Unless the afterlife has wifi, I can surmise that you’re alive and reasonably well if you’re reading this post. I’m going to assume, therefore, that you’ve been successfully breathing for some time. You get enough oxygen into your blood to support your physiological requirements and power your limbs, organs, and muscles. You know how to inhale and exhale like a champ. What could you possibly be missing?
Sorry to say, there’s a pretty good chance you aren’t breathing correctly. You can breathe well enough to live, sure, but at rest, when sleeping, while exercising? You can probably breathe differently and breathe better.
How Do You Breathe?
Before you read any further, I’m going to have you take a deeeeep breath so I can show you what you’re doing wrong. Don’t skip ahead; no cheating.
Put your right hand on your chest and your left hand on your abdomen. Take a big breath by inhaling through your nose or your mouth (whichever is most natural for you), slowly. Really fill your lungs and note which hand rises more. Did your right hand move first and most, with your left hand lagging behind—if it moved at all? Did your shoulders go up? Did your traps rise like you were shrugging a couple of dumbbells?
Congratulations, you are a chest breather.
Now, procure an infant, preferably one with an exposed, protruding belly. Got one? Great. Lay said infant on its back and watch how the kid breathes. Does their chest rise and rib cage expand? Maybe a little, but the bulk of the action is happening in the belly button region, right? That kid is “belly breathing.” Guess which one is better? Hint: It’s not the overly restricted, probably too-shallow, chest-dominant breaths that you, if you’re a typical adult, took through your mouth.
Fear not, though. Proper breathing technique is something you can develop quickly enough with a little practice. I don’t mean structured breathing exercises of the type you might do in your 5 a.m. yoga class or Wim Hof session. Those are well and good for releasing stress and anxiety and increasing mindfulness. Here I’m talking about your regular old everyday breathing. The exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide that maintains your status as a living human being.
Keys to Proper Breathing
1. Use your diaphragm
The belly breathing baby above is using their diaphragm, a sheet of muscle located between the thoracic and abdominal cavities that (if you do it right) draws oxygen into the lungs upon activation. When the diaphragm contracts, it moves down into the abdominal cavity, pushing the belly out slightly, increasing the capacity of the lungs while lowering the air pressure. This spurs the influx of oxygen.
The external intercostals, muscles located between the ribs, also assist with respiration, but the diaphragm is the prime mover. If your right hand rose first and most prominently in the previous exercise, you did not effectively utilize your diaphragm. Without the diaphragm contracting and opening up the lower half of the lungs, less space is available for incoming air. Engaging your diaphragm, on the other hand, increases the amount of air exchanged with each breath and encourages a more optimal breathing rate.1
2. Breathe slowly
On first glance, it might seem that breathing more quickly would be better—more air exchanged per minute, right? Wrong. You’ve probably noticed that when you are stressed or anxious, breathing naturally speeds up. If you go about your day breathing too rapidly, that sends feedback to your brain via the vagus nerve that you are stressed. Breathing slowly, on the other hand, tells your brain that all is well.
An optimal breathing rate, according to scientists, is somewhere in the neighborhood of five or six breaths per minute, give or take a few, while at rest.
Breathing at that frequency specifically creates a phenomenon called resonance, where breathing rate syncs with heart rate. Resonance is associated with various measures of physiological and psychological resilience and lower stress. In one study, for instance, participants breathed at their resonance frequencies (usually around 5.5 breaths per minute) for just 15 minutes, after which they exhibited higher HRV, lower blood pressure, and better mood.2
3. Breathe (mostly) through your nose
Breathing through your mouth isn’t bad—it will get the job done—but it’s far less than ideal. Your nose warms, filters, and humidifies incoming air and is generally associated with better respiratory gas exchange. Unless you are engaging in vigorous exercise, nasal breathing should be the default. (Nasal breathing is also a decent proxy for keeping you in an aerobic heart rate zone if you don’t have a heart rate monitor. If you can comfortably breathe through your nose during exercise, it’s unlikely you’ve exceeded your aerobic threshold.)
4. Observe good posture
To accentuate how posture affects your breathing, hunch over at the thoracic spine. Imagine you’re typing away at the computer and let your chest cave in, your shoulder blades spread out, and your head droop forward. Hold that position and try to take a deep breath. It’s belabored, right?
Realize that a good portion of people go about their day with tight traps, rounded shoulders and backs, forward head posture, and caved-in chests. It’s the new normal, you’re probably just as guilty as the next person.
Sit up straight and pull your shoulders back and down to a natural (not exaggerated) position. If you’re sitting at a computer, you might need to raise your monitor. If you’re on your phone, raise it to eye level. Now take a deep belly breath. How does that feel? Easier, right? But don’t be surprised if this posture, which is after all the correct one, feels strange and even difficult, especially if you spend a lot of time looking at screens. You may need to commit to some shoulder and neck exercises to correct the effects that modern tech usage has wrought.
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Proper Breathing Takes Practice
It shouldn’t, but it does. Try this:
Sit, stand, or lie down in a comfortable position. Place one hand in the middle of your chest. Place the other on your belly above your navel, or even lay a book with reasonable heft on your belly (this will give you something to brace against).
Now, take a deep breath through your nose to a count of five and let your belly expand as your diaphragm asserts itself. Don’t use your abs to push your belly out; this isn’t a distention contest. Your ribs will also expand, and your chest may rise some, but this is totally normal and expected as long as the belly moves first.
Next, slowly exhale while tightening your core and gently contracting your abs. As the abdominal muscles contract, they’ll push the diaphragm back up. This will reduce the volume of the thoracic cavity, increase the air pressure, and expel the air contained therein.
Continue to take deep diaphragmatic breaths for a couple minutes, striving for inhalations and exhalations each lasting around five to six seconds, for a total of five to six breaths per minute.
Do you feel the difference? The relaxation? You might even fall asleep if you’re not careful. Now imagine if you could make this your default setting. It’s a health “hack” that doesn’t depend on you introducing any foreign compounds or artificial hardship into your life. The benefits boil down simply to using your respiratory system as it was meant to be used and getting the amount of oxygen that your body “expects.” Nay, that it deserves.
How did belly breathing work for you? Were you a chest breather, or are you way ahead of the curve to begin with? Practice it enough, and eventually it’ll become second nature. Let me know your thoughts in the comment section!
References
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5709795/ ↩
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5575449/ ↩
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* This blog reflects my personal views and opinions and isn’t intended as medical advice, but I hope it will be informative and inspiring as you pursue a healthy, fulfilling life.