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Moving the entire body in small, regular, consistent and accumulating ways includes moving the breathing muscles. After all, breathing is the foundation of our health. We absolutely need to breathe to survive. Keeping our breathing muscles healthy and strong should be a priority when it comes to health.
While our bodies do all they can to ensure we get that vital breath, many of us ‘survive’ but we don’t thrive.
Here is a breathwork practice that helps to strengthen and improve the flexibility of the lungs. It is said to help reduce the build up of mucous in the lungs which may otherwise lead to infection. If you have recently had Covid or one of the other many respiratory bugs going around then you may find this useful. However if you have, you also need to take care and back off if you feel any strain. If you are feeling healthy then this is a great one to include to help prevent any bugs taking hold.
(On that note, please always seek medical advice. This is general advice coming from little old me as a yoga teacher and breath coach and my own experience with breath work and movement).
Breath stacking
This technique is called breath stacking because it is stacking the inhale on top of another without exhaling until you have as many inhales stacked as you can. You inhale, pause, sip in another breath, pause, sip in another breath and continue until you can’t take in any more. Then you slowly and calmly exhale the breath. It’s an easy one to remember, so you can fit it into your day quite easily.
As well as strengthening the breathing muscles and lungs, this breath also includes that lovely long exhale which puts us into rest and digest state. Improved digestion, memory, healing, creativity and more empathy. Yes please!
The intercostal muscles
Before we start, let’s think about the anatomy in simple terms. Do note that I keep anatomy in layman terms- I am not a science-y person by any means, I absolutely panicked having to study anatomy as part of my yoga teacher training. ; )
The intercostal muscles sit in between the ribs and along with the diaphragm they are described as the primary breathing muscles. They need to be strong and flexible to allow the lungs to expand fully and therefore bring in a lovely full breath into the body. Makes sense! If they cannot move freely then either can the lungs.
If yours are tight and weak (which is hard to tell) then it probably means you aren’t really using your diaphragm to breathe. Instead you are probably using your secondary breathing muscles, which are located around the neck and upper shoulders. This is a big reason why so many of us feel tension here. They are smaller and not as strong as the diaphragm and simply aren’t designed to bring the breath into the body as much as they do. Instead, this is an example of the body doing what it needs to do to bring in the breath however it can.
With this in mind, think about keeping the breath low and wide in the body rather than up and down.
Listen to the audio now to practice breath stacking. Please note the practice will come in an email to follow or you can find it here.
See if you can try this one everyday for a week or so and see how you feel.
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Have a great week!
Love Sarah.
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