the correct complex decisions under extreme stress most have a form of breathing practice that helps them do this to calm the stress response and improve performance.
3. Out – even slower
Like any training, the positive effects compound over time, by practising slow, nasal belly breathing you will start to improve your body’s CO2 tolerance.
It is high CO2 levels that give us the need to take a breath not low oxygen levels.
Habitually breathing rapidly in the upper chest changes our breathing rate thermostat (CO2 receptors) so we feel the need to breathe quicker.
Improving your CO2 tolerance improves your health.
Slowing your breathing down using a method such as box breathing can be really hard initially as your body will struggle with the excess CO2 created compared to it’s normal breathing.
Persevering will see your body start to reset it’s CO2 levels as you improve your CO2 tolerance.
If 4 seconds feels too hard initially start at 3 seconds on each side, you can always build past 4 seconds too as you become used to the exercise.
Resources
Calm App
- Great guided breath work and lovely visual training tool
- Free version is great
TED Talk about breathing
- Fantastic, inspiring 12 minute talk about how powerful learning to control your breath really is
- Once you understand the power you’ll realise how amazing it is
Nature
- Sometimes the best resource is not an App, video or gadget but simply unplugging and going somewhere green and calm. It’s even got a name, forest bathing
- I like to sit on my door step each morning quietly drinking my coffee, listening to the birds and doodling in my journal whilst looking at the trees opposite
