How strong are your respiratory muscles?

Take a moment and start counting the duration of your inhalation and exhalation. Does the pace at which you're breathing feel like your normal? Is it easier to inhale or exhale? Where do you find the breath entering and exiting? Does it most easily move in and out of your belly or your upper chest? Do your lower ribs move when you exhale? I find that most people don't move their lower ribs in the respiratory cycle, which means they're missing out on a full breath. This can go on for years and impacts pretty much every other system in your body, including your digestive and nervous systems.

How does the breath cycle work?

The diaphragm acts as a plunger system, pulling air into our bodies and filling our lungs (fun fact: the lungs are kind of like origami-folded tissue that unfolded are the size of a tennis court). The diaphragm is a muscle, so it has a full range of motion like any other muscle, yet most of us only 'exercise' it in a very short range. We shallowly breathe due to stress and holding a posture that we think is 'good', more on that in a moment. If you consider how the diaphragm typically works in this short cycle, it would be like doing thousands of tiny bicep curls all day long--sounds kind of funny when you think about it that way, right? The diaphragm is the main breathing muscle, yet there are several other secondary muscles that help out. One of my favorite groups is the intercostals. These muscles glide in beteeen each rib and help to expand and contract our rib cage. They are, however, weak for most folks.

How do the intercostals weaken and why should I take ever loving care of them?

As previously mentioned, most of us breathe shallowly as a stress-holding pattern. For some, this means weak and tight intercostals, so it's hard to inhale and expand them. For others, they're weak and puffed out (barrel-chested) and it's harder to exhale. In the latter case, I find that people assume this posture thinking they have good and confident posture--yet you can't breathe. Another way this pattern can occur is from sucking the stomach in or wearing restrictive clothing. Try sucking your stomach in right now and you'll feel your rib cage puff. Either way, we want these guys to be able to expand and contract fully, just like our biceps.

Strong intercostals and respiratory muscles help massage your stomach as you breathe, enabling your digestive system to do its thing. They also help to keep your nervous system at ease and not in fight-or-flight mode. As an added bonus, you're strethening your core muscles, which will give you organic, proper posture. If you're active, tapping into a full breath cycle, including the plunger power of your diaphragm, will take your athletic abilities to the next level.

How do I strengthen my respiratory muscles?

To start, be more conscious of your breath. I love the count breath. Try to equal out your inhalation and exhalation and then gradually add another count. Say you start at a 4 count, can you gradually reach your way to an 8? As you continue to add time, focus on squeezing the air out of your rib cage during the exhalation, contracting your intercostals.

You can also try these exercises over a towel, ball, pillow or foam roller.

I integrate breath work into my sessions with clients so that you can grow these muscles, bettering your digestive and nervous systems, while improving your posture and core. In finding your breath, you find your power!

Why I Hate Kegels

Just about every woman out there has had her doctor prescribe Kegel exercises--hold your urine flow for a few seconds to strengthen your pelvic floor. I see Kegels as a constipation view to strengthening the pelvic floor because they encourage bracing and holding in an area that is often too tight. Plus, Kegels are more often emphasized for women over men when we all need strong and flexible pelvic muscles. More about that here. If we all think pelvic floor health=Kegels, we lose the sense of how these muscles are connected to other movement in everyday life. To me, the pelvic floor is more than just your elimination muscles, it includes all the muscles of your pelvis that support your torso and posture--this includes your rear.

One of my favorite pelvic floor exercises is a squat because it works the pelvic floor in a large range-of-motion. This way, you're getting stretching on the way down and strengthening on the way up. Think of squats as coming from the bones of your pelvis to kick these muscles into gear. 

Don't feel like you need to go all the way down into a full squat if it doesn't feel good in your body. Many folks can't because of knee or hip pain. Try holding onto something, or putting something underneath your heels, and you may find you can get lower to the floor. As you descend, these muscles are stretching and opening like an umbrella. When you stand up, they contract and come closer together like the closing of an umbrella.

If you think about it, we squat every time we sit down. With a bit of mindfulness and maybe some props, you can reconnect with your pelvic floor and use it to sit down and stand up. No more plopping on the couch!

Pilates is a great modality to strengthen the pelvis for everyday movement. This includes strengthening your inner and outer thighs, which are critical for balance.  I love working with clients to rehab their pelvic floors because it's an area of much importance, and for many of us, an area of much trauma. If you've had any abuse in your past, sexual or otherwise, regardless of gender...it may be difficult for you to feel these muscles (read more about this here). This is why I love working one-on-one with clients. In a private session, you're in an environment where it is safe to go here, to connect and to heal, bringing a true sense of self. It brings me to tears when I get to witness this transformation and see my clients discover how much power they have. Love the pelvic floor!!!!

A New Way to Improve Posture

The traditional model of 'good' posture is a 2D approach (e.g. align this bone over this one) when we are 3D beings. We've all seen the poster in the doctor's office of the skeletal system, depicting a skeleton hanging by a hook. We then extrapolate this image to posture thinking we need to stack certain joints on top of one another--feet under hips, hips under ribs, ear lobe over shoulder. Thing is, we don't dangle from hooks, and while we connect to the ground, we're also constantly moving. So, we need a 21st century update to our ideas of posture, including how it connects with the breath and grounding.

How should I stand?

In the past, most of us were taught that good posture means locking our knees, straightening our back, pulling our shoulder blades together and puffing out our chest. How we were supposed to do this and breathe, I'm not sure. Moreover, this model attepts to make the spine straight when it's really shaped more like an S. Tapping into that S idea, and that our body tissues move more like a spring with each step, lends to a more organic posture with greater ease of movement.

What is good posture?

I see the body as a series of archways and that those archways, or diaphragms, act as suspension bridges and shock absorbers.

Strengthening the arch of the foot supports these archways.

1. Arch of the foot.
2. Arch of the pelvis at the groin.
3. Arch of the breath diaphragm at the rib cage.
4. Arch of the throat.
5. Arch of the eyes/brain.

To me, good posture involves dynamic interaction between each of these areas. I say dynamic, because once again, we're not usually standing (or sitting) completely still. At a minimum, you're breathing, which means one of these diaphragms is always moving.

If you begin to stand and move with the visual of a bunch of suspension bridges instead of a sky hook, stacked bricks or stiff rods, your movement will be easier with alignment. You can practice this while standing and pretend like you're internally lifting your rib cage (on an inhalation) off of your pelvis--not puffing your chest out, but a 360 degree lift. You should feel your core turn on a bit and support your spine. Maintain that lift and breathe as you walk--can you feel that there's a buoyancy to your movement? That's your body moving through its diaphragms! Over time, not only will you have better posture from a state of ease rather than holding, you'll be using your core how it's supposed to be used--keeping you upright. You may even notice some new ab definition in as little as a couple of weeks.

If you didn't feel that buoyancy, you might be holding some tension at one of those diaphragms. This is where an objective pair of eyes (mine) can help you figure out where you're unconsciously holding tension, loosen things up and then you can feel more flexible and move from your core all day!

For a 3D explanation of posture (instead of just text). Here's a video for you:

Take this new feeling into your walk!

Once you feel your diaphragms, you can then tap into that buoyancy in the body as you walk. The ground becomes another 'diaphragm' and we sort of float or even gently bounce forward instead of pounding the pavement. I call it the Tigger Effect. It feels lovely! Here's an eplanation of that sensation and how to feel it when you walk. Using equipment that is spring-based, like Pilates, helps immensely to feel this and integrate it into your body. Contact me for an appointment for more personalized help on improving your posture and gait.