Elevate You Physical Therapy

Physical therapy breathing technique: Just breathe baby!

Breathing is an everyday thing that requires us all to function and live. You are probably thinking to yourself I should earn a gold medal for breathing, only if it was an Olympic sport. You may be thinking, how is focusing on my breathing going to be a natural pain relief? 

There is a physical therapy breathing technique to help injuries, neck pain, shoulder pain, or back pain, you name it it can help! Your pain management therapy can start right now, ready, set, go, time to breathe.

Let’s go through an activity real quick. You can do this sitting up or laying down but put one hand on your belly and one hand on your chest. Now, take a deep slow breath. Feel where your breath starts at. Does it start in your chest or neck? Or does it start in your belly? If you can’t tell, try it again, and try laying down this time, if you haven’t already. Do it slowly and really feel if your chest lifts or if your belly does. 

What did you feel? If you feel like you started in your belly, that’s awesome! Keep doing that! Because that’s our primary area for breathing (the diaphragm). But, if you’re like most of the population, you may have felt the breath start in your chest. This can be a contributing factor to your pain. I’m sure you may be asking yourself “But Dr. Richi, how is my breathing contributing to my pain?!”. Is diaphragm breathing better? Well, my beautiful friend, that’s the whole point of this post! 

What is Diaphragm Breathing?

When we experience pain, whether it be from a quick stub of the toe or stepping on your child’s Legos (you know what I’m talking about), or a break of the arm, or even chronic pain, our breathing starts to change. Instead of using our deep primary breathing (the diaphragm), we start to utilize our secondary or accessory muscles of breathing. Let me show you:

As you can see, the muscles of the front of the neck, the pecs, and even muscles in between the ribs are considered secondary or accessory muscles of breathing. These are NOT what we want working when we start to take a deep breath. We want these muscles to start working after our diaphragm completely fills up and then we need more room, then our secondary muscles can kick in.

But, why is this so important? Why do I want you to think about this so much? When we start to work on diaphragmatic breathing, we start to change our nervous system by decreasing the amount of stress we put on our muscles and nervous system in general. Let’s look at an example. Say you and your family are on a trip in Yosemite. You are having an amazing and beautiful hike when suddenly you come across a baby brown bear. This is only a baby so you’re not really worried about it, but then you see mama. This is when your nervous system goes into hyperdrive. You’re in a state of fight or flight. You start to have short and rapid breaths, you start sweating, your body tenses up, and you have no idea what to do. Until mama and baby slowly walk past you and your family. Now you can start to calm down and take some time to calm your body and the rest of your family. 

You may not always be hiking and come across a bear in your daily life. 

However, think of this sensation in your body when you experience long-lasting and chronic pain. Your body’s nervous system is in a constant state of fight or flight because the tissue is hyperactive (or constantly in pain). It has not been given a chance to calm down over the last few months or even years. Thus, your breathing starts to become more focalized to your secondary muscles because your breaths are shorter. 

How to do Diaphragmatic Breathing

What we DO want is our diaphragm to fill up (your belly moves first). The diaphragm is a dome shaped MUSCLE (yes it is a muscle) that is the primary muscle for breathing. 

So, let’s try that activity again or see the steps below. This time, I want you thinking about breathing into your belly. BUT, do not force it, it has to feel “normal”, it has to feel easy, it has to feel like you are flowing your breath through your body. If you need a guided audio and visual check out this video.

Steps for Diaphragmatic Breathing 

• Choose to sit up or lay down 
• Put one hand on your belly and one hand on your chest
• Now, take a deep slow breath
• Repeat if needed

-Dr. Richi K., Physical Therapist, ElevateYou. Physical Therapy

MEDICAL DISCLAIMER 

All information on this blog is intended for instruction and informational purposes only. The authors  are not responsible for any harm or injury that may result. Significant injury risk is possible if you do not follow due diligence and seek suitable professional advice about your injury. No guarantees of specific results are expressly made or implied on this blog.

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