What happens in these two diaphragms when we breathe?
The brain triggers your breath, signalling the breathing diaphragm to descend, and the intercostals (muscles between your ribs) to contract as we breathe in. As you breathe in, the diaphragm flattens and descends toward the abdomen, the rib cage expands and the abdomen is lifted.
As the chest volume expands, negative pressure draws air into the lungs.
The muscles relax, and the process reverses as you breathe out.
Are you tight in your back?
Have you noticed tension in the middle of your back? This may be contributed by your diaphragm not moving fully during breathing ie in shallow breathing.
Your diaphragm is a dome-shaped muscle that attaches to the front of your mid spine via fascia called the crura. When breathing is shallow or uneven, these attachments can become tight, added to if the surrounding back muscles are already holding tension. If the diaphragm isn’t being occasionally used through its full range, over time, this reduced movement can limit spinal mobility and contribute to stiffness and pain.
Everyone has their own way of breathing and of relaxing their body constructively. To increase spinal mobility, practice some breathing exercises! See this article on breathing to learn more.
Here at Physio Therapy Yoga, we teach breathing techniques through Physiotherapy treatments and Yoga classes. We can teach you personally in a physio session or a Yoga Therapy session, and breathing are included in all our group classes.
The length and ease of your breath affects tension in your body. Breathing quality affects your body’s overall muscle tone.
Physical, physiological and mental aspects of your body and mind also affect your breath;
- Your posture – standing, sitting, lying
- Your state of mind, whether stressed, relaxed, frightened, angry etc
- The stiffness of your spine (the effect can be the other way around too)
- Habitual patterns of movement. We can get used to shallow breathing, and some people even hold their breath.
- When you are focused on a task, on a computer screen, the tendency is to shallow breathe, or even hold your breath in times of concentration.
Breathing and your spine:
You can use your breathing to change muscular tension in your back.
Stretching the diaphragm through its full excursion helps to stretch the fascia (connective tissue) of your ribcage and spine.
Your spine is affected by a stiff rib cage, and visa versa. If you don’t regularly expand your ribs, therefore stretching the intercostals, your upper and lower back can get stiff. When the ribs are stiff it affects the whole of your body.
The neck and shoulder muscles may be used to assist breathing. They get used when we are breathing heavily during exercise, but they should not be recruited when we sit quietly. Used this way, the neck and shoulder muscles become “accessory breathing muscles” and can get fatigued, tight and sore from overuse. This use will give you a stiff neck and shoulders.
What can you do to change your breathing …and back tension.
Catch the habit, and make a conscious effort to change. Once patterns become ingrained, you may benefit from specific muscular releases (from a physio or masseuse) to restore your muscles to their resting length and then retraining them to reset your breathing habits.
One simple exercise
Sit comfortably (preferably with your back unsupported) with your spine straight. Observe your natural breathing for a couple of mins.
Feel where you are breathing; are you breathing in the upper chest, or are you breathing right down into your lower chest? How much does your rib cage expand, how much does your abdomen expand? Do they move in synchrony or paradoxically (opposite)? How long and smooth and relaxed is your breathing?
Then try slowing down your breathing. Breathe out slightly longer than you breathe in, gently. You may pause at the end of your exhalation, and wait for the urge to breath in come back, then smoothly breathe in again. Repeat at least 12 times.
I suggest 5 mins in the morning and 5 mins in the evening.
Breathing may seem simple, automatic, and unchangeable, but it is one of the body’s automatic functions that can be consciously changed. With guidance and practice, it can be changed to help you breathe more easily, realign your spine, increase your mobility, and generally become more relaxed.
Book HERE to have your breathing assessed in relation to your back pain
