How To Breathe for Better Health, Movement, & Posture | Why You Should Stop Belly Breathing! | Day 7

Belly breathing is not possible, because your lungs are in your ribcage. Someone who cues you to take a belly breath is well-intentioned and attempting to get you to fill the lungs fully and efficiently (instead of taking a shallow breath). The movement of the expansion of the abdomen on inhalation is caused by the diaphragm pushing the abdominal organs down which gives the sensation that one is breathing into the belly. While belly breathing is essentially trying to address what I am in this video there is one big difference. Your attention/intention is powerful, and if you focus on breathing into your belly only the front body is expanded, which creates contraction in the back body, especially the lower back which also created neck tension because the spine is a single unit and tension moves to corresponding curves. Over time. When done repetitively tension builds from this and becomes chronic. One could teach to focus on expanding a ball or orb in the abdomen and although they would not be precise or accurate, this would be less harmful than cueing someone to breathe into their belly, as most people identify the belly as being in the front. I could look at a students posture and tell you what type of breathing cue they’re following, as posture and breath are one. A “belly breather” as I have described will have an exaggerated low back curve. For more on this please watch this video: https://youtu.be/vXtbSGMQlGw Day 7 Is Breathwork. Rest is just as important as movement for the body. Taking at least 1 day a week to rest from your movement practice is crucial in order for the body to rest, repair and come back stronger. This doesn’t mean you need total rest, you can do some Active recovery, like a long brisk walk, a jog, or whatever your body is already conditioned for that may not be a strain on the nervous system. This all depends on your current level of athleticism/ physical activity.